Ready to open for business, waiting patiently for deer seasonn. I've built a professional studio, attached to house. Have a separate new building for a receiving area with a few mounts. My trophy room is in my house although there is a separate entrance. My question is what to expect? What percentage of your clients are satisfied with dropping off their cape, filling out the papers, deposit, good hunting story and go on their way and how many will want the grand tour and have a hundred questions? Also concerned with customers showing up at midnight, etc., I've enjoyed this site and have got alot of good advise, thanks in advance (and that George is a hoot)
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Expect all of it Bill, sometimes its a pain but thats business.
...for your customer's to see. Usually that's where you write them up also. It helps to have examples to help them make decisions.
To keep folks from showing up I'm "By appointment only". I don't have my address on anything I've printed OR on my website other than the town I'm from. The only thing with my addy are my write-ups. Therfore, people HAVE to call first if they want to find me. Just the way I worked things out...
Have a business and a home phone number. You can then put the recorder on the business phone at the end of your business day. Nothing worse than getting a call at 9 p.m., when you are enjoying family time, to see when a mount is going to be completed that was just dropped off 2 months ago or being woke at 6 a.m. for a question that could have waited until your shop was open. When printing your brochure or cards specify "boldly" your business hours and state Saturday and Sunday by appointment.You really need to re-itereate that to your clients, they will respect your wishes if they respect family values and your right to privacy after hours.(Of course things change a bit during peak hunting seasons) Also remind clients of the call first policy which will train them from the start not to "pop" in.
How does your wife feel about your trophy room being in the house? Trust me that will get uncomfortable soon as it infringes on the whole families privacy. Best to display in your shop or a nearby sporting good store or meat cutters.
Most customers don't linger long after they take care of business. You will have some that require a bit more time ,but that is PR work for future business and will wear off as they return with more work.The separate entrance is a must...make sure they are reminded to use it!The only problem with running a business adjacent to your home is losing your privacy, but there are things you can do to ensure your wishes are respected without offending your customers. My husband has an incredibly successful business and we have only lost about 5%-10% family time privacy.I don't even like that percentage but I love the freedom of being our own boss' more, so I can live with it.
Also, clients will try to get you to cut prices because you don't have the overhead of a "big" shop or want a discount on multiple mounts. Be firm,as your work is just as valuable as the guys with the "big" shop and you still have your overhead. As far as multiple discounts, we don't get discounts when ordering multiple supplies, so why eat the loss giving the customer one. You need to train them from the beginning as it will be hard to undue down the road.
Bear in mind these are mere suggestions that have helped retain our privacy while running my husbands taxidermy shop adjacent to our home. My rug business is all UPS or FED-X, so I never had to figure that dynamics into my business end.
Best of Luck,
Kindest regards,
Mary
Definitely have a separate phone line for your business. I sorta just assumed that so I'm glad Mary mentioned it.
Fyi, I've been in business nearly a decade and I've yet to have a single customer show up unnanounced (plenty of married ones, but no "single" customer's! Just kidding. All have called first.) A lot probably depends on your location (I'm tucked away here pretty well. I wouldn't WANT a high profile location. Others prefer that.) But it's great for warding off unnanounced visitors...
...Marty's point on not listing your address on your brochure or business card has proven to be a huge asset for us. The customer needs to call to get directions, which gives you complete control over the time they come over.
...a few people call up to tell me that "you know your address isn't on your website". I REALLY have to bite my lip here as I almost want to go into Jeff Foxworthy's "there's your sign" routine - lol! But, I patiently explain to them why and they then understand. Especially for me only doing fish, I don't want somebody showing up unannounced - dragging a deer out of the bed of their pickup into my driveway - I don't think my neighbors would appreciate that - lol! (No offense deer folks)
Marty, don't you and Mary get ANY return customers? LOL. Read what you wrote and that's the only conclusion to reach. Once they find out where you live, you're ALWAYS going to have some that just "show up". That's why I'd never EVER consider having any animals in a showroom in my home. Been there, done that, ain't going back. Even with a separate or a back door, you still have strangers in your home. My shop isn't attached but it's certainly within two arms lengths of my back door as it's a separate "garage" that never was. I keep a picture album of my most recent work. Never liked the idea of having mounts in a show room from an era I felt I was substandard to my current one. It's easy to put a new picture in. There are animals in various stages of completion they can see if that's important to them.
BTW Marty, I'm a TAXIDERMIST and not a butcher. They don't bring the field cleaned deer to my shop. They bring the caped deer to me in cardboard boxes usually.
I was thinking the exact same thing as you about repeat customers, or friends of repeat customers for that matter.
But I have had 2 people bring the whole deer to me. Guess it's better to let me do it than them butcher it like some do. LOL
My shop is next door to my house and it has worked out great for me. I haven't had anyone bring anything out late unless they have called and okayed it first.
I like having my shop close. If I need to keep a closer eye on something, I can just run out there and check it. I also feel more secure with it right here (it may be false security, but I still feel safer). AND I don't have to deal with traffic or the fuel prices.
