Effort Vs Pricing?

Charge what you want or need to put out the work you expect and don't offer anything less. I can't remember seeing any pics of your work that I didn't like.

 

You got to price based on your own business model

 

Yep, I love a good looking fish but find it very hard to spend the effort to produce them on a frequent basis. I can put out 3 deer heads in the time I have in a fish, especially skin mount fish.

 

You’ll hear every excuse and reason why you should do this or that. We all sit and talk about many issues taxidermy has and the huge differences between deer and fish. I’ve seen it both ways deer sits fish sits gotta call etc etc.
It’s your business and what time is investment you should be paid others go flip burgers and have less stress on yourself wondering am I charging too much. If you want it one if not bye. you do excellent work get paid for it!!

 

I don’t do fish but will say this . No one should lessen there work to make some cheap ass happy , set your price do the great work and charge for it . I tried the $ 450 Deerhead and the $ 700 Deerhead and I found myself still giving more to the $450 head as I didn’t want my name attached to the ugly mount and I new I was better then that . I now charge $825 for a competition quality Deerhead. Yes I get less mounts but I lost the cheap skates , thank god . But I’d rather mount 1 deer and make the same profit as some do for 3 and have the time to hunt and fish . It took me 1 year 2 seasons to to recoup what I lost when I raised prices . Once people realized the quality of my work was way above the other taxidermist in my area , they had no problem paying my price . Just remember you have to show your client the extras you do for a better mount , educate them and tell them to look for it in others mounts , example a full septum detailed nose compared to a filled in nose . In your case it would probably your color underlayment and fin details. But you need to point it out as most don’t know what to really look for or what makes your work better . If you do this you’ll have clients looking and tearing all other mounts apart kinda like us taxidermist do as we look for all details. Trust me you will get your price , don’t work for free or to just break even .

 

You got your Meat & Tatters jobs like WTD shoulder mounts, payed the way of the stuff I enjoyed doing like fish.
I all ways put 100% into all my work (tanned hide, eye, nose, ear detail, finished back, good hanger). I payed my self $20 per hour and the shop got $10 per hour.
I only had 10 hours in a WTD from start to finish, so 30x10=300 + my cost of materials (everything used in the mount to include shipping). Every job had a time card to track hours and costs, helped in keeping my price competitive and profitable.
I like fish and habitat work the most, didn't make my $20 more like $12 on that stuff but enjoyed it a lot.
Did not like birds so I over priced them, thinking that people would go with some one else but it back fired. Ended up with a lot of work, but got payed well. (liked them a lot more when they made me $$$ and I could take my time).

 

My shop rate was $75 an hour nearly 4 years ago when I retired. Shop rate plus parts, materials and services, times number of hours on every project.

 

Some hours I make that, then sometimes I feel like it's costing me that rate to keep the lights on!!!

 

Yeah, that is how most of us did it because we love what we do and that old phrase that goes something like this, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life fits. Well I'm here to tell you that only works for so long. If I could just put mounts out and not deal with the public sounds good about right now, but then I would work someone else's idea of what my day should be like and that doesn't sound too great to me. Damned if I do and damned if I don't.

 

I think its amazing we can get Dave Campbell replicas at $10/in with FREE ground shipping CONUS.

Is this still correct?

If so, I wonder if its worth the effort to him. Seems like he's offering a community service at that price.

So, what did you do differently between fish 1 and 2 that makes $8 difference?

 

Ah. Looked like the scales behind the operculum were painted on the $22/in fish.

40in fish:
$22/in = $880/6 = $146/hr
$30/in = $1200/20+ = $60max/hr

Obviously this doesn't factor prep, but it's a comparison.

If these results are repeatable, I'd ask...

Are you in it to make a buck or to challenge yourself artistically? Are you trying to help as many potential clients as possible preserve their memories of that special catch, or do you want more exclusivity and control of your volume of work?

I'm confident you know of other taxidermists running a couple levels of painting at different price points. So, there's that too.

In this case, I imagine both clients were very satisfied....but if this is an effort/pricing dilemma (as the title suggests)...you actually made more mula per time invested at $22/in.

 

I guess I don't get it. Are we supposed to comment on pricing vs effort, or is this a "which fish is nicer" kind of thing?

I'm only responding to your words: "Recently I got tired of making no money on fish work. So I figured out ways to do what I feel is exceptable at my old price of 22 per inch."

Now you are saying that these ways only work for certain fish, so that changes things, doesn't it.

You are correct, the $/hr comparison I made doesn't include blank, eyes, paint, epoxy, sandpaper, solvent, overhead, etc. etc.

In the comparison I've made those are assumed to be constants, the variables being price/in and production time of specifically your painting process.

You can see the comparative difference is significant.