Not trying to start a fight, but honestly, how do they do it?

I did the math on someones 200 deer at 350 theory earlier, .
[/quote]
There are some people that's just cant see past the print. Those group of folks think if its not wrote in a book or in the form of a formula it wont work. Sometimes things just do. Come on down & take a look join the crawfish party

My daddy always said some people are so smart they are stupid !
I think you should tell your pop that the guy that owns mc donalds ought to have his A$$ in the kitchen and flip some burgers .If he did he would see that the guy at the cash register has his hand in the cookie jar, The girl at the window is insulting customers that wont come back. The cook is having sex in the closet with the sack-it girl. so the burgers are burning. like i said the owner needs to get in their and manage his business and work a little.


[/quote]

exactly my point

 

Can't we all just get along? Seriuosly i don't set my prices according to my competition, I set my prices according to how much money i need to make, This year i'm going up to $495 and i hope to take in a few less to mount so i can enjoy life a little more. But in reality location has a great deal to do with what the market will bear. I looked at some website's and was surprised at the prices some guy's charge.

 

Funny how I'm being quoted and my quote is then compared to some completely unrelated analogy. It's apples and oranges! I didn't insult anybody, or call anyone a lowballer. I simply did the math. Something that you did not refute or debate. Just tried in vain to deviate from and come up with an unrelated analogy. I know you don't look like it, and please don't take this wrong, but you wouldn't happen to be related to Barack Obama would you?

 

WOW THIS THREAD JUST GOT VIOLENT!!!!!!!!!
I am shocked how far low it just went.
Were is the popcorn now!!!!!!

 

This post has simply carried on because alot like me say you can't make any money at 350.00. Not 450.00-500.00-600.00. Just someone break it down plain and simple, it has nothing to do with your overhead, if your part time or fulltime, or how many deer you take in. Everyone has to buy materials, you have to pay taxes, you have to buy supplies, and you have to take the time to do it. Just someone please break it down, and don't forget your 35% taxes. there,s no way around that, if you are not paying that you are cheating on your taxes anyway.

 

already been broke down to complete lamans terms

 

I charge $450 and I make money. Not the utopia someone described earlier but I make money. I was at $425 last year and hope to go to $475-$490 within a year. Ideally for my client base, skill level, area, overhead, I think I should be around $500. If I had to solely rely on deer for a living or mammals for that matter I would raise my price to $500 and get another job until I could build the skill set and loyal client base to support it. Luckily my biggest $ maker is fish and freeze drying (wholesale, retail, even flower arrangements). Like I said I don't make a lot, but I am staying afloat. If I was faster (will only happen with experience as I don't want to sacrifice quality) then I would be making more $. Also I need to quit checking emails and taxi net and get back to work, LOL.

P.S. This post did take a drastic turn down hill. Personally I think people getting overly defensive were every bit as much to blame if not more than the ones charging way more. The conversation (for the most part) was still civil on both sides for a while. Until opinions and courtesy went out the window and were replaced by shoddy math, some legitimate figures, then hurt feelings. I'm sure if we all ran into each other at a convention we would all get along and complain about the high beer prices, but then buy the beer anyway.

 

I'm seriously thinking about going back to college at age 44. Need a new job!! I've been full time for 6 years now and I cant afford a NEW Bently just yet!!

 

I want a Bently too

 

I just cant afford to hire the driver too.

 

Boys Boys!!! This whole thread is not about the guys that charge $500-$600+. It is about the guys that aren't charging enough to just do the basic things that is required when running a business. The original post by Michael stated just that. How does the $350.00 guys do it? It is a legitamate question and if one of you $350.00 guys would just explain this to us it would be greatly appreciated! Glenn, you seem to be following up on this thread pretty closely, if you would please, itemize your expenses that you have or think that you have to show us how it is possible. I am the student here. I am willing to learn and try new techniques and ideas to be able to do the same things that you are doing to make a good living off of $350 deer. gab, you can also chime in and help. OK Boys!! It's your turn to show us how!!!!!

 

You knew this would turn into an argument. Some of these guys have pretty big egos, and if you don't agree with them or have a different opinion than you must be retarded or illiterate or inbred or something.