Bill good luck in your new venture. BP
Remember, I'm one of those basement guys. Between the "By appointment only" on the website and I'm guessing the fact I work out of my home, I believe people figure things out. That and I think it would be a bit "awkward" for them (to some extent) to just show up. If the bell rings manytimes I won't answer it (Works GREAT for the DNR checks too - lol!) So far even all my repeat customers have called. (At least that I know of - lol!) I'm sure you're right that eventually some will show up unannouced however.
I have an office/display room dedicated upstairs. Eventually, I will finish a portion of the basement and have my display room moved downstairs too - separate from my shop area though. It will probably double as a study room and office and/or family room of some sorts. I've got 1850 square feet to play with.
Duh! Guess they wouldn't be bringing the whole deer eh? Just goes to show you it's been quite a while since the last time I had to take a trophy deer to the taxidermist - lol!
adjacent to my home. Like Marty, most of my taxidermy work is done in my basement. I used to have it all together, but I separated it so I would not have to awnser 100 questions everytime someone came in while I was working on something. My "real" showroom is a local sporting goods store, where I have dozens on mounts. I keep a photo album in my receiving area. This really helps. Expect people to show up at the least favorable time. I can be here all day, and nobody shows. My wife will ask me to accompany her somewhere, and people appear from everywhere. PS: Always have somewhere to go when someone arrives after hours, this indicates to them that you are not free to listen to hunting/fishing tales for hours on end. Also, have a strategic rescue plan by your spouse or children...if someone is there for longer than 10-15 minutes, my spouse will call me in the house for something.
...of course we have repeat customers who know where we live..DUH..LOL! As Marty and I had stated we both are adamant to our customers about calling first.( I know Yox is of the same mindframe) If you condition them from the beginning you prevent future misunderstandings. Becky doesn't know us from Adam, but George you know Chris' quality of work and you know we run a "very" busy shop, not to mention a just as busy wholesale rugging business.As I stated we have "very" successful business', and that doesn't happen if you don't have repeat customers. Not sure how you reached that conclussion reading my post, George? That 5% -10% I referred to are the untrainable pop-ins. That's inevitable.
I agree with you George on the photo albums. Chris keeps several large 8x10 photo albums on hand for viewing, plus the works in progress and completed work always have sufficed for customer viewing.I guess all his trophies and framed magazine cover photos help too..LOL! No one is allowed in the house to view any of his compitiion pieces, he can take them into the shop if he wants them to be viewed. Chris has several mounts at a few large sportsman stores, he tells his clients, that is his showroom!
Joey, I've done the phone call into the shop to rescue Chris on many an occasion also..LOL!
Sounds like we all have very similar plans in place to maintain our privacy ,yet enjoy the great freedom of working from our home or adjacent property.
But as you said, some people don't and all they saw was "don't tell them where you live". I told you I was playing the Devil's advocate. And you ARE correct in housebreaking your customers. I'm shoddy at that in at this late stage of the game, my shop tends to be an outlet for enjoyment as much as work. I never plan on doing much work during the daylight hours. People are always stopping in as I'm one of the few men for several square miles who's at home during the day. I'm always running to doctors, getting groceries or shopping, and when some of my buddies pass and see the shop door open, they just stop by to BS and I enjoy their company. If I'm working, I don't stop and they don't expect me too. Usually, after dark, their kitchen passes have run out and I'm by myself to finish up work or do actual work until around midnight. If I had a family to raise, it would be different and I completely understand what all of you are saying. I think it's a great approach that you use to separate your personal from professional lives. As for me, if I get a customer back from Alaska or Canada, or Colorado at 1 a.m. looking to get his elk, bear, moose hide taken from his hands, he calls me on my cell and I open the shop for him. These are the big money customers who make those hours worthwhile to me. Still, this is all outside the house and home. (That's not something I do for Joe Schmoe however and it's a case by case basis.)
..well spoken, point taken. You hit the nail on the head with the family remark. We also occassionaly open the doors for the special ,big money customers in the late hours of the night.Guess we all have a formula that works best for our individual needs.
Kind regards
I do not know ya'll personally but I do know Chris' work, which is excellent.
Alot of my customers don't know where I am until they call and get directions even when they have the address. And when they do call I ALWAYS tell them to call first before coming out as I do have a life outside of taxidermy (I think, LOL)and I'm not here 24/7. But that still doesn't stop all of the stop-ins and "I just wanted to check on my deer". Alot easier and cheaper to pick up a phone and call but some don't seem to think so.
BP
Even though full-time, I only do ~100 fish a year and only fish. So, I have a bit more flexibility than most. I need less space and I can be a bit more picky about when I allow folks to come over. Manytimes with replicas, I take the order via email or over the phone and I only see the customer once when they pick it up (or not at all if it's mailed). So I don't have the volume of people that some of you folks have either.
I too have several photo albums of mounts by Gary Bruch, Frank Kotula and a few others' fish as examples of quality work. IF my customer's ASK if it's MY work I then tell them "no", but I'm not offering that info - lol! (For the newbies out there that do not know me - I AM JUST KIDDING. Mis-representing your work is a huge NO-NO in this business!)
I also have several photo albums of various species of live fish showing the different color variations. And I have these numbered. So if a customer doesn't have a photo I force them to pick something close...