i want to start a business but i'm not good enough at fish and waterfowl. do you think that i could survive on shoulder mounts alone. because thats all i'm good at.
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Hi Tim, you can go about it a few ways, if you are planning an in home business or opening an official shop site, what you can do is advertise what you offer. You can still offer your customers fish and waterfowl mounts "but", what I do since I don't do fish or waterfowl either is I offer fish mounts at 7 to 10 an inch {skin mounts, repros higher}and I sub the work out to another taxidermist that I have set up an account with that does do them, he does them at wholesale prices for me so I can make a few bucks on them as well but I tell the customers that they are subed out, I do not take credit for the work. As for waterfowl I don't know the legalities of subing out that work since you are exchanging money for it so I don't bother and just refer that work to another taxidermist also, but to really survive you must not only do shoulder mounts but all types of lifesizes as well, you did not state that you do those. So if you can at least do all types of mammals, Native, African and or Exotics you can have a good go at it full time or if you have the money to open a larger shop, you hire another taxidermist that is good at what your not. There are a few options open to you, just depends on what you choose, but remember to just be honest with the customers and get all nessesary permits and licences to run it.
home page here. There is a couple guys at Southern Wholesale that would love to do your fish and birds.
With the use of the internet these days you can make as much money as you want and mount only what you want! And fish and hunt whenever you want....I really can`t believe more people haven`t picked up on this. I exclusively do bobcats and a few other small mammals which I sell on ebay...50 to 60 cats a year at 500 to 750 a cat...You do the math. I`m not bragg`n I`m just letting ya know that you can build you a clientel across the whole United States! I could sell 200 bobcats a year if I was really motivated...I do not advertise my business locally because I don`t want people knocking on my door asking me when their deer is going to be ready...I do some people`s deer but not many. I simply mount the critter up when I have time, and then sell it on Ebay or other auctions. If something goes wrong during the tanning process, or the mounting process--no biggie i`m the only one out. No customer to worry about...The possibilities are endless with the internet...Good luck