It's pretty obvious that when someone takes a conversation about taxidermy and turns it into a personal attack of someones character or literacy that they have a pretty high opinion of themelves, and a much lower opinion of everyone else.

 

davehyer, if that post was directed at me you're totally incorrect. No one's ego has anything to do with any of this. I'm not saying anyone is retarded or illiterate or anything else. All I want is for one of you $350.00 guys to itemize your expenses and show your NET profit so that the rest of us can use it as a guideline to do the same. Again, I am the student. Please show me....

 

I would like to know aswell my customers would love it if I only charge $350 on a deer head.

 

Thx Harry - exactly, how do you do it in a 1 person studio? I am waiting on a legitimate answer here. I can guarantee it wont happen, I hope I am wrong and can learn a new trick or two though.
Question, if your spouse works full time with you do you take this into account? If your shop nets 30k with both working that's only 15k each for bustin' your butt all year, why? Its tough to get to the point of hiring help only to lose that extra edge to a cheap guy. People say its "quality" but I tell ya when the economy dumped people (not all) looked for lower price guys for their stuff. People look at the highs and lows and some of it just comes down to how they were treated, some are looking for a good deal and some are looking for quality. A lot want quality but won't or can't pay for it.

Please enlighten me with accurate details that have worked, I follow all the rules the best I can and don't cut corners.

 

People keep refering to the $350 guys all the time. Wanting to know how they are making any money charging what they do. If they all raised there prices to $375 would that be good enough, or how about $400?

I really havn't seen anyone say you should be charging $500, $550, $600. . . . Where do you draw the line? Bellow X amount your not making any money and above X amount you are.

Everyone one is in a different position. Some need to make more money and some don't feel they need to. When you live in a state like AK you have to charge more than someone living in Georgia. The price of everything is way higher. It's the same between areas in the lower 48. The cost of living is way higher in Washington State than it is in Georgia.

So you higher priced guy what are you charging for a Deer Head? I'm at $550 and I am located in WA State.

 

There are people flying off the handle claiming there being called ignorant or retarded and calling others arrogant. The so called arrogant ones have said nothing of that nature. With that said if you have a legitimate answer and are willing to discuss it (discuss involves some respectful Q&A both ways) then please enlighten.
And I am not singling out anybody's individual post or price on here. So lets have a conversation without resorting to avoiding answering simple questions by attacking people saying there arrogant and playing the CLASS WARFARE CARD!
Maybe we can all teach each other something so we can afford Bentleys or in my case a new boat of equal value, LOL!

One more thing. I have never lost one customer when I raised my prices. It seems to me if someone will not go to you based on price it is either one of 2 things. You are either so high you have crossed some sort of threshold that most clients other than very picky, wealthy, or ones with a truly incredible trophy will not pay your price. Or 2 and from my experience most commonly it doesn't matter about the price (within reason) unless you are willing to be the very cheapest guy in the area. When I get a call from a price shopper and I can get them to come see my work I almost always just got some business. If they are only concerned about price, it doesn't matter if the cheapest guy is 50 cents and inch on fish, or $20 on a deer head cheaper or $2 and inch and $150 cheaper they are going cheap and you know that because they are ONLY CONCERNED WITH PRICE. So if I'm not willing to be the cheapest I can rule out the cheapest of the price shoppers. And the next step up of clients will pay more (within reason to that threshold for the region).

 

A already did and ya'll said i can't do math.the fact ya'll are missing is that guys are doing it every day by having low overhead and a solid work ethic.Ya'll see it,still don't believe it,and accuse the guy of being a liar and a tax cheat just because he's doing something ya'll say can't be done.

 

Well gab, would you please do it again, just for me. Now I don't mean just say that you have low overhead. Let me help. Start out by listing the cost of the forms that you use. Include shipping and use tax figures as being part of the cost of the raw materials used in producing a finished mount. Please list ALL of the components that it takes to go from a fresh head right up to the finished product. At this point, don't list anything such as rent or mortgage or utilities on anything, just the materials it takes to produce your product. We can walk our way through all of this together in a calm and civil manner. Just to get ahead of ourselves a little, what we are doing is creating a Gross Profit figure. We can then determine our other expenses later. Please continue.....