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What A Let Down For The Tv Antenna Man


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A lot of you are missing the real point here! Small business was the heart of Antenna installations and maintenance in Australia.

Yes, and consumer electronic repairs as well.

I've been a micro business (sole trader and/or partnership) in one shape or another for the last 30 years. During this period, I have been through good, & not so good, times.

This is just another of the not so good times, although I will admit this time around, I have no idea how long it will last. There are any number of businesses, small or otherwise, suffering, however, from my very blinkered observation of those doing other than what I do in my area, the ones still doing all right have a market niche they service successfully.

When times were tough, I tightened my belt, & sucked it up until things improved. I never assume work will always be there, I have been around long enough to know a fall back position is always required, and in my case, I'm currently lending more to my financial institutions than I borrow from them. (I'm just hoping they never go belly up.)

The way this Government has gone about the transition to Digital Television is going to wipe out hundreds of small antenna business. We were the industry. We should have got at least some of the work. We have the local knowledge and expertise.

We are being destroyed! I'm sure you do not give a hoot if we are sent broke, but we do Peter because we have familys to feed..

Again, while I sympathise, once the dust settles, and Australia is fully digital, I expect the work will still be there, it just may not be in the same form as previously. It might be a tough row to hoe getting through this period, and may require a fair amount of fortitude for some to survive, and for that, only time will tell.

(Just for the record about 15 years ago I lost almost everything after a divorce, and started from scratch. While it was hard, and I did some crap work to get back on my feet, I never gave up or held a grudge. Look back now & laugh about it. It's all a matter of perspective.)

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Hi COFDM MAN

Hope the phone is ringing for you.

Seems like you don't mind spending a dollar on advertising when you can.As has been suggested letter boxing should work for you

in a place the size of Brisbane.

I used to subcontract to a company that letter box drops were their main source of leads, admittedly they had people on ex posty bikes doing it full time. They used to reckon on one or two jobs in every 1000 drops when just blanketing areas covering everything including rentals,units and highrise and some jobs were real shockers.

If you target the newer estate areas or areas with knowen difficult reception you should be able to increase the odds.

If you get the flyers printed with 'to the householder' on them and get Australia Post to deliver them you will get a lot more out

quickly but have to way up the total cost against doing it yourself.Doing it yourself you wear out your shoes but allows you to pick

the houses and door knock the ones that have just moved in if you want to.

I have had some success with this here in Tas over the years doing it myself, but really here there are not enough 'bums on seats' to make it viable, Brisbane should be different,

Good luck

Tazzy

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  • 1 month later...

sure the domestic stuff is quiet. and new matv builds are being gutted to the bone... I know sparkies doing stuff at 1% plus wages to keep their guys on. But a bit of diversification is they key I think when its this way. bit of nbn bit if HAs bit of other non core electronics/comms/it stuff to keep things turning

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  • 4 weeks later...

No.

You are responsible for your business.

I've had to suck it up when things got tough, & survived regardless.

If it was a big TV antenna company doing the blanket advertising costing millions of dollars I would agree with you. But thats not the case here. This is the Australian government with unlimited advertising dollars. The Government that was elected to fairly run this country. What they did was not fair and you know it. They were the one's that wanted us to become endorsed antenna installers and then did not give us one single job!

Basically the TV advertising campaign was wrong. It did not tell viewers that their local TV antenna man could do the job! The print advertising did however point this out.

Face the facts the people running the switch over could have done a lot better across the board.

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What they did was not fair and you know it.

Speaking from my perspective, & I understand others may see it differently, I don't, actually.

When analogue switched off here, I can't say I noticed any real change to my workload, either before, during, or after, the event.

They were the one's that wanted us to become endorsed antenna installers

Again, I disagree with that. I chose to take part in this scheme (it wasn't compulsory) when it started.

and then did not give us one single job!

I probably had 3 referrals in total from it, so, yes not many. However, it was just that, a referral service. Anyone enquiring, depending on where they lived, was given a number of possible installers that may be able to help them.

Someone made the observation around here (& I can't find the quote) that the endorsed antenna installer scheme was akin to the pink batts fiasco. That's drawing a long bow, but probably reflects the frustration some feel/felt about the scheme.

Face the facts the people running the switch over could have done a lot better across the board.

No doubt they could have. The HAS/SSS is probably a good idea, having said that, would you have worked under the conditions applicable for those at the pointy end of the scheme? (Assuming you were able to find out what these conditions were?)

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  • 3 years later...
On 5/4/2013 at 3:04 PM, I am not a duck said:

Yes, and consumer electronic repairs as well.

I've been a micro business (sole trader and/or partnership) in one shape or another for the last 30 years. During this period, I have been through good, & not so good, times.

This is just another of the not so good times, although I will admit this time around, I have no idea how long it will last. There are any number of businesses, small or otherwise, suffering, however, from my very blinkered observation of those doing other than what I do in my area, the ones still doing all right have a market niche they service successfully.

When times were tough, I tightened my belt, & sucked it up until things improved. I never assume work will always be there, I have been around long enough to know a fall back position is always required, and in my case, I'm currently lending more to my financial institutions than I borrow from them. (I'm just hoping they never go belly up.)

Again, while I sympathise, once the dust settles, and Australia is fully digital, I expect the work will still be there, it just may not be in the same form as previously. It might be a tough row to hoe getting through this period, and may require a fair amount of fortitude for some to survive, and for that, only time will tell.

(Just for the record about 15 years ago I lost almost everything after a divorce, and started from scratch. While it was hard, and I did some crap work to get back on my feet, I never gave up or held a grudge. Look back now & laugh about it. It's all a matter of perspective.)

You sound like a Duck to me!

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  • 2 weeks later...


  • 6 years later...

Good morning members old and new.

Well its been 10 years since this post and the sparky's still get all the new TV Antenna jobs.

Little has changed except for me fixing the sparky stuff ups.

Sparkys now do all the data and security work as well.

Us communication Technicians are all but gone in this country.

Still changing all the antennas that were installed during the changeover to digital by the clown force..

A national disgrace I would call what went down.

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