lowballers

mike great question. i`ll try to answer my best. now the burger thing dude i wouldnt know about your burgers i do know is a burger from a returant in town here tastes better than some crap from mcdonalds and does cost more. ok

can you post links to the mule deer forms and prices...

but here is my ass-um-ption. McKenzie is a large taxidermy supply company much larger than jetzs^^^^but only sells supplies. Jetz is also a taxidermy studio, same deal as before they have other income coming in due to taxidermy work and making their own forms anyways so its just a sidline of their business.


now you tell me how you can bitch about wildlife gallery and oyu not sending them work cause you claim your feeding your competition, yet you buy forms from your competition thats about 3 hrs from you.

 

Mike that wasnt aimed at you in particular, just a general suggestion that some things are considered retail sales, not service.

 

The Energizer Bunny's got nuthin' on this thread! ;D ;D

John.

 

i know john. lol. some people just don`t get it. :

 

But is Jets. Advertising in his area. And calling his customers. Do they get the name off of the capes he has sent. And trying to steal his customer?

 

I'll do work for cheap. After all, I've got to give some incentive to get people to use a newbie. If around here its $300-$350 for a head, then looks like I have to go a little cheaper. It's just an economics thing. A lot of people like it as their part-time gig; that's just how it is and how it will continue to be.

 

Jetz is not sending me my forms 30 days later than he can complete his customers shoulder mounts. Jetz is not telling his customers that he can get his customers mounts back in 60 days, but yet telling me that I will have to wait 90-120 days to get my supplies. Jet grew up in Kerrville and has settled his family in Kerrville, The Wildlife Gallery moved in an operation from Michigan in oorder to get it's customers clients. Jetz is one of the highest priced Taxidermist in Kerrville which has approximately 30 Taxidermist's

 

I gotta reread the forum rules, theres just GOT to be a stupidity rule in there somewhere...

Would any of you go work at McDonalds for less than minimum wage? Why not? Then why in the hell would you do taxidermy for grossly less than what its supposed to be worth? Its like laughing at seasonal workers at a farm working for peanuts. Hey, if you could live inside a McKenzie box, that would REALLY lower your overhead, and you could charge even less, hahaha. Ridiculous. I dont care that some folks do this, I just feel bad for them.

 

Bill it's like George said in another thread about consistant indicators.........If your price is too low for your quality you will be overwhelmed......... If it's too high, your customers will let you know by going elsewhere. Why on earth anyone would listen to another taxidermist on what their price should be and pay no attention to these indicators is beyond me LOL

 

Ha, I'm stupid. I believe it takes time and growth to get to the price you want to be.

 

Erin I agree. I started of a little lower then the competition. Slowly raised me prices. Developed a strong customer base. Others have come and gone. I'm still here.

 

Harley i thought we all kinda agreed that the general public doesnt know what quality taxidermy is, therefore they go by the price, hence price shoppers....


look if you think you do good quality charge for it, otherwise you`ll get overwhelmed with work and you`ll find out real quick about raising your prices. now dont be surprised that when you were lower than your competition that the only reason you got the work was cause you were cheaper and later on when you did raise your prices you`ll have some loyal customers but most will go elsewhere for the next deal. kinda like having so called friends want you to do the taxidermy for free if they were a true friend they would pay you and not ask for freebies.

theres people out there that remain right around that $300 mark and below it year after year. then i see they charge $150 for a european mount but $300 for a shoulder mount?! hell if it were me i`d be talking guys into europeans at that rate.LOL.

Harley you talk big but do you know what actually goes into a deerhead mount quality wise? If you went and too a class with joe meder or bill yox i`m sure your brain would be enlightened. dont have the money, well charge 400-500 for a deerhead, now you got money now go take the class after season is over. now i`m not saying everyone that hasn`t taken a class with a great taxidermist can`t do quality work and I`m sure they can figure it out on there own. but I`m sure you woud still learn something especially if your just starting out. thats what i did, saved money went to guys who i felt were one of the bests learned in that area, next year learned in another area from another great taxidermist.

