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I actually talked some other taxidermist’s into upping their price. I’m 450 and up this year. Ill go up next year to.
this problem is in every trade that deals with money, from construction to trucking to taxidermy , there will always be some one low ballling there prices ,
getting people to stick together is impossible ,
if no one in the world would buy gas for 2 days it would be back down to a dollar
September 26, 2011
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I think this formula applies to most successful large shops:
High Quality + High Prices+ High Volume+ Fast Delivery= High Profits
Taxidermy Talk Administrator
Stehling’s Taxidermy LLC http://www.stehlingstaxidermy.com
Taxidermy Insider / Learn Taxidermy Online http://www.taxidermyinsider.com
920.650.5457 a.n.stehling@gmail.com
Great discussion. I like. Every time I figured I needed to raise my prices to continue making what I think I’m worth & did so every other taxidermist anywhere near me would do the same soon after. And if my raise was $25 so was theirs, $50 so was theirs. That wasn’t just deer heads either. It was in any category. Why was that? Do you think they were thinking the same thing? Now please please don’t take this that I’m blowing my own horn. The quality of work going out of my shop is very high commercial & worthy of entering in a competition. So I don’t by any means think that I’m the greatest. But why is it the guy that does crappy work is 30-50% cheaper than me. He might even be spending more time on a mount than I am. And by the way you don’t have to get together with others & discuss a raise. Just do it. they’ll come along. How much do we need to make to be happy? I bet there’s as many different answers to that as are taxidermists. It was mentioned earlier that some lawn maintenance guys make $75 per hour. I don’t think I ever met a lawn guy who is living a lifestyle of $75 per hour. No offense intended here. It was also mentioned that higher income folks can afford the higher priced mounts. That’s true but they also on average are the ones that try to beat me up the most too. Talk to me like we’ve been friends from way back & for some reason they deserve special treatment like a price break or I should turn the work quicker for them. Has anyone noticed that they are the ones that take a longer time to pick up too. SO how much is our work worth? I submit that it’s worth exactly what we charge. Sorry for rambling on…
You guys charge what ever you think you should. I just want you to think about it. If you charge $385.00 for a deer, $200.00 goes for supplies and overhead, leaving you $185.00. You mount 50 deer with a profit of $9250.00 before taxes. 10 hours a head leaves you making $18.50 per hour. Now if you went up to $450.00 and lost 15 heads, you make $250.00 per head, that is 35 x $250.00 =$8750.00. You would make $500.00 less and work 150 hrs. less. Now is it worth working 150 hrs. to make $500.00. That means you worked for $3.33 per hr to make that $500.00.
that is so true vince but, the majority of taxidermist that are PT do not pay taxes, ins or put anything into a retirement plan. most look at the fact that they made $100 on the deer that they only charged 350 to mount. its sad that hard working FT folks have to contend with the guy who undercuts your price and does poor work but i don’t mind doing remounts and like they say good mounts ain’t cheap and cheap mounts ain’t good. i am not trying to start a fight or price war here just saying my piece. if a guy is more worried about the price than the quality, i will send him to someone who will give him that cheap mount and will tell him that you get what you pay for. now this is just me being an old mule skinner that is to old to run and to mean to care. sorry if i ruffled anyones feathers opps D you don’t count.:biggergrin:
I don’t mind a remount myself neither…Here’s 1 of the 4 I took in this year
nick252 wrote: that is so true vince but, the majority of taxidermist that are PT do not pay taxes, ins or put anything into a retirement plan. most look at the fact that they made $100 on the deer that they only charged 350 to mount. its sad that hard working FT folks have to contend with the guy who undercuts your price and does poor work but i don’t mind doing remounts and like they say good mounts ain’t cheap and cheap mounts ain’t good. i am not trying to start a fight or price war here just saying my piece. if a guy is more worried about the price than the quality, i will send him to someone who will give him that cheap mount and will tell him that you get what you pay for. now this is just me being an old mule skinner that is to old to run and to mean to care. sorry if i ruffled anyones feathers opps D you don’t count.:biggergrin:
Nick252 I see you are full time and don’t live to far from me. I was wondering what you charge for a shoulder mount deer????
Whitetails vary from $285-$750 in my area, I am at $596 going up to $635 this season, raise my prices every year without a big drop in clients. Everything on my pricelist gets raised everyyear and the things I don’t care to do get a little extra increase although I seem to get one or two of them in a year like coyote wall tans$200 is not enough I guess.
