Was trying to find out helpful information with getting started on mounting my first moose head. I am lost at what price to charge him, the cape has already been skinned out and tanned. The horns are mounted on a plaque. Just trying to get a good and reasonable price. Is there anything that I need to do special to the hide. So if you can please help me out I would greatly appreciate it.
Don't think that you won't have that much time in a Moose shoulder mount because it is already tanned and the antlers are on a panel try about 200-225 in materials alone maybe more depending on the size of the critter. You will have about an ample amount of time in prepping the hide and form then putting it together depending on your skill level. Then a couple hours finish work. $800.00 and up would be a good place to start then after you do one you will charge more.Hope this helps.
Mark,
Do not take anything I post here personal. But, you and others that ask queations like this need to take a course in business. How can you operate a business if you can not make a bid or calculate cost for doing business?
Ok. Sorry I had to say that. Now I will try to answer your question.
1) First of all you need to write down all the materials and how much they cost, including shipping. Multiply this total by a percentage for profit on your materials (A). Our studio multiplies the total cost of materials by 1.25 and this probably should be higher.
2) You need to have an idea of what overhead costs (B) you have. This is your electricity, water, phone, gas, insurace, mortgage, ect. This needs to be spread out over all mounts you do.
3) This should be the easy part. How much is your time worth per hour? $5 (if yes, stop here and go work for McDonalds), $10, $15 $20.
For a Moose you are probably in the neighborhood of 15 hrs. So X hrs times your rate per hour. This is (C).
4) Add A+B+C and you will have what you should charge for this mount.
If any one has anything to add or point out something I missed let me know.
Everyone in this industry needs to do this! I think alot of people will be surprised at what they find out.
Good Luck,
Brent
Depending on how big the antlers are and the size of the cape, plan on some help. Trying to pull 30 pounds of wet cape over a form, keeping your stand from tipping, and working around helicopter size antlers is no fun alone. Between the form, cape and antlers adds up to a heavy mount. You saved a few bucks on salting, fleshing and tanning costs, see what others in your area get for a moose mount and work from there. One last thing, mount the antlers on the form and make sure you can get it out of your shop or house door. Dont laugh, its easy getting it in apart but finished could be a problem. I did a large elk a few years back and had that problem, got it out barely. I make the antlers removeable on large mounts now. A moose is the same as a deer mount just four times the size, use good reference and go for it. Good luck Paul.
One question for you Brent.... Where's your profit? The business has to profit something not just pay the overhead... you see what alot of people miss is they do not
count there wage as overhead...they count it as there profit! I would hope that a business would make a profit! just my two cents. 1.25 on materials ? Thats $1.25 per hundred. Thats not even wirth the time it takes to order the supplies
Yes Al,
I did not put that in the above. But the wage you charge is shop rate and the shop pays you some figure below that. For example: the wage charged for the moose could be $30.00 per hour and the business pays you $20.00 per hour. The exta $10 is the profit for the business.
The extra for the materials would be $25.00 per hundred and as I said I do not think that is enough. Example: materials cost $100. 100 X 1.25 is $125 or an increase of 25%.
Keep in mind that the time you spend ordering the materials should be figured in your wages as hours spent working. I might be wrong but I do not believe that wages should be counted as overhead it is a cost of goods sold the same as materials.
Thanks for the comment. I did not think I explained it well enough above and I am sure there are more opinons out there.
Brent
The man that taught me business, long before I ever thought of taxidermy as more than a hobby, always used the "Dutchman's 1%". That is if the item cost you $100, you charge the customer $200. A 100% mark up is your profit. That is what most of us are paying to the people we buy things from, like it or not. That mark up has to pay your overhead, like taxes, electricity, insurance, phone and other utilities, printing, advertizing and on and on. Really, those things have to be paid by someone, if your customer doesn't pay it, it will have to come out of the $5.00 an hour that you think you are making. Brent,I do appreciate your trying here but I think it may be hopeless.
Old Fart,
If only one or two pans of mush get the idea and do this I think it would be worth the effort. Ya never know.
At the very least we can send those who ask this question over & over back to the archives to read it.
Brent
You'll have to clear out the bottom shelf in your fridge to accomodate your moose cape for sweating overnite. And maybe move the upper shelf above your lower to a higher position because that sucker will take up most of the entire refrigerator.
Make sure your mounting stand has good leg extensions for balance and stability.
Then once you are going to start mounting procedures, like Paul mentioned, it really does help to have two extra bodies to help you lift it up and onto the form and just HOLD it there for you while you pin it in place. Many upholstery pins will hold the hide for you.
Is the bell split? Fill that too. And when you are all done, and it's painted up pretty...just remember, you havn't mounted a moose until you've spent 6hrs fleshing out the NOSE of one yourself first. LOL
Too the pricing. These guys are so right. You go ahead and give your customer a price you may think is fair, and believe me when I say AFTER you've mounted the beastie, your price will go up at least $300 for the next moose.
Old Fart, I love your Dutchmans 1% rule and I ain't even Dutch!
Ok, let's use an example that everyone knows - Cars. Take your car to the shop for repair and what/how do they charge. They have a shop rate ($60/hr. in my area) + materials. Does that mean that the mechanic makes $60/hr. no way. He might make $12.50/hr. then some goes to pay for the building, utilities, lifts, benifits, advertising etc. - then there is the profit.
Profit has to be on top of everything else. Imagine for a minute that you are lucky enough to get to a point where you no longer have to work but instead keep your shop and hire others to do everything including mounting for you - stay with me here. Well lets say you go thru and account for all your expenses (similar to what I listed above) - if you cahrge according to that without adding any profit - what is your incentive to maintain the business? You could go work for someone else on an hourly rate so why just pay yourself an hourly rate? Same for the materials - ever notice a garage will not allow you to bring in the parts for them to install? Why is that? Aren't you paying them the shop rate for doing the repair - yes but they also mark up the parts.
What I believe would help us is if we could get together and come up with 'standards' for our work. What I mean by that is what is the standard time it should take to mount a deer? a Moose? elk? If we had standards then we could start to get on the same page when we set our prices. You look up the stardard, pull in you business specific costs and profits etc. and then set a price. Then you have to improve such that you can repeat the standard times to do your work and still produce the quality that is expected.
In my eyes we all see each other as the compatition (you know - the bad guy) well guess what, if we worked together or standard of living would go up. People are always gonna pay to have items mounted and over time our prices rise to what they should be people will still get things mounted.
Has anyone looked at the price of a good whitetail hunt or elk hunt lately? 20 years ago you could have gone on a whitetail hunt anywhere for <$1000 - look at the good hunts today. Same for elk. Now what do you think the outfitters were thinking 30 years ago - ah, nobody will ever pay that. But, look at the costs of running an outfitting business. They are in line with what they charge - and you know what, MORE people are paying those high prices today that did the # paying the lower prices 20 years ago.
well I've rambled enough here. Lets work together to promote our industry - if you want to be taken seriously you have to act such.
I said you would charge more on your next one but there is plenty of food for thought here good luck and Leanna I did the same on my first set of moose nostrils then found I didn't need all that LOL.