I'm having trouble convincing a client into letting me mount his mountain goat. I am new to the buisness and don't have alot of pictures to show of the work i have done but all of the people i have mounted heads for have all been extremely pleased and have offered to let me bring him into their home and show my work. I am doing all my work out of my garage and my prices are lower than the other taxidermists in the area(two hours away). The costomer is thinking that my prices are reflecting low quality. I have explained that i do not have shop overhead and that is why. I have the time and the will to give him one of the best mounts he will ever see and have explained to him that if I don't like it it doesn't leave the shop. I want to be the local taxidermist and plan on living in the area so I will not sacrifice quality for anything. The last taxidermist in the area bailed out of the buisness without finishing peoples work and it has been an uphill battle to overcome HIS reputation. Any ideas on convincing doubtful costumers and overcoming the past taxidermists bad reputation.
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I'm sure most taxidermist will agree. Your price should be in the same range as others. Your profit will just be higher than others since you have no shop rent. You still have to pay for supplies and utilities. If your work is as good as you say....then charge for it. Also, you might want to get some capes, horns, ect. and mount some stuff up for your clients to see and show your work.
Todd,
When I opened up a couple years ago, I was in the same boat as you. When I started thinking about it more, I realized why I had customers stop by to look, but not for business. I had the picures of my work, but that wasn't enough. People want to see first hand, what they are paying for. Form a display room and provide a mount of commonly hunted species from your area. It's expensive, but so is not having business. It really doesn't matter how many animals you do, it's more, how do the ones you did look. Personally, looking back - if I were a customer coming to my shop (garage as well) with only one whitetail deer and a turkey to show - I wouldn't have given myself the business either. Now I have deer, turkeys, fish, javelina, pheasant and I'm working on a bear. Spend the money and it will definetly pay off.
Price is another subject. Your prices should be a shadow of your work. High prices, you better be performing the highest quality of work. Therefore, find the average of the area and start there. Even if you don't have overhead wouldn't it be better to be MAKING more money? Just my thoughts.
Good Luck,
Brady
...and tell him that your prices are now "X" amount ($100 bucks more) than they were yesterday. See if that'll make the deal...
He is being smart. Customers need to be smart and check out the taxidermist that they are trusting a once in a lifetime trophy. I like guys to do that. I am not saying I am the greatest. But I am by no means the worst. Usually when you see low prices there is a reason. usually the taxidermist does not have the skills yet and they think the low price will get them work. Which happens quite a bit. Then they get so backed up and then drives customers away to the guy who costs more. I am also a garage taxidermist, but have been doing it for a while. I finally weeded out the price shoppers and now get customers who just come and drop off work without asking for a price. I am not implying your work is not good so do not take offense. But I have been where you are and am speaking from experience. It just takes time to build a reputation. And be patient and learn all you can and it the work will come to you.
Todd B
I have already raised my price to him because he dorsal cut the goat and also cut up all four legs to get the legs out.Told him i would not eat the additional cost from the tannery.I just got off the phone with him an hour ago.The prices I used were from the area shops from 03'. Seems all the shops around here raised prices for 04' by at least 10% due to gas prices they say. Unfortunately my price lists where already printed and out. I also told him i could get pictures of the work i have done but being an avid outdoor photographer, I could pose roadkill and make it look good.He laughed and agreed. Hopefully that sealed the deal. As i said earlier I won't sacrifice quality so I need a good fish wholesaler. I have already explained that to my fish customers and they agree. Told them i would hopefully be doing my own fish in a year. Fortunately, practicing on fish, for me, is alot cheaper than big game because i have a little girl that loves to fish. Thanks for the advice.
And just what part of the skinning did you object to that was worth the increase? No wonder he's looking for someone else. It was skinned properly in my opinion, especially for a mountain goat. Maybe you'd better do a little more homework before changing your prices.
Your asking for some advice,but we dont know anything about you or your credentials. are you just starting out?, or a taxidermist new to an area? we would have to know alittle bit about you so we could guide you in the right direction.Lets try this,convince us here, being that you didnt have anything in your show room to show him,you dont need anything to show us.tell us why we should have you mount our goat.Example,experience,training,awards,etc.Good Luck.
I hate all that sewing that comes with a belly cut. I would jump with joy if I'd get a lifesize goat in that has been dorsal cut. Like George said, you do need more experience with your animals and mounting them up. Maybe your customer is somehow realizing this? Some customers know quite a bit about taxidermy and try to find out whether the taxidermists they are planning to choose knows what he/she is talking about through conversation. Something to think about.
At least you others who might be new at this, NOW do you see why we say what we do? Its NOT because we are worried the new guys will get work, and never was. We know from being a new guy once, that you gotta charge the going rate! So what if your overhead isnt as high, this isnt retail sales, its service. Smart customers are just as nervous of a low price as a high one. Once in a lifetime goats just arent something theyll gamble with. Hopefully Todd learns a valuable business lesson from this. Based on these post and replies, Im not sure, though...Good luck to him either way.
What was wrong with my post?. rrl
I would darn carefull if I took my truck into a body shop. all work is not the same.
Like in taxidermy I know my quality and your quality are not the same.
So now you have a customer with a once in a lifetime trophy and you cannot understand why he dont trust you?
