11/29/2023
**COPIED FROM A FRIEND **
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When you get a sub par mount keep this in mind. A true business that charges for a high quality mount still isn't getting wealthy. There's a lot more that goes into a high quatlty piece: Experience, time, materials and general operating expenses. Long read but, it will open a lot of eyes. Taxidermist are the absolute worst business people. Based on a normal job working 40 hours per week 52 weeks with no vacation equals 2080. 150 deer heads with an average of 13 hours each. 150 deer at $750.00 per deer equals $ 112,500.00 gross. Time per deer head calculated from client drop off, picking out pose, hearing the hunting story, skinning, fleshing, splitting lips, eyes, turning ears and salting. Then packing, shipping to the tannery or tanning and shaving in shop, going through the catalogs to order forms, eyes, earlier, hide paste, and other miscellaneous items. Inventory said materials when they arrive and put into stock room. Begin the actual mounting, prep the cape, install ear liners or bond ears, make any necessary repairs, prep form, set eyes, sculpt eye lids, apply hide paste, apply cape, tuck eye skin, tuck lips, position nose skin and tuck nostrils, build ear butts, position ears, taxi sign in position over entire mount, staple around the back, sew up incision, groom and fine tune details. Next day fine tune again. Finish work, epoxy, paint, clean overspray from hair, texture nose, clean paint from eyes, call client, at pickup hear hunting story again. Materials direct cost: quality form, quality eyes, ear liners/bondo, tanning or time and materials for in house tanning, paint, epoxy, hide paste, clay, thread, staples and miscellaneous items including cleaning supplies, rubber gloves, scalpel blades. Average with shipping $300.00 per deer equals $45,000.00 for 150 deer. Overhead: electric, water, gas, business insurance, advertising, web site, accounting, (mortgage, rent, lease), building maintenance, retirement, savings, vehicle expenses, vacation and I'm sure there are more expenses. Absolute minimum of $25.00 per hour which equals $51,250.00 per year. So here's the sad ugly truth! You grossed $112,500.00 and subtracted $45,000,00 for materials and shipping to get down to $67,500.00. Now chop out the overhead expenses of $51,250.00 and congratulations you paid yourself a whopping $16,350.00 for the year. That translates to out to an hourly wage of $7.86 per hour! There isn't a person out there that would work for a wage as low as this and the numbers and math DONT LIE!
