What Do You Charge For A Deer Head

and that my friend is why i will never have any. I spend it before i ever get it.
I was born with that "want" sydrome.

 

I've deleted this like three times because Its very hard to comment on these threads when you sort of agree with everything everyone has said, while at the same time you sort of disagree with everything everyone has said: except the part about rich clients not paying...thats 100% true! I do not need rich clients in my life!! And thats not a joke!

So here are just some backwoods observations from Ron B's School of Business learnen and Other Stuff!

If shoe maker A makes a fine shoe and profits $500 per shoe and does it in 5 hours and shoe maker B makes a competition quality shoe and profits $1000 per shoe but does it in 10 hours they are both making the same money! In hill country talk we call that "hours out vs dollars in"! But lets not stop there!

Now lets say shoe maker B is producing only 40 to 50 of his $1000 shoes but shoe maker A is producing 200 of his $500 shoes..... who is the better business man? I dont know....because shoe maker B may be doing all he wants but shoe maker A is making more money but having to work!!! Its a judgment call I know, but as with almost every business out there volume will always trump even super quality single piece production!

But hold on a minute....what if shoe maker A could actually be getting $650 or $700 for the same shoe without losing many if any of his 200 customers? Is he cheating himself? Hill country logic says yes! "Get what the market will bare" is what my granny always said.....right before the revenuers took her!

But anyway....if shoe maker B can learn to make those $1000 shoes in five hours.........he is kicking ass!! So...from here on out I do not want to see another thread on "raising your prices" but rather on "cutting your time"!! Just sayin!

But with that said, it is all a moot point anyway with taxidermy! Because I know that even If I charged $2000 a deer head and didnt lose a single customer I still would not be making the money my friends who got a good education and real jobs are making!!

So never mind!

 

Old wise one what are your thoughts on.

What if shoe maker A makes that 200.00. jump. Then only sold 50-60 shoes that year. Shoe maker C & D sold the other 150 pair. C&D gross income increased. And are taking a elk hunting trip with the extra revenue. While Shoe maker A is packing personal belongings up . Because Bank A is repossess his house, and Bank B has started repossession of his truck. Shoe maker A. wife isnt happy being broke. She run off with shoe maker B. Dirty basturd.
Shoe maker A is now homeless, rideless and section 1 less. << ( you may have to explain that) All because his stallion ego over thought his humming bird brain.
Shoe maker B life has gone to hell because. Shoe maker A wife is high maintenance. and addicated to wallmart.
Shoe maker B. is scratching a broke ass now.
I feel the most sorry for Shoe maker C & D they dont have a clue about the chit thats about to hit the fan.
You see friends its not all about shoe maker A , because chit really does rolls down hill.
Moral to this story,
If the Shoe fits wear it.!
If your $60-100 Sketches, Adidas, feels good and your happy with them. Dont evny those $300 Air Jordans. They wont last a day longer than yours will. Both shoes stink with sweaty feet in them. Only difference is the price tag.

 

Key word in all this is EGO. I have a Taxidermy/Deer processing business and also own a charter fishing boat. NO time for worrying about what the other guys charge and or what there product looks like. Only have time to sweep up my own porch. I have a Capt. that I pay a salary and he works for tips. It's up to him to put out a product that makes him above his base pay. As for the Taxidermy and Processor its balls to the wall starting in a few weeks. As Glenn M said you've got to faster and still put out a good product. I charge $460 without a panel, $490 with. If it wasn't profitable I would fold it up and move on.

 

Glenn (G))

 

My bad!

 

That's why a do both processing and taxidermy. I get at least an extra 100 heads a year just having the processing. I'd rather charge my price and get 200 to 250 heads a year. That's just me. I also donate about 6 mounts a year to charity fundraisers.

