Prices! Prices! Prices!

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

it's been said here before, taxidermy is a luxury, not everybody should be able to afford it. Doing favors for "those who cant afford it" with a cliche of " I was poor once", is why you have low prices. I can see giving someone a break,  but to give every hunter a rock bottom price is whoring out your work and not competing in the price ring with other taxidermist. You cant compete with quality so you go low balling other taxidermist that want to make money for their work, but cant because you are giving hunters something for next to nothing. As long as you make bills, why not make more than just enough to pay your bills?

[Becky P]

Taxidermistwife, with all due respect, your's is more a hobby than a business at that price.
If charging what I'm worth is dishonest, then so be it, BUT I AM honest with my customers and myself. That's one reason I went up, I BECAME honest with myself. LOL I sat down and crunched the numbers. BTW, my overhead is very low, my shop's paid, property taxes are low because I'm in the county instead of city, but I still have utilities and all the other expenses including shop insurance. Took me a long time (about 10 yrs. too long) to figure it out,  I'm now honest with myself. If the customer really wants something mounted, they can pay it out just like anything else.

And if I didn't know how to do taxidermy, we would not have AS many mounted because WE couldn't afford it either.
Guess what? The plumber is not going to come unstop your toilet for less because you don't have enough money. The A/C man isn't going to fix your A/C cheaper because you're a little too tight this month.

To everyone that was telling me all those years that I was too cheap, I FINALLY GOT IT. Thanks:)

[taxidermistwife]

Not arguing with anyone of you or putting any of you down, like I said i guess it all depends on the area you are in and no it is not a hobby, like i said last time i did not say our prices would not go up but i am not going to charge more than what we have to. again everyone has there own opinion and that is our right, i don't understand when you go to discuss something and be honest you start getting people who want to start getting on you. And that is one thing i said before his quality is very well known in our area and has a very good reputation and we are not the only ones in the area charging that price. there are several others at that price and their quality is not as good and does not come from me that is from their customers that we are getting from them.

[Becky P]

I'm not saying anything about the quality, I don't know, I haven't seen it.
But at 235, what do you have left after taking ALL expenses out? I mean ALL not just the cost of the form but tanning (or DP, it still costs), electricity, shop insurance, water, property taxes, income tax, etc. By the time you are through taking out (honestly) you might be left with 35 for labor and profit.  It cost me a good 150 just for materials and overhead, that leaves me with 200 for hourly wages and a little profit.
I don't have to worry about medical insurance (thank God) because my husband has a decent job w/good benefits including medical, but we would be screwed if I had to pay for it out of what I'm making.
If his work is that much better, then why not charge a little more? If you don't feel comfortable with making a big jump in price, go up a little at a time, ease your customers in to it. I started letting mine know a year in advance that I was going to make a significant price increase the next year. Most said that they understood and were surprised I hadn't already. I even had customers tell me I wasn't charging enough, when that happens you know you're not charging enough. LOL

[taxidermistwife]

I agree with you Becky, and we have started warning them that it can not stay at this price forever and I was referring to Mr.T when I was talking about quality. There will have to be a jump next season, no you are right it does not leave much after all that. He has done taxidermy for a long time but has only been in business for about 7 years our area is very rural and there are a lot of taxidermist around that are truly doing it for a hobby and they are only charging $195 or so. And the quality is not very good and the customers don't know until they get a bad mount back. So we are still building a good customer base. So oh yeah prices will go up and like you said gradually he will be able to get to where he clears more money. This season has already looked very promising and he has told his returning customers that he was going up next season and just like you said they understood and said the same thing for the work he puts into them and the detail that is in his deer the were shocked that he was not already higher. For some reason this business is a slow process and takes awhile to get a good customer base built up. And like Mr.T said taxidermy is a luxury I agree there!! 100%

[Becky P]

Great to hear we ARE on the same page.
Good luck.

[Becky P]

Midwest, nice deer.

[Ozwalt]

Couple of thoughts.

(1) Once you develop your fan base, you can start increasing prices using what I call the "law of 10's".  In most retail busineses, if you raise your prices 10%, you lose 10% of your customers.  So you're earning the same $ with less work.  Nice trade-off, right?  If you do good quality work, though, you continue to pick up new customers, making a slight price increase seem even more attractive. 

(2) If a taxidermist is truly working full-time and it's taking him 2-4 years to get a mount back, all while being the most expensive taxidermist in the area, it sounds like he's really on to something.  Customers are willing to pay a premium and wait years.  They'll be willing to do that for your work as well, but you need start inching in that direction, as soon as you start getting referral business.

(3) It shouldn't be the taxidermist who sets the price or even the hunter.  It should be the market.  It's what America is famous for.  As business people, we need to test the market.  Keep raising prices gently until you see that it's hurting you financially.  Then back off a bit and post ads that you've "RECENTLY LOWERED OUR PRICES!!".  With any luck, it will never hurt you financially, and you'll become an independently wealthy taxidermist, charging the highest prices in three states and working 30 hours per week.

[Becky P]

Sounds like a plan Oswalt. Never really thought about the "recently lowered price", I just always thought that if you go up too much it's going to be hard to come back down (not that I'm too high...yet).