I do, I bit the one once and thats part of the reason I am doing taxidermy!
Your almost client knows good work I would say. Thats why he is having the problem leaving it with you.
Ol' Creager told me. It took a while to sink in, but I'm there now. When a newbie starts out, he charges low, and it's probably still much more than his work is worth. LOL As he gains experience, his skill level (presumably) goes up, but his prices don't. He's doing work for friends, relatives and anyone willing to offer him a dead critter for "practice". Down the road, the skill level is up, but the price won't climb because now you're trying to milk money outta customers that have gotten the milk for free. Fact is, they were never willing to pay anymore than they did to begin with. Time to move on and evolve.
Part of your evolution as a taxidermist should be who you promote your work to, i.e., serious hunters, businessmen, etc. I don't do a hundred mounts a year like some guys. After all, I've got kids that are growing up while I'm in the shop. (I did hear John say that. After all, when people tell you that the first thing you need to be a true veteran taxidermist is at least one ex-wife, you need to listen.) But, the couple dozen mixed species I do come from two categories: repeat business and referrals. Although I haven't had a customer ask me my price in two years, I know that they don't ask because they already know. They did their homework, including seeing my stuff in someone else's house. It's much nicer to do this work without having to appropriate time to argue prices and payment schedules with Billy Bob deadbeat. I worked hard, got my skills up, took a chance and raised my prices, then saw the increase in work volume all these guys keep telling us about. Your price is your most effective advertisement and reflects what you think about your own work. Damnest thing I've ever seen.
Thanks for all the input.Believe me I am one to learn from your remarks and critisism, thats why i am here. George, I am not complaining about the way the goat was skinned. I was letting him know that the price increase was due to the 50% increase in the tanning cost that the tannery will be passing on to me because of the dorsal cut.I didn't include the whole story as I was trying to keep it short. The customer was also told that my prices were lower than the others due to the fact that I made no increase for the years higher prices. My credentials... You can call me somewhat of a new guy. I attended A.I.T in March. I have been doing taxidermy for myself and friends for roughly 10 years. Never enough to call myself a real taxidermist. Just a guy that loved doing it. A guy I grew up with and learned what i knew from was an instructor at A.I.T back in the mid 80's. He is not a full timer now. Just does it for friends also. I have nothing to display in my shop because i literally had no room. I have recently moved into a new house with a large two car garage for me to work from. I do this because shop rent out here in Idaho, where I am from averages around $1,200 a month for a small shop. I do however have mounts hanging in the local sports shops for people to see. I did not mean it to look like my prices were too low .I don't want to reflect poor quality with low price. I live in a town of 3,000 people. The other taxidermists live in towns with 85,ooo to 150,000 people. I just want to be the local, hometown taxidermist that gets our locals for now and once my quality starts showing and word of mouth takes over, i will hopefully pull a few from the surrounding area. Believe me I am too new in the game to do any boasting and I have alot more to learn. I will be the first to admit that.I have however seen some of the competitions work and know what I have to do to be better. I was brought into the buisness by an extremely poor steelhead mount that I had done and won't even hang in my house. A $680 lesson. I WON'T let that happen to one of my clients. Especially with something so prized as a once in a lifetime goat. I really do appreciate the advice. Hopefully nothing I say comes across as negative, to any, because I do not want it to sound that way. I plan on being in the buisness and want to be around for a long while. This is what I love to do. More input is greatly appreciated. Thanks Todd
I give...what IS wrong with your post? I have no idea. I didnt say there was anything wrong with it. Feel free to explain, as I dont know why you asked!
If you mean because of my post saying..."based on these posts and replies..." all I said was Im not sure if Todd was listening to, or trusting the advice of, those last posts, thats all. To his defense, its hard to listen to what we all suggest, as he wants to do what HE feels is best, too. We have all been there, and we all work it out in our own way, I suppose. Ill bet Todd will too.
MY tanneries certainly don't charge me more for dorsal cuts. They've done mountain goat, Dall sheep, Stone sheep and bighorn with any extra charges. Do you other guys have to pay more for dorsals?
I've been sending my hides to Yost. I have never sent them a dorsal cut hide but am going by what their brochure says. I am thinking about changing to Moyles, as they are close to home. I've got the ex wife Lance, but definitely not a veteran.Just made a poor choice
I would'nt use a tannery that charges me extra for a dorsal cut skin. More and more taxidermists prefer dorsal cut over belly cut and for a tannery to charge you more for that, I would change tanneries too and let them know why I did so.
for all the advice and info. I do appreciate it. Seeings I have only used Yost I didn't know that it wasn't a standard extra charge. I will be on the phone with them later today and will be giving a new tannery a try. Late last night I got the call from my goat client. He is going to give me a shot. Says he liked my enthusiasm about doing the job despite my lack of experience with goats.Told him about all the advice I got from you guys and said he was lucky because next year my prices will be matching the other guys. he went and saw some of my work at the sport shop. Anyways it all worked out. Thanks again. I will be back.
I use Advantage Fur Dressing out of Houston, TX and I do not get charged extra for anything. Whether it be wet tan, dorsal cut or case cut. Prices are always the same. Change your tannery and do it quickly before the season starts. It is your money.
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