price raise on shoulder mount whitetails?

What I did was this. I raised my price. The hunters that I could count on year after year to bring me something, I sent a text or email to them so they would be prepared for that. I have never lost a customer, that I know of, due to price increase.

 

Why are you worried about losing customers? How many customers will you have to lose before you show a net loss in your business. Obviously, you're going to have a better profit margin and losing cheapskate is purely a mathematical win-win situation: You'll be making the same money only doing less work. Does McKenzie (and every other supplier out there) send you a new catalog each year. Do you look at it. They aren't sending you a new catalog to show you prettier pictures than they used last year. They're sending you a catalog to advise you that the price you paid last year for your supplies has increased. So why are you still charging what you were 5 years ago?

 

I haven't raised my deer head prices in several years .. I was going to this year but I decided to keep them the same and use payer eyes instead of the tohicon 250iq.. that's like a $10 raise right there..
Combine that with my tannery doing pickups now, I'm saving a boatload on shipping..
Also i ship mckenzie on trucking for most of my items to save a ton on shipping. All those cost savings help keep my profits up where I'm making decent money at 575 where 5 years ago 575 wasn't seeming like so great

But I will say this.. I raised my prices from 525, to 550 to 575 over the past 10 years and each time I went up my business got more work.
I was going to go up to 600, but in relocated into a different part of my state and at 575 I was already the highest around. . I was worried about being the new guy in town and getting my name out there but my work load doubled because there's more hunters here than where I was the past 10 years.

I think I'll see how this season goes then make a decision for next year to raise and how much to raise.

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Jersey J
You worked hard and long to figure out all these money saving angles to save your customers money ? Who paid you for all that work ? So you don't want to go up because your new to town. Maybe some clients will think , "this guy is new and his prices are more than the old guys, " HE MUST BE GOOD , I think I'll try him . OK back to the money saving angles you figured out to save your customers money , If you wake up one morning and the tooth fairy and his helpers finished up all your deer heads , you would give them to the customers for half price because of that !!!!!!!!!!!!! George always says "taxidermists don't play well with others and are dumb as a box of rocks on stupid pills"
Why do taxidermists constantly find excuses to not raise their prices. This is the only industry that does that.
Is that because the industry is a fragile industry a unprofessional profession ? Or is it because the customers we have to deal with don't give a crap and are a nickel holding up a dime ? They will pay any price to turn these animals into dead meat then zipper up the pockets .

 

I'm sure McKenzie will lower prices when they start getting bulk discounts from trucking companies. Never mind, they already do. How about foam by the drum or tank car full. You can bet they're not paying a dollar less than they sell it to us for. And that's alright, because they understand PROFIT! And their supply prices NEVER go down. They just keep making a profit that their shareholders demand. The godfather is right, taxidermists are their own worst enemy. RAISE YOUR FRICKIN' PRICES!!!!!

 

I raised my prices from $525 to $550 to $575 in 3 years. Then to $600 then to $650, then to...

When shipping, forms and supplies as well as services etc, are all making price hikes each year, you can bet I am too.

 

No fresh air needed. A responsible business person is going to raise prices 5+% every year to keep up with inflation. That way you don't shock your clients with $50 increase after 5 years of holding prices. Thats why retailers sell things for $49.99. They can advertise it's under $50. Not that you could do a helluva lot with that penny, but it makes the consumer's mindset easier.

 

5% if that covers the increased cot of shipping, forms, electricity, gas, water, tanning, Taxes. and a raise for yourself, plus educational fund and paid vacation. I bet 5% will not cover the increase. Electricity went up 110%, natural gas is up 8%. Shipping is way up over last year, 37% on average. Mow how many of you are paying your states use tax? I bet 95% are skipping that!

 

McKenzie has the industry by the balls-they can do that .. they had to get to the point to be able to do that..
So many taxidermists hate McKenzie for that very fact.. I don't want my clients to hate me, and use me just because I'm close by, because when another taxidermist opens shop and has fair pricing and mediocre work they will take alot of the unhappy clients.
(McKenzie doesn't have to worry so much about competitors because they only have a handful.)

But I agree-raise your prices

 

where I reside at taxidermists only get 350- 400 for a whitetail shoulder mount. I think I need to re think my Wisconsin location good lawd

 

Jesse, the problem isn't Wisconsin. It's taxidermist buying into that cockamamie excuse. Dennis Harris does deer for Wisconsin hunters and I think his pieces start at $700. It's been said that the best way to make a million dollars doing taxidermy is t start out with $2 million and within 5 years you'll have your million dollars left. I have $150+ in supplies and tanning. I think it was Joe Bruchac decades ago who told us to take the cost of our supplies and multiply them by 4 to get a starting price for work.

 

Around Here you have to pay $550.00 for a bad deer head . Even bad work has a manufacturing cost. If a bad deer in a area is 550.00 how much is a very good deer head worth ,dollar wise , in that same area ? Or does is not matter because the customer don't really care and don't know the difference anyway !
If you check around on prices you will find deer heads for as high as 800.00 , many shops 725.00 to 750.00 . Many of those shops are in the BOONIES and you can't really get there easily. Then again the shops in higher industrial , urban , high cost of living progressive areas , are lower priced ? Don't make any logical professional business sense .

 

Its always interesting to listen to people justify their low prices when theyre afraid to charge what theyre worth. Its like flashback prices, numbers I and others also charged...in the 90's. And McKenzie certainly does NOT have anyone by the balls...you guys dont have the balls to charge what youre worth! Dont take my words as personal to any one person on this thread, even though Im using all of your words here. Its become a regional mindset argued and debated everywhere. The guys that up and charge more, they get it, and earn more. The ones who dont, continue to justify.

 

The best quote by Bill Yox since I have known him , "you guys don't have the balls to charge what you're worth!"

 

When I first joined the Jersey association, some of the guys that were in the industry longer then me were pushing the price of $500-$550 was to cheap, raise your prices, that was 14 years ago and that's still where their stuck.

 

Guys,
this situation pretty much sums up all that is wrong with this business... people do not treat it like a business.
Do you think the big players like McKenzies hesitate to increase their prices every year or when costs of raw materials or labour goes up?
Get real run you business like a business, the purpose of being in business is to make a profit. End of story.

 

Based on what I paid for some flunky to work on the front end of my truck last week, I SHOULD be getting $1,010.00 for a shoulder mount. Price on his shop door boldly stated "Labor $125.00 per hour"!