This next season I will be charging $325 for deer and antelope and $600 CM and $675 OM for elk. Are those fair prices.
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...They're great. For you...You must not think much of your ability or you love to work for poverty level wages.
Top price in my area is $450 for deer and that's a supposed master taxidermist and 20 plus years of exp. How would a person go about raiseing everybodies prices. In my area quality is not always the answere it low prices and that sucks. It a catch 22 here, you either put out fast and bad work and make a lot of money or you put out quality work and go broke. Any advice?
I posted some time back that we were raising our prices this year. Main reason was the cost of materials has gone up. In my spread sheet materials including tanning ended up at $160 for a deer. To be conservative add another 30% on that for overhead (electricity, water rent etc.) $48, total cost NOT INCLUDING LABOR $208.00
Now subtract $208 from 325 -----$117 Now my question is how many hours do you put in to earn your $117? Be honest!
Do not cut your self short. Charge what you think is a fair value of your work.There will always be some one cheaper.
With out tanning my self just mounting I can usually turn out a deer in about 4 hours give or take a little. I talked to that local guy that's charging 450 he says he'e not making any money I also talked to another guy out of state that charges 600 per deer and he also says he not making any money. I work out of my garage and just went full-time last season charged 275 per deer and brought in 174 pcs. and doing okay I'm not a millionare but living okay. How is someone making 600 a deer not making any money.. I know I am going to get a lot of crap about those prices but there is quite a few people charging 300-315 p/deer that have 15-20 yrs exp. My quality is there but if I raise my prices to high I will loose business. Thought anybody?
If you do the taning the time involved must be added to the +/- 4 hrs.
To answer your question.
Simple
174 times 275= 47850 - 160x174= 20010
100 times 425= 42500 - 160x100= 26500
the above simply put at 425 per deer you do 74 less deer but net $6500 more and have more time to do something else. Trust me I truly believe that if you raise prices you will not lose business. You will get more. Granted I do think that there is a point that can be reached and the projects will level out but the only way YOU will know is if you raise your prices.
The math should look like this
174 x 275= 47850- (160+48)*174= 11658
100 x 425= 42500- (160+48)*100= 21700
You would net a little over $10000 more doing 74 deer less.
I charged $525 for deer last year. and $925 for elk. I have plenty of work to do and make money doing it. I'll be starting mounting last falls deer heads in about a week. It's not how many heads I take in it's how much I make on the ones I do. I don't take as many heads in like I would if I charged $325 of even $450. The main reason we work is to make money. Make more money with less work. I make a living doing taxidermy but I don't live for taxidermy.
with dean, very well put!
That people insist on charging last decades prices? I am one of the highest in my area, and for being fairly new, I have more work than I want. Granted I am just part time but I know of two guys last year that charged ridiculous prices, one at $165 the other at $150! And that isn't a typo. And they weren't new guys either, these were experienced guys, both trying to go full time. Building a clientelle was their excuse. I tried to tell them, what clientelle? the average hunter gets maybe 3 deer mounted in a lifetime. I charge $375, and told a few other taxidermist and they told me I was crazy they charged $275 and there was no way anyone would pay that for a shoulder mount. Huh? Hello! Why is it I'm busier than I want to be? Justin - if you feel that the quality of your work warrants it go up to $375 on your deer. Why worry about what other people are charging? I turned a guy away the other week, I told him my price and he says " I was thinkin $300", I told him for $300 go to someone else. I feel my quality is worth it.
It has to be some place where gas is 25cents a gallon and ups pays YOU to use their services. Any body charging less than $500 per head is fooling himself about making a PROFIT. I can spell profit, can you?
prices? Justin,a bugling jawset from Noonkester, finished,is $66.85 it doesent get delivered for free. You want to charge $75.00 extra for open mouth elk. Are you nuts?
Brent, you figure your overhead wrong. Total overhead doesnt change with fewer heads. So overhead per mount is higher than your example.
I cannot believe someone would only charge $275 for a deer. I would rather do half the deer at twice the price. Your quality will be better too because you can spends more time on a mount if you want to.
Justin
When figuring amount of time you spend on a mount there are factors to consider other than just the mounting time, all these must be calculated into the formula. It sounds like you are cutting yourself short on time spent on a mount. The following times should also be figured into your cost of a single mount.
wait on client
tag & record
skin & measure
turn lips, nose & ears
flesh
salt twice
cut off & clean skull
order supplies
next day adjust
epoxy & finish work
painting
clean ups
contact client
customer pick up
accounting work
Although you may look at these as little 10 or 15 minute jobs, all these will probably add 3.5 hours to the actual job.
After you have figured your actual time spent per mount, decide on what you want to pay yourself per hour.
Figure out your overhead per month, electrity , insurance ,vechicle expense etc. and divide that by the number of hours you work per month, this will give you your overhead per hour cost.
The final would be figuring total cost of materials.
A sample formula would look something like this
Overhead per hour...10.25 X 7.5hrs = $ 76.87
Cost ...by Brent's posting...= $208.00
Your labor rate ?..sample..7.5 x $19hr = $142.50
Subtotal... = $427.37
Profit margin factor 1.11 (10%)... = $ 47.01
Total charge for Whitetail mount... = $474.38