SuperBee
6207 posts
Oct 15, 2019
2:47 PM
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I love repairing harps. It’s very satisfying at times.
But sometimes it becomes a chore.
Mainly that’s when I have to do my 9-5 (more like 8-6) and tend the garden, make the meals, rehearse the band and keep up my practice, learn new songs.
Often the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit down over a bench and tune harps. Especially at the moment with a long term guest in the house which has meant my work space is now no longer in a ‘quiet zone’.
I’m reluctant to close the shop, but I’m not accepting any new jobs for a while.
In a couple years I’ll quit the day job and then I expect to take the harp work up a couple levels but right now ‘something’s gotta give’.
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florida-trader
1459 posts
Oct 16, 2019
8:35 AM
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I know exactly how you feel.
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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
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Caitlin P
7 posts
Oct 19, 2019
2:02 PM
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How did you get started with your own shop? I really enjoy modding/repairing my own harps, but I have no idea at all how I'd take that next step to getting people to pay me to do for them.
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SuperBee
6215 posts
Oct 19, 2019
4:36 PM
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Hi, Caitlin.
I did not have a plan. I used to break a few harps and I wanted to have them mended, but I couldn’t find anyone local to do it as a price which made sense.
By ‘local’ I mean ‘in Australia’.
I did a deal with a repairer overseas and that was ok but with postage and inefficiencies around currency exchange it didn’t make sense unless I had at least 10 harps, so next time I broke an expensive harp I decided to spend money on tools rather than buy a replacement harp.
Maybe a year or 18 months later, I received a message from the person who had previously mended my harps. He had an enquiry from someone in Australia and wondered if I now had skill to do the job.
That was my first paying job.
I learned quite a lot on that job.
A few months later I saw some people on Facebook discussing broken harps and I offered to help. 2 people took a leap of faith and sent me some harps to mend.
After that the requests kept coming.
I’m cheap and I do my best. I let the customer decide whether the work is satisfactory before they pay. I tell them that if the repair fails and they think it’s too soon, I’ll fix it free or refund their money.
Because I don’t have to buy new harps, I could afford to buy some custom harps which helped me understand how a really good harp plays. I bought harps from several customisers, at different degrees of customisation.
That’s helped me a lot. I don’t offer ‘custom’ harps, but I do strive to send back harps which I’d be happy to play myself.
So basically I just put myself out there, provided the best value I could and tried to generate goodwill.
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