In response to the resounding responses on the earlier posting for Rudeness and Arrogance. In oregon, it is very hard to become a taxidermist full time. I have researched it and even asked to be taught by other taxidermists and have had very little luck. In fact if I had not found this forum, I would not have had as much luck locally. I was lucky enough to find a few local people here that, like me do taxidermy more for a hobby that for a business.
There is a local gentleman though that is like those who cut down other peoples work, but here, where I live there is a thing called loyalty and his loyal customers are hard to sell too, but I have my own loayal customers :)
With less than a dozen professional taxidermy shops in this area, they are very competitive. I just want to say thanks to EVERYONE here that has helped me. Without your help I would be lost! I dont care if the other taxidermists are rude, condesending or arrogant. I can do well enough without them, but Thank everone here for thier help and suggestions. Dont let what others say discourage you. They are just competitive and they should be challenged. Challenge is what makes the world go round! That is what this country was founded on!
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Like many I went through Northwestern (i.e. books). When I started taking in some work, I had a local, that had been doing taxidermy for a couple decades, that started telling everyone "That guy does not know what he is doing he learned it from a book" etc..
Well this went on for several years until one day a customer came in and told me he had just left the other guys shop. He got the whole spill on my uneducated book learning (I had taking some other classes and studied under some good folks by then). Well to cut a long story short, this customer evidently had seen some of my work and he told the other taxidermist, in front of a lot of other folks, "that perhaps he should invest in those books as is seemed to make my work quite a bit better then his"
Moral: Set your prices to reflect what YOU need to make a living and then be happy doing it, learn and study so you can produce the best work you can, and then work, have fun and quit worrying what others are saying. Your work/reputation will defeat any unfounded statements by a jealous rival.
DaveT
......Started out by setting up a full time shop and expected the business to start rolling in on day one. Most start by doing the work for friends and relatives while working another job. The friends tell friends, or you put some cards out in the bait shops and all the other things that it takes to get and keep the ball rolling. Sooner or later you are faced with the decision....Do I quit my job and go full time in the taxidermy business?
This is where the "rubber meets the road". Until now your other job will have been the one paying the bills, the taxidermy is the gravy. If you aren't getting the full "going rate" now, you soon will need to go up to it. If your work doesn't reflect that level of competency, then most of your customer base will soon dessert you for the next cheap taxidermist they can find. If it does, the part of your base that's willing to pay for your quality will stick with you, because of the quality if you are producing. BUT, the question is, how large is that base. Restablishing yourself with the higher paying base of customers could take a long time, especially if you have a competater producing the quality product.
Almost every price inquiry to my shop starts with me telling the prospective client that, "I'm not the cheapest taxidermist around!" And most tell me that they already know that, they just want the best job possible because this is the biggest ________(you fill in the blank) that they've ever taken and they want it done right.
I started out doing the work for friends in high school. AT bottom dollar prices. Pretty soon I didn't have time to fish and hunt myself. So the prices went up and YES. I had less work. But I made more money and had some "quality" time for myself. Then off to college for a few years and the only taxidermy I did was for myself.
Eventually I was working another job AND doing taxidermy on the side again. And AGAIN I had to raise my prices to get some time to myself. You'd think I'd have learned from my high school years. Fortunately my boss at down with me and talked business with me. He was one of my best customers, by the way! My prices went up to the top price in the area and again I lost some of my base. It wasn't long before I was back to the same situation, no time for myself. My boss then did what he told me was in my best interest, he LAID ME OFF!
Taxidermy became full time at that point. BUT I was making good money AND had a good base that was loyal to my work. AND my former boss was still one of my best customers. He taught me as much business as he could and it has stayed with me throughout the years. And I am extremly greatful for his coaching. He remained one of my biggest supporters and one of my best friends, until the day he died.
The one lesson he impressed on me above all others was this...You don't have to be more expensive than your competition, but if your work is worthy of it, the extra price will not hurt you. But on the other hand, if you are lower priced than your competition and your work is of equal quality.....Your customers will perceve your work to be of LOWER quality, no matter how good it is! Every dollar that you are lower than you should be, is a dollar that you are PAYING your customer for the priviledge of doing his work. You are BUYING THE WORK!
You can learn this "the hard way" or you can learn it here form those of us who "learned it the hard way". It's your choice.
For those of you who think, "my area won't support a high priced taxidermist", take a look in your local phone book. Look at all the Physicains, Laywers, Dentists, Contractors, Plumbers, Electricians andt others that are listed. Do you want to do the work for the Doctor or for the guy ths mops the floors in the clinic? Do you want to do the work for the Contractor or for the guy driving the truck delivering the materials to his jobs?
For one customer base you'll work a 40 hour week and have time to hunt and fish. For the other customer base you'll work a 60-70 hour week and NEVER hunt and fish. Again, it's your choice.
I have learned something else on this wonderful forum. Thanks for the input Old F. Ray
Hello, my name is jared lanig. I am an 18 year old senior at Academy High School, Academy Texas. I own Jared Lanig Taxidermy... the brochures with the "" I have trained under the best, don't take your trophies to an amatuer charging professional prices"" are mine, i made them and disrtibuted them. I admit that. now this is the rest of the story...
First off, I would like appologize to any of ya'll that were offended in any way by that sentence. I had no intention of it being derogitory.
