Please allow me to begin by saying that I personally have made the majority of these mistakes and poor judgments that will be discussed in this article. The points made herein do not come from a point of condescension, but from a point of self-reflection. The opinions here are mine and I think they are something that should help others, the realization of each certainly helped me. In general, I feel the taxidermy industry has developed the stigma of being a part-time or hobby industry. Even some professionals who have long been employed in taxidermy strongly believe we cannot earn higher wages. The two major root causes are the lack of professionalism and the amount of time in which we are “clocked out.” First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room, pun intended. Professionalism is possibly our industry’s biggest weakness and that, coupled with actual hours spent producing a tangible product, are factors affecting our pay scale. The sections below will visit different factors affecting a typical studio; I will discuss our shortcomings and some solutions.
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