 

you got it all wrong. we are talking about shoe and shoe makers. How did you get off on taxidermist.

you did forget about shoemaker doing 200 plus @450.00 is a whole lot more than 25k

only thing I strongly disagree on is . Im a 440. guy doing 200 heads. I go hunting everday. Everday thats 2 1/2 month gun season. If i wanna cut out if here at lunch to just lay do nothing I Do. Never ever missed one function of my 4 childrens events of life.
vaction when ever I feel like it. lately that aint much of a priorty to me any more. I own more big boy toys than I should. seldom will I work past 5pm. and I aint getting here before 8:30am.
$price$ nor how many one takes in has anything at all to do with, when. where,how, how often, location,level of fun. we take off that is a personal decesion basied on personality, up bringing, devotion to self enjoyment , and life its self.
my daddy. never ventured futher than 50 miles his adult life, never went to any type of function, was happy to just cane pole ffish off his little peir. me i stay un the road , go to crap at the drop of a hat. we were very different indeed.

 

s

you said you like to ride dont want that work load. so it does not double.
I thought we were talking real numbers.

 

Makes plenty sense if you like money and don't mind hard work.

 

In the late 70s early 80s , i had a lot of Mt Sheep hunting customers . British Columbia cut the number of non resident licenses in half and what did the outfitters do ? They doubled the hunt price , same money half the work.

 

That's great if your doing 40 hunts then cut back to 20 double price same money. But if you mount 200 heads a year, double money and only get 40 not so much.

 

Richard that was because of the government, probably not the outfitter's choice.
Supply and demand has more to do with the prices that many can get in their area than what we think the value of a deer head should be. The BC government cut the supply in half so by doing so they doubled the demand. Should the government step in and do the same with taxidermy? That is a rediciulous question of course. Many of us got into the trade partly because we could without much government intrusion. I am all for raising prices and if folks can get the others in their areas to do so, we all could benefit but, that just doesn't and isn't going to happen. As independent business owners we are, as we should be, allowed to charge what we feel is enough to make the amount we need to be happy. I saw some other professions mentioned in this thread but let's discuss them for a minute, I bet very few of those professions are performed as a hobby or side business, like taxidermy, and if they are they charge less.
I guess the moral of my story is charge what you want and or need to and don't worry about the guy down the road, but if you are doing it for less than $400 you are definitely leaving money on the table.

 

I dont know the answere too how many bucks are taken here yearly. I thing it would be mind boggling to know.
Louisiana has a 4 month long deer season Oct.1 - Jan.31st we get three buck tags. & 3 doe tags. The number of bucks killed every season is staggering In this area. This area is famous for large numbers of deer heards and big bucks.
Those numbers would only include legitimate legal bucks . This is Louisiana remember hundredsssssss more are unreported.
What I do know is there is a taxidermist seems around ever corner. Little bitty towns with 2 or 3. All of which are doing over 100. Majority full timers 200 plus. The bigger city shops reportedly 400 or so.
Deer processors 1000 to 3000 or more including does.
With so many bucks taken , so many taxidermist all of us within 50-75 dollars from another. 400.-500.00. All basically about the same skills , of course there is always a hand full that has no clue as to what a deer looks like, thats the $300.00 bunch. The prices of mounts remain low.
As 3 bears stated supply and demand.
Move south of I-10 the price jumps to 650.00-800.00 there aren't near the deer heards and big bucks few and far between. Taxidermist arent on ever corner. Is that the reason for the price gap? South Louisiana has deeper pockets, larger bank accounts, with the oil industry there . Is that the reason for the price gap?
North la. is the poorest populist in the country. Only industry is farming. Most live on welfare or at least supplemented with it. Is that the reason for the price gap? Are we less educated , just dummer than or southern neibors?
Or is just maybe its at the peak of what people are willing to pay? Of couse there are the exceptions, large plantion farmers, 800.00 would mean nothing. but we are talking about 30 or so at best in the entire parish.
Maybe there is no real answere for the price gap.
Oviously demography has a vastly effect on pricing. There may be some truth in. everbodys favorite quote.
" I cant get that here"

 

It's no different than housing markets. $50,000 old wood house central alabama will bring $180,000 in South Alabama. Over $200,000 South Florida.

 

I knew i should never have gotten involved in this!!!