Price mark up?

[jessicaj]

I may not be understanding this right but here goes, so you figure your cost for all supplies and shipping and double it, and than add your hourly wage and overhead? Or figure the over head in with the supplies? I'm not buisness oriented by any means (yet I'm wanting to open one!) so I'm asking so I know what I'm doing. I like the way you expained the taxes, when it comes to that I havn't a clue, hopefully the DOR will be some help with that to. I know most taxidermists go out of buisness because they don't make enough money, but I don't want to be to over priced that no one can afford to come to me either. I'll have to run my numbers again and get everything figured out. I know one guy charges like $450 and another is so cheap (and does awful work) that it's not even worth mentioning. I figured since I was just starting to do deer heads for around $350 and see what happens, and maybe go up next year if I need to. Thanks Old Fart, you seem to know your stuff!

[Old Fart]

Determining your "overhead" is the difficult part of your formula. Especially when you are just starting out. All of this requires that you keep EXTREMELY ACCURATE records of the time you spend in ALL taxidermy related activities for the year and all the extra costs that the shop is incurring. If you are in a separate building you should be able to keep track of many of them fairly easily.  But you are probably in the house, so you will have to figure that based on the square footage dedicated to taxidermy. If you figure the costs in a deer head as I described and double it you will cover yourself, until you can actually figure that out.

At $350 you are "buying work", you are giving each customer $100 for the privilege of doing their deer head. That's your PROFIT! Why are you even worrying about profit? You're giving it away! AND not covering your overhead!

I just recently had a plumbing problem in a rental property I own.  A good friend suggested a "new" plumber he was using in his construction business. I had him do the job and I was happy with the results. He did the job immediately and was quicker at it than I expected. BUT his hourly rate was EXACTLY the same as the established shops.

If your work is good enough to be charging for, then charge to going rate and provide BETTER SERVICE.  You will last a lot longer with QUALITY and SERVICE than you ever will with a LOW PRICE. And you will establish yourself with a much higher class client base.

[jessicaj]

Just out of curiosity what do you charge for a shoulder mount Old fart? Just to give me an idea of where I should start my pricing. I thought maybe start at $350 this year and maybe go up to $400 or even $450 next year if there is enough work. Thanks for taking the time to explain all this!

[Old Fart]

I charge $525

[olytax]

When completing your customer invoices just note the charges to complete the shoulder mount.   Under this info statement note the head and neck position info, ear position(s), head skinning/fleshing charges, whether or not there are any shot holes and location and whether or not the cape is cut long enough for a full shoulder mount.   It is also a good idea to note whether it has been drug and therefore the hair on the shoulders is damaged, and whether or not it is fresh when brought in.  Have the ears been sliced to tie a tag to the deer?

You would be wasting too much of your time to list the mounting items one by one, especially setting prices as you roll along.  You would have to set a new price for every different size and position deer form.   How many sizes are there?

[BDT]

Jessica - I would suggest getting the Breakthrough Business Manual.  Your questions about markup and pricing and many other things will be answered in that publication.