---

I tried building websites for small businesses. Did that for a couple of years.

But dealing with business owners who didn’t understand marketing… didn’t understand what a website is supposed to do… and wanted it all for next to nothing?

That wasn’t freedom. That wasn’t fulfillment.

It was just another kind of frustration.

---

Then I remembered something.

Decades earlier, I had worked for a luthier. And I liked working on guitars.

So I went all in.

For over a year, I studied everything I could — YouTube videos, books, forums — while flipping guitars on the side to build experience.

After a year, I felt confident enough to start offering setups and repairs.

After three more years, I thought I had mastered it.

I was wrong.

---

About 90% of customers were happy.

But it’s the other 10% who leave reviews.

My rating sat around 4.4 to 4.5 — about average for the industry.

And that’s when it hit me:

“Average” wasn’t good enough.

---

I started studying something completely different — business systems.

I thought back to my early days as a machinist for a defense contractor, where precision and process mattered.

And I realized something most guitar techs never do:

They work by feel… not by system.

---

So I changed everything.

I built structured procedures for setups.

I tracked results.

I studied fretwork deeper — not just what was wrong, but why.

I learned there isn’t just “a high fret.”

There are multiple causes… and different fixes depending on the situation.

---

And everything changed.

Work became easier and more profitable.

Faster.

More consistent.

Customers noticed immediately.

Reviews climbed to 4.9 — with most of the rare lower ratings coming from people we never even worked with, who didn’t like that our open mics were in the afternoons instead of evenings, etc.

---

Even more interesting?

Training became easier too. I studied adult education and began giving setup workshops. Then I developed a structured system for teaching setups and repairs.

Our graduates have successful jobs and are thriving. I actually hired three of them. It seems to take them from one to two months on the job, actually using what they’ve learned, before their efficiency (speed) and confidence soars.

I can confidently hand off any job to any one of these there graduates of GTA and it will get done expertly and the customer will be happy.

When everything has a clear sequence and purpose, people learn faster… and they retain it.

No guessing. No “feel.” No confusion.

---

I’ll be eighty years old in a few months.

And I have no interest in retiring.

Because this isn’t a job.

It’s work I enjoy.

It’s work that matters.

And now, it’s work I get to teach to others — people who are looking for something better than another job… something they can actually build a life around.

---

Want a Change?

If you’re in that place right now — sending resumes, feeling stuck, or just knowing you don’t want to do this for the next ten years — there is another path.