 

: I LOVE that ;D it's called PRICE SHOPPERS aka people wanting the BEST for a CHEAPER price one guy come to check my work out and I told him he had two options LOWER QUALITY(same quality as guys around here which there price is $400 also) for $400, HIGHER $600(which the quality is ALMOST doubled).He said he WANTED the HIGHER quality one ,but asked if I could do it CHEAPER : If you want cheaper then go with the lesser quality that's why it's there I've figured out people WANT the BEST ,but they want it done for FREE : I here people complaining about what there getting for $400 ,but they don't want to pay MORE for a BETTER mount, they want it GIVEN to them :

 

Successful business is based on supply and demand. Lowballers and cheap customers go hand in hand.They are a symbiotic entity. In the end, the cheapo's will always exist because the majority DO NOT WANT their minds changed. I've delt with enough of them to know. Therefore, there will always be lowballers and hacks. Think of all the blowhard a-hole customers you've had. The lowballers and hacks are borne out of that mentality. Most taxidermists don't make a living because they aren't businessmen, myself included. And as Ron pointed out, the overall public perception of this industry is not favorable.

One great thing about the tax-code and taxidermy is that because it is listed as misc., someone with good business sense and creativity can legally use it to the best advantage of their business.

Yox got it right when he said region plays a major role in our experiences, no blanket concepts will apply. Here in the "rv" capitol, the people with the most disposable income are usually the bigesst tightasses and whiners.

 

Heres something you can tell people, my second cousin told me this once. Anytime you buy a product or service you consider three things: price, quality, and service. At any given time, you can only get two out of the three. So if you are buying at a low price, quality or service has to give. just a general rule, but i thought it was kind of a neat saying.

 

AFWS, you're way out there with that remark. Have you ever been into Cartiers or Tiffany's? Have you ever rented a room at the Waldorf? When you rent a car, do you ask for a Cadillac or a BMW? Those businesses have been around for ages and they're still going strong. Trying to compare my statement to your rationalization of price shoppers is just plain ignorant. If you can't afford a quality diamond for your significant other, you already go to where you can afford. Tiffany's gets return customers all the time, but they damned well don't expect to get WalMart pricing there. And if YOU are shopping at Gordon's or K-Mart and find a one carat diamond for $600, do you REALLY think it's the same as a Cartier??? If Gordon's tried to sell a Tiffany diamond, how much do you think the difference would be. If you do crap work and charge Bill Yox's prices, how long do you REALLY think the customers will keep coming. If Bill Yox did work and charged what you did, can you imagine what his backlog would be? Didn't think so. So why was that example so hard for you to follow?

Pro Hunter, Bucky Flowers in Florida made a statement that has stayed with me. He says he has a sign that says: "Yes, we can do it cheap, fast and good. Pick two."

 

Erins reply here kinda exposes a mood I so often see in this type of discussion. She defended her words, yet I never really addressed her or her comments. See, the whole price topic brings out some emotions which often include some of a defensive nature.

Erin, like others beginning, will all too soon learn what most of us learned the hard way. You dont build a sound business by starting low. They will soon see theyll need to switch gears soon, and they will, or they wont survive. We all learned too. How? By doing that very same foolish thing. But...we all DID it to know, and as I see it, she will too, as will so many if not all others. We did the same foolish thing, and here we are still. Let them be. Let them find their way too. Some of them will be just fine. So, Im not going to tell Erin, Kevin or any others how to do this. I will however, warn them all in a blanket statement meant to nobody in particular but everybody in general, not to make the mistakes we all have.

So, put your weapons down, put your egoes aside, and relax. Youre all due for some bumpy rides if you take the road we all did. We didnt have a thousand taxidermists on taxinet to warn us 30 and 40 or even 15 years ago, but...to each his stubborn own.

My advice would be to wait a few more years before opening any business at any level and keep the present job. In the meantime, wait till you CAN do the work at the going rate, dont do beginner work and charge beginner prices. Starting out by practically paying the customer to do their work is not your best foot forward. The best part is, I still wish any of you all the best. And because it truly does NOT affect me personally, I truly dont care. I just care enough for you all to offer the advice. Good luck.

 

I think George made a good point. I know I can get better as I progress in this industry, but I just can't seem to bring myself out to put out lower quality for any reason.

Case in point...I have a wholesale mount that should have been sent out but something just was not right. I wound up stripping the finishing nose & eye work off and starting from scratch. Now you will notice I said "wholesale"....I couldn't imagine having to do that to 150 $300 deer OR putting out 100 or so "lower quality" deer to customers that I was "uncomfortable" with leaving the door.

 

Bill, i think you made an excellent point and not sure how i could have worded that any better. So I'm done for now and tired of arguing on the internet for today. lol. Take care all.