Figuring worth

[oaktree]

having a little trouble with pricing example bears.
 my local tannery charges 189.00 to tan a large bear it takes lets say 2-3 hours to remove the skull and paws rough flesh and the first salting on.Now we still need to flesh some more and salt again.
What is a reasonable price to ask for the tanning alone. also what about a deposit as I,m sure you need at least the tanning cost in case the client backs out or you end up with a badly slipped hide.
I ask because I was thinking OK I get a rug to work on I would need to figure out the deposit which would have to be more the 200.00 just to cover my tanning/labor  let alone the rest of the materials for a rug.

[bill@hogheaven]

Double the tanning cost ( at least ) & get 100% in advance.

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

Simple, tanning and shipping cost, plus $30 an hour for skinning, fleshing salting, and for each hour of rug work pluse rug materials and shipping again, charge for all hours working on it plus extra for going out on the town.

[ElkinsTaxidermy]

$30.00 an hour won't keep the lights on.

[tazzymoto]

Minimum $350 for tanning for average size, higher for large bears

[George Roof]

I've used all the estimates, guesstimates, and wild assed guesses and none of them worked.  I settled on $55 (I THINK) a linear foot for a "hanging tan".  Since I'm bedridden with this silly assed foot, I don't have my chart, but I have a price-by-linear foot scale for tanning only, rugging, and even mounting lifesized bears (without diorama's of course which are always 30% of the mount costs).  When the customer comes in, there's no guessing on my part and no surprises for him.

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

$30.00 an hour won't keep the lights on.

it will if you work slow.

[oaktree]

Thanks for the replys

[boarhunter67]

George, how about posting it when you are able?

[Old Fart]

Like George, I charge my bears by the foot. For a tanned ONLY bear, it's $70.

[George Roof]

Finally found PART of my sheet.  Dry tanning for hanging is $75 per linear foot nose to tail base (or $6.25 an inch for those that don't come out "even" and for rugging it's $175 a foot ( or $14.60 an inch).

[Marshall]

I also charge by the inch (or foot). When a customer comes in, I measure nose to tip of tail, quote a price and get 50% deposit. What you can charge per foot depends on what your local market can bear and a little to do with what your competition charges.  For black bear I charge $25 per inch ($300 per foot) for rugged bears, so a 5 foot bear is $1500. Of course, I'm in California and we don't get in many bears, but customers don't seem to flinch much when I tell them the price.

[boarhunter67]

What part of CA?  I live in central CA and get several bear each year.  I charge $150 per foot for rugs which is $50 a foot more than my teacher charged. 

[rigbobby]

Calculate the price.  Cost of materials, services (like tanning and shipping), shop overhead (like insurance, utilities, advertising, etc), and time spent doing the job (including time spent talking to the customer and posting on this site).  I agree with you George, the customer needs to know the full price up front.  Those that try "working by the hour at a slow pace" will end up with problems collecting money from customers that feel ripped off.

[Catgear]

$75 a foot for tanning, $165 for rugging. I go by the measurement the tannery charges me for, then I don't get gypped if they measure "longer" than I do.