Raise Your Prices

I read something on that 20% plastic tax today on I think FR. looking for the article now. In the 1970s I visited the Dick Idol Studio in Rougemont ,NC. He said then all Taxidermists’s need to double their prices , everything will stay relative, we all will get the same volume of work only we all make more money ! He also said “high prices are also a automatic arse hole eliminator “ ! A man before his times !

 

we still have a guy here just north of the twin cities that mounts deer for 375….big sign on the freeway, flyers in all the stores in his competitors areas , has some kind of a mold to make one size , straight , any turn or add on for size is extra… work is av to below av comercial work and his people skills are entirely absent…yet he gets a lot of buisness prob half is new customers each year . good buisness blueprint huh

 

George you are 100% Correct! Richard C. has been telling the Taxidermists here in Maine to raise our prices for years. I am so busy, I was contemplating to not take any work this Fall, Richard told me not to do that, but raise your prise.

I recently had my Furnace cleaned. $175 and the guy was here for maybe 20 minutes, with very few supplies. A lot of money, but guess what every other burner tech in the area is getting that. He told me he is going up in price because he can't keep up.

I listened to Richard C., I take what he and Frank T. say to heart. I listened and raised my prices significantly. It has turned some people away, but plenty of others are still willing to pay the increase. Great advice George!!

 

10% increase this year for me,and I probably should have went more

 

This year alone my fish went from 30,35, to 40 per inch

 

Just looking at Roman pro 555 (5 gal prices) after an almost 50 dollar increase from. $145 to $190 at my local supplier this month, on Amazon today $269.00, some other online places saw it as high as $293, did see it on Matuska for $162 but I wouldn't expect that to last long. . . keep your prices moving on up

 

Don’t trust Amazon, I’ve seen prices on there that were ridiculously high and yet you can buy it at the hardware store still at just a few bucks . Things are going up in price , just be careful . We’re you get it

 

Just went from $525 to $595 for deer shoulder mounts

 

I was at the grocery store and mayonnaise was up $1. a jar

 

I took your advice, George. I went from $800 to $900 for WT Deer. I'm still getting more to do than I want. I've temporarily stopped taking in work and will resume new work in February. I should have gone to $1,200.

 

I here you ... I've raised my price for a standard shoulder mount to $850.00 and it hasn't slowed most folks down. If they want the work done badly enough, they will pay your fee. At first I felt odd asking for that amount in this area, but to hell with it ... I have expenses.

 

So many folks say "I raised my prices $25 this year" Or "I raise my prices once a year." The Gas station raises them almost DAILY. The grocer does it every time he stocks the shelves. WAKE UP!!!!!

 

My bronze casting foundry just added 5 percent surcharge to all my EXSISTING orders. How many taxidermists will even consider that? Why or why not?

 

This is why I don’t have a price sheet of any kind, as people ask for a price on the phone and you give and when they come in they want to change the mount up , adding habitat and such then say you told me $$$$$ . But not having said price sheet allows me to change my base price and add ons accordingly , like if they piss me off . I have nothing locked in . I went from $825. To $885 this year , I’m probably the highest in the state , and don’t care . I do loose a few mounts , but at my price and overhead I can afford to loose 1/3 of my quotes before it even comes close to effecting me .

 

Price determined by customer attitude and mine depending on the day. I like it.

 

I charge a 100 fee if the cape is split all the way up the back on shoulder mounts. I call it an A-hole fee. Only had one this year that hunted out west with a lazy ass outfitter/guide. That’s a lot less than last year.

 

I think that the long seam comes from old school guidance published on how to cape a deer.

You are lucky that you don't experience more of this. Most hunters around my area and a lot of others out west, hike into a wilderness area 3 to 10 miles in, hunting canyons that are near vertical hundreds of yards, if not a thousand or more deep, killing an animal down in the bottom with very little to hold onto, while ropes are needed to hold the animal in place for boning it out for the hike out. Once you experience how a lot of westerners hunt, you would see how a long seam is the only way to get out of the canyon in a timely manor.

Most of my deer and elk hunts are like this. There is no way tubing out a deer head is possible in those situations.

 

I've been full time at taxidermy since 1970 (52 years) and part time before that and Ive only seen maybe three short incision capes in my life. I've personally never skinned any game that way and I've hunted globally.. You must be of little experience.