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Some unexpected
& very serious medical problems for my wife will
cause my normal studio hours to be greatly
affected.
I will try to be open as often as I can during my
normal hours (noon - 6 pm Mon - Thur) but doctor visits, medical tests
& physical therapy sessions, etc. may cause me
to have to close in the middle of a day. FOR
THE NEXT FEW MONTHS - PLEASE
- CALL AHEAD. You may or may not find
me working in the shop, so it would be best to
call and make an appointment for pick-up or drop
off. Please call and leave a message
or you may also call my cell phone -
920-428-3691 and leave a message. I will get
back to you ASAP. I apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause you.
The disruptions to my work days will also NOT help me close the completion gap in the near future. I will be working as much as I can to stay on schedule, to complete as much work as possible and handle the incoming work at the same time - but her health and recovery are at the top of my priority list. While the plan below has helped slow down some of the incoming work, I still had a large amount of work come in during 2014, 2015 & 2016. A larger number than expected of more scene mounts & complex pieces have slowed down my completion schedule. I decided earlier this year to ONLY take in work from previous clients (spouses & family members included) during all of 2017. So far - this has really cut the number of fish & bird mounts brought in to date. As I work my way thru the previous years work load, I ask for your continued patience and I thank you for understanding. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jan 1, 2017 - Price Increases Well, at some point I had to do it and
unfortunately the time is here. I have not
raised my prices since 2013, and have absorbed the
increased cost of paint, forms, eyes, driftwood,
foam, shipping and delivery, insurance and all the
un-seen costs that go into running a business.
Average prices are up about 5 - 6% overall
and are effective immediately. There are new
price lists available in the studio and on-line
prices are also updated. To prevent lazy
taxidermists and price shoppers from just copying
my on-line prices, the list is a little hard to
find, but you can access it here - http://www.simpsontaxidermy.com/prices.htm
Prices for gameheads,
fish, full mammals, rugs, and misc. items are
available there.
The new prices for birds are located here - http://www.simpsontaxidermy.com/BIRDS.htm Prices for replicas have remained the same (cost + $7.50 per inch for prep & paint) but Sturgeon replicas and composite mount prices have increased slightly. You can see the new prices and info here - http://www.simpsontaxidermy.com/Sturgeon.html I hope to be able to maintain these prices for the next few years, but if costs for materials and business operations increase, then so must the prices. I appreciate the support and loyalty of all my clients and look forward to working with you for many more years. Have a great 2017 and have fun afield. To all my great clients that make
it possible for me to make a living doing
taxidermy,
I want to thank you for your patience, your appreciation of my efforts and your continued support. Without all you folks, I might have to get a REAL job! Over the years I have struggled with various ways of trying to reduce the backlog of work, but without sacrificing any of quality you expect and still continuing to treat all my clients fairly. While many of you don't understand why I have such a large backlog or why I cannot seem to shorten it up - the vast majority of you are willing to wait in order to have me mount your trophy anyway. Please keep in mind, I never wanted to have a backlog of more than 24 months of work. And from a business sense and a customer service standpoint - it's definitely not what I want. Ideally, I would like to be able to complete all work within 12 months. There are really only 2 ways to reduce the backlog - increase output or decrease incoming work. Over the years, I have tried several methods of reducing the volume of work, with little success. Some taxidermists raise their prices until they reach a level where only a few can afford them. While this does reduce the amount of work - I feel it would force many of my loyal clients to go elsewhere and end up with lesser quality work. Some taxidermists specialize and will take only birds or only deer heads. This also reduces the volume, but I enjoy doing a wide variety of work and I'm pretty darn good at it. I also have a difficult time taking the "easy" mounts from a client, then turning him/her away when they want something mounted that is more difficult or less profitable. Other taxidermists hire unskilled helpers and then train them to work in the shop in order to increase output. This results in a lower quality mount in almost every instance while at the same time increasing costs. There are no corners that can be cut if the goal is the highest quality mount. Some "farm out" or sub-contract certain types of mounts (fish and being birds being most common) in order to increase output - but this results in having very little control over the finished mount - not good for you or me. I have tried taking work only from previous clients, but this has resulted in confusion among my established customers as well as the new ones. Many "heard from someone" that I was not taking in ANY new work at all and rather than call me and ask - they went elsewhere and were disappointed with the results. This was not what I wanted to achieve. A combination of bad economy, long backlog and poor deer season resulted in reducing the amount of work in 2009 by a substantial amount. That should help me shorten the completion time once I begin the 2009 work. In order to maintain a shorter completion time, however, I am going to try a new idea that, if it succeeds, will maintain the shorter completion time AND the quality, artistry and professionalism you have come to expect. I have been going over my records from years past, looking at the number of each different type of mounts I have taken in over the years. In other words, how many gameheads, how many fish, how many birds, etc. have I taken in each year. Based on those numbers, I can determine a "cap" or maximum number of each different category of mounts I can do in a year. This is my plan - I will accept any work from ALL clients until I have reached 50% of the CAP amount in each category. Once I have reached this goal, I will ask clients if I have done work for them before & accept work only from previous clients & their spouses (or those with a referral from a previous client) in that category. I tried it last year during the deer season. Beginning Sept. 1 - I had a CAP (or maximum goal) of 30 gameheads for 2010 season (deer, antelope, elf, etc.). By the time the archery season ended I had 15 heads checked in, so for the entire gun season, I only took deer in from previous clients. The end result - 31 deer heads by the end of Dec. Any client rejected because of the cap can bring the mount in after the new year. And I will always accept work from previous customers - it does not how much work you had me do or matter how long ago it was done. My goal with this plan is to deliver the same high quality work with less of a wait time. Confucius said - a man who loves his work never truly works a day in his life. I take great satisfaction in creating a personal work of wildlife art for my clients and in knowing that, each time they gaze at it, they are transported back into that wonderful outdoor experience. Thank you for making it possible & have a great 2011, Red
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