This is my first year as a commercial taxidermist. The cost of tanning at a commercial tannery is $70 a hide if they do everything. (turn lips, nose, ears, eyes etc...) That also includes the salting process. It is $35 if I do all that work instead. With the cost of the form and everything else, How do I figure a fair price and stay competitive. The average cost around here from the other taxidermists is about $400.00 Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Eric
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Recently went through this same situation. After two years of doing "birds only", I finally gave in to the requests to mount a deer. I told the customers I was new in Whitetails and got their agreement to do thier deer as a learning experience. For my first three deer, I charged them Cost plus $50. Cost included commercial fleshing, tanning, form, eyes, clay, hide paste, panel, and all the freight charges associated. After three deer, I was satisfied my work was commercially acceptable. Then I began charging the average for my area. Two years later, I think my deer are still improving, but last season I handled 29 of them.
Take a look in the phone book, see how many taxidermist are in your county, have your wife or buddy call them,and ask the going rate. Find the average price,( throw out the low ball price, he's cheap for a reason) and go by that. Dont undercut your fellow taxidermist on the price. If they are getting $400, dont do jobs for $250/$275 just to bring in customers. If you want to be a little less in price than others to get started, only be under them by $15 or $20 bucks. Dont sell yourself short, you wouldnt work at McDonalds flipping burgers for $2.50 an hour when the kid next to you is getting $4.00 for doing the same thing.
if your work is good enough, you can charge the average price and get all the work you deserve. it will take time, but there are enough people looking for quality to go around. and those are the customers you want in the long run.
dont severely undercut your close competition. even though they are your stiffest competition, they are your peers in taxidermy. i would much rather engage in friendly competition with my local taxiderimsts rather than listen to lies and rumors that the other dish out about eachother.
Don't compete with the other guys on their terms, because they can change their prices too. Compete where it counts. Sure, find a middle-upper price to charge, but fight where they possibly won't or can't-with quality. If you can reach a level of excellence and offer your customers a better mount than your competitors then you have them beat from the get-go. Don't pass-up the chance to display your work/mounts in area sports shops(involving hunting supplies), it's a great way to get a lot of free advertising.-Susan
The way I price my work, I factor in all my expenses including insurance, supplies, advertising, tools, computer etc.... Then I look at how long it takes me to complete a mount, say 8-hours for a deer. Next I look at how much my time is worth. I set my rates based on how much money I think I should be making to make a desired profit on each mount according to how much I think I'm worth. I don't put much stock in how much the other taxidermists are charging. My total expenses are about $120 for a deer head. That leaving me with about $280 in profit at a wage of $35 an hour, which in this day and age is not going to make me rich, but I ain't poor neithor.
There is an article at www.TaxidermyReference.com called "how much to stuff that deerhead" by Kenneth Bauman. It may help to influence your decision. Well written. Aloha- Jeff F.