Five years ago, i started Jared Lanig Taxidermy. small time nothing serious. It was my source of income. in my family me and my brothers have to pay for everything we do. i paid for my truck, i pay for all my insurace and all gas/ maintinace. my parents dont pay for anything. this was my alternative to working a fast food or HEB.
My quality work was just like any other newbie... crap that gets a little better with every mount. Three years ago i began working under Bob Wilkins and clay Wagner. If those names dont ring a bell, they could teach you something. Bob always pushed me to charge what my work was worth, at the time not much $250, after a summer with him my Quality had rose dramaticly. so i started charging 295. I got 15 deer for each of the three years before and got 15 at 295. after that season my work had yet again improved greatly. I moved up to $350. that season 3 new taxidermists popped up. i got the phone book and called each one. the most common answer for how much was "$275- $295". ya thats resonable. then i asked how long you been doing it. I got answers like "well, about a year." wow you must be really talented.
I got 5 deer that year. 5 freaking deer. I know what your thinking... are you deer really worth $350? if the deer i've seem of this guy that started this, which may not be him but i have put the clues together to safly assume it is, then my deer are worth over $500. I'm not dogging his work, im just being honest and maybe a little blunt, just explaining my story. I had been so severly undercut that after the advertising i did, which adds in school football programs are expensive and dont work, i now know, that i might made a couple hundred.
so long story shory... the " I have trained with one of the best, don't take your trophies to an amatuer charging pprofessional prices" comment was justifyed by me to try to attract business. But i did learn a very important thing. people dont care--
" hey my mount looks like shat and is falling apart, but i got one hell of a deal"--
i hope everybody looks at this and thinks "dang that makes sense."
have a nice day, Jared Lanig
Taxidermy is a cutrhoat business, but the more I see of people out of state taling about it, there is alot of competiion. But where I am from, the competiion is even worse. Other taxidermist will cut you down berfor you can get on your feet. I am a 26 year old woman who loves the work, but no one will train me because I am a gorl. I had to learn on my own. All the skinning, the scraping the pickling the tanning the mounting the painting. All of it by myself. I am a decent artist, I do good work, and for the prices that are normally charged where I am (650 for deer) I am asking way less than my talent allows. But It is all for learning, it is for getting to know new techniques. I love it and find it a wonderful and fulfilling profession. I dont care wha the other guys do or say, I just love the work. As for your comment JERED, dont worry about it. If you are that good, then that is great, but just try to remember the little guy. We nare trying to make a living too. Maybe refrase your words for a more politically correct view! And KUDOS to you for being so young at doing taxidermy! I catch so much over being young, and I am 26! So keep on trucking and I wish you the best!
You know, you have a free site here to get questions answered, but why do some of you new to the business end of taxidermy feel that the other shops owe you time, or training? Its not cutthroat, its competition for the available dollars. And when you, new to the biz, become the cutthroats by undermining the prices as you often do, you cannot expect to be welcomed with open arms.
Solution? Understand that there should be at least a standard price for starters, whether you are new or experienced, good or suck, whatever. Second, conduct yourself in such a way that folks wanna bring you work because they like it, not because youll price it low enough to attract bargain shoppers. It will be awlfully hard to raise those prices later, trust me! Earn some respect from customers as well as the fellow taxidermists in your area, and maybe youll find it easier to get help. Actually, if I were some of you beginners in business, I wouldnt approach the other businesses anyway. The info is all out there, go get it! Youll be proud of yourself for having done it that way, and that will indeed present you in a positive light for the potential customer. Theres nothing like earning it.
That is the trouble with a lot of this generation they think someone owes them something for nothing. You sumed it up pretty well as usual.
DaveT
As a consumer (I shoot them and pay someone else to mount them!) I can say usually when I hear someone start cutting someone else down it annoys me. I have two taxidermists, one for whitetails, and one for sikas, both are good and I chose both on their work quality.
I am new at taxidermy and hoping to open part time this fall I am attending a convention and competition this year not because I think I all that but for the knowledge and pointers I will recieve.
But I don't think any body owes me any thing but it took me 3 years to find a way to learn any thing about taxidermy.We only have one listed in our yellow pages now and its in a city I not sure were it is. But when First started looking into taxidermy there was 4 listed I did not have a computer yet so the only way I had to get information was the phone book, and I phoned every ony of them to see if the could tell me were I might find supplies learning, material, anything . They all said rudely that they didn't give that information out and did not want to talk about it. Like I said there was 4 now 1 if fellow taxidermist's don't help others learn soon the yellow pages will have 0 .And I think its a shame to let such an art disappear.
I did not ask any one to teach me for free, I just asked to be pointed in the right direction.Lucky for me I later got a computer and discovered this sight as well as supply companies.And as I start out in this chapter of my life I hope some day my mounts will be good enough that people actually ask for my work specifically.
just my 2 cents
Chris
Well said Natures Preserve. Thats EXACTLY what I was talking about. These tightlipped taxidermists in my area, I dont expect a ahandout, but a fe tips now and again. I work as a full time Framer/builder of custom homes. And in that industry EVERYONE is trying to outbid everyone else, but in the long run, we are all brothers in a profession that we are prod of. We dont mind sharing tips for eficiency. We love to pass on knowlege. I would expect that in most any industry. But taxidermy? Its like horse owners, where I am from they all think they are gods. Its tough not to be mad at them, but gee, cant a person be civil?