Photobuckets’ not working properly right now. I’ll post some of my price forms when I get home from goofing off with Harry.:biggergrin:
“good mounts ain’t cheap and cheap mounts ain’t good”
I like that one Nick. You just said a whole lot in those 9 words.
Artistic Wildlife- Very good example. I bet it would be tough for most of us to get out of bed in the morning & get started when our motivation is $3.33 an hour.
I sometimes think back to the early days working out of the garage for cash only. I still think I made more money back then. Ain’t it great!
Hey Page get photo bucket up and going ,Ready to see some numbers:biggergrin: Customers might not be happy with me this year,I was in my shop until 12:12 last night . And i felt like D felt, trying to catch up .Had alot of time to think will i was out there fleshing a 345lb black bear.And yall know how fun that can be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:huh:
Alright, let me explain how this works. #1- add up your total cost of shop monthly expenses. I go by a 20 day work month. How many pieces can you do in those 20 days? Divide that by 20. This gives you expenses per animal. #2- Add up total supplies. Include S&H. When choosing a form, pick the biggest, most expensive. Now your covered if you have to use one. #3- Add in your tanning and S&H to and from tannery. If you tan your own, you have extra labor and chemicals to add in instead. #4- Add in ALL labor. Include client time and phone orders as well.
On my deer printout, you’ll notice a mistake. My cost for a deer is $229. But I forgot something on the list and it’s only $208. Disregard that.
#5-Add up your cost of overhead, supplies, and tanning. This is COST total. #6- Multiply your hourly rate with your LABOR. #7- Now add a 5% profit to your Total. This will give you a more accurate price guide for your animals.
Most of us will have about the same cost in supplies. There will be some difference in shop overhead. There will be some difference in labor time. BUT our hourly rate is ONLY determined by YOU!!!! What are YOU worth! I included MY cost and labor time for deer, turkey, and a bobcat. At the bottom of the list I added what MY cost would be if I charged a different hourly rate. I think the prices will make you upset. But it’s all in the math. So if you see that you are making less than minimum wage,,, it maybe time to rethink what your worth. And if your part-time,,, maybe you should charge 2,3,or 4 times more than the full-time guys. Cause if your charging less than minimum wage, your PAYING the client to do his work on YOUR FREE TIME. You could be spending more time with family, or more time in the woods.
chorne wrote: that should open some eyes, i know it did mine
Yea looks like I need to go back to doing HVAC!!!! I know HVAC tech. makes as much as a plumber!!!!
no reason why taxidermist can’t make at least $50 hour,if only we all would get on the same page.
July 22, 2011
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Thanks for going to the trouble of posting that Page.
My list is very similar to yours, a few numbers a tad different, as well as items and expenses. For instance it appears you do bondo ears since there are no earliners. I use the 360 liners and the inner ear inserts, but I also use bondo to set my antlers as well as alterations that i figure in. I also put a replacement nose or a drop in septum in and use 5 minute epoxie.
I also figure in the cost of my CPA. My total comes up to right around $225.
So no matter how you slice it, its gonna come out close on cost as you stated. Some will say they tan their self, in house. Thats fine but you are gonna have to figure in your time and chemicals and it will still work out about the same.
…And I’ve seen it posted several times that it’s the part timers that are causing the problems by undercutting and working for cash and not paying taxes.
Now…. that is probably a true statement. But, I consider myself a part time taxidermist even though I most likely spend as much or more time as most in this industry. I show every dollar that comes into my shop and I pay taxes on it. Every client gets an invoice with the amount paid and the method of payment. There will not be anyone come back on me and say I’m cheating the system. I have clients ask me all the time, how do you want the check made out, to your name or business name? My answer always is it doesn’t matter it’s going into the same account to pay the same bills.
I also have a liabilty insurance policy, so if someone walks in and gets injured on property it is covered.
I do not know nor am I sure you can even stop the part timers from undercutting, thats why it doesn’t concern me what they do. They will not make it long anyway.
I can tell you 3 people that thought they were gonna go out on their on in the past 8 years and start their on tannery and run CFD out of business. Do you think Rick and Marsha care what they charge or what they are doing? I really don’t think they have time to worry about it.
July 22, 2011
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Lets play devil’s advocate.
If your truck needs some repairs done do you:
#1 do it yourself
#2 take it to a buddy who says he can do it for you and save you lots of money and he jacks it up on cinder block in the back yard
#3 take it to a local reputable repair shop that does certain maintenance and repair jobs at a little lower rate, or
#4 take it to the dealership
I’ll answer first, most likely it’s going to the dealership, but there is a well known local shop that I will let do certain things.
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