If you live in a multi-story apartment block, it is probably more expensive for you to have your piano moved in or out than it is to have a new lift installed in your building.
With that in mind, would you rather be in the business of moving pianos or installing lifts?
Lifts. The answer lies in the market and the pricing structure.
Lift manufacturers have a large captive market. Large buildings — found everywhere — are unusable without a lift.
On the other hand, most of us — including those living on the 10th floor — can live comfortably without a piano
There are also only five major lift manufacturers, globally.
A lift installer knows that once you’ve installed your lift, you need to keep it maintained (for obvious reasons) and that you won’t have your lifts maintained by a fly-by-night operator with no-name parts (also for obvious reasons).
They have worked out that the money in lifts does not come from the installation of the box and motor, it comes from long-term maintenance contracts. To get the sale they charge you less than the cost for the installation and account for it over many years.
“Lift today, pay tomorrow.”
Piano movers, on the other hand, can’t do that. There is no way for them to charge you less to move your piano today, but make a profit from future contracts. They need to make all their profit in one transaction.
My opening sentence that it cheaper for you to install a lift than install a piano is not entirely correct. In the long-term, it a much more expensive to a lift. You’re just paying for it later.
Since there is a larger and more profitable market, if you had to choose, you’d probably rather be in the lifting business than the piano moving industry.
Based on a chapter from Secret Life of Money by Daniel Davies.