01/02/2022
To whom it may concern! All my continued customers over the last 14 years understand,and thank you for all your kindness, patience and continued business! I usually have to post this every 6 months as a reminder .
I hope everyone is having a GREAT DAY! As part of my commitment to happy clients, I’d like to post a few thoughts regarding turnaround time and the process of putting mounts together. I hope none of this comes off redundant or sarcastic, I am just aware that some may not understand exactly how the taxidermy process works, therefore I’d like to shed a little light.
1) Promised turn around time. Stated in my contract, this is an ESTIMATE. I do my best to make or BEAT this quoted time frame, but at its core, it is my best estimate based on current work flow and factors at the time. Now, this does not mean that I will tell you it will be six months and instead it is two years. It means that I might quote 12 months and it ends up being 13. Maybe even 14. But close. I try my very best to make an accurate estimate but please know it is +\- in both directions.
2) “I just wanted to check in on my animal and see how it’s going?” The first thing I have to do is stop. Stop working. Go to my book. Look up the job. My first question if I know this animal is not on my next few weeks of work list, I see where it is in line. And many, many times we will be only 4-6 months in to a, say, 12 month turnaround time. Which brings me to...
3) Absolutely nothing is going on until 2-3 weeks before the mount is finished. When you bring me an animal, it is either immediately put back into the freezer, or thawed, skinned out and then put back in the freezer. Sometimes I immediately tan the hide and then freeze as a wet tan. On a 12 month turnaround, the process might look a bit like. Month 1. Hide is in the freezer. Month 6. Month 9. In the freezer. Month 11.5 I pull the hide out, order a form, and assemble. The process itself is not a multi-step process across the course of a year, the wait time is 95% simply waiting for your spot in line. I typically have about 200 animals in line.
I want to keep the quality high. The faster I work, the more that quality drops. The more people that call me to check in ... I shouldn’t let it get to me, but sometimes I DO. It does exactly what it is intended to do. It lights a fire under me, I rush, and quality drops. I bet most of you would prefer that I take a little longer, but do the best quality I can. It’s a delicate balance, and I try.
4) Back to the part about hours in a day and I work a full time truck driving job and being a one-person show. I read something that really touched me the other day, regarding self employment. It said something to the effect of, “you deserve a job with pay and benefits just like anyone else. Take your PTO days. Sick days. Vacation days. You are not expected to be there 24/7, 365”. I LOVE my job. I have a great work ethic and I punch the clock hard Monday-Friday. Also work Saturday and Sunday the majority of the time,But I do have the audacity to take weekends off. Spend some time with my wife and kids, Not answer my phone sometimes in the evening. Take a vacation here and there. I even get sick like a normal person or my family. I try to plan these things into account when quoting a turnaround time but (see #1) life is a constant flux.
5)I have it posted everywhere in my shop and have responded several times to clients , please do not call or text . I WILL TEXT YOU WHEN YOUR MOUNT IS IN PROCESS AND WHEN THE PICK UP DATE WILL BE !
Thank you so much for your understanding! Do not be afraid to reach out to me if there are design ideas, changes or information pertinent to an animal you have with me. But I hope this will help to make for a better understanding of the wait time behind getting a mount done!
