Wow, How can ya argue with that? I guess I should have been
a business man first, well I got that wrong. I'm a trapper first.
I've trapped yotes on 10 dollar bounty pay.
I'm not waiting on 50 to roll my truck in the morning, I'm
happy to be heading to the woods, or checking traps, or catching
suckers for my fall coon line. I did factory work for years,
hated it.
Its not all about money.

Please don't take offense, but not being independantly wealthy this ain't no hobby for me. It is all about the money.

I'm not independantly wealthy by a long shot, its the difference
between working a crummy job for 400-600 a week, or doing
what I love to do for the same amount. My wife having a job helps
My competition being all about the money, is why I have no
competition.

It all depends on the job itself as to how I charge. I have some big farms that I do gopher work on and they are a setup fee and a per gopher fee. The rest of my gopher work is a flat rate. I have some big pecan groves that I do contiual squirrel trapping on and they are on a per head charge. Any squirrel in a house is a flat rate. Skunks are a setup fee and a per head fee. Coyotes are a set up fee and a per head fee. I also charge a seperate fee for any exclusion work.

For 20-30K a year I'd go back to framing houses as a nail driver. I enjoyed that but it didn't pay the bills so I started running the crews and built a few myself. I can more than double those numbers as trapper that's why I ain't building houses anymore.
Your selling yourself short if your any kind of trapper. Couple that with good exclusion skills and the sky's the limit.

x2 Business is business, no matter what business you are in. It is ALWAYS all about money.....or you won't be in business anymore.

Warrior is darn sure right about the 50 dollar coyote, but this subject has been hashed over a lot on this site. The simple truth is which ever works for you in your area is the way to charge for your services. We do, in fact, charge a one time service call (set up fee if you like) and then charge per animal caught. We've been doing it this way for almost 17 yrs. and it has worked well for us. I'am not saying by any means it is the best or the only way to charge but again, it works well for us. As for it opening the door to being dishonest if you're a crook you'll be a crook no matter how you charge. Over 97% of our new business comes from word of mouth referrals comming from past customers so I guess we're doing something right.

Bob

I agree with that.

What you are doing is driving down the prices for everyone.

You love to get up and be in the woods and that is great, I think everyone does. But I think you would love to be in the woods just as much if you were charging an acceptable fee. But like you said, your not a business, your a trapper.

But whether your a trapper or a business the fact still remains that you are putting your assets at risk every time you set a trap.

Guys, if you want to play the losing game of driving down prices take a close look at the nearest business model to us, the Pest Control Industry. An amazing amount of turnover and poor quality technicians. It seems the model for pest control is get in build and sell out. All because they have driven the service price down to a point where there is a pest control on every corner. Most of the guys I know in that industry are starving for business.

Same thing can be said for the lawn care guys. I know a guy down the street that gets his lawn cut, and blown down for $5 per lawn mow and he has an acre. I am curious if that guy is still in business this year. At $5 per acre he is losing his shirt and pants

$5!!!!! He better live somewhere warm so he doesn't need those clothes! Oh he's in WI....dang gonna be cold this winter.

David, I respectfully disagree about the per-animal charge. I provide a customized service that is priced to
A. solve the problem, and
B. make me money.
If I can't do both, I can't stay in business. I find that a per-catch fee is most fair, because nobody really knows how many targets need to be removed. I'm doing a job right now in which one of the local "trap-setters" (i.e., PCO's with some box traps) utterly screwed up. Did a lot of (crummy) work, took the customer's money, but DID NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM. Their new bid to take another blind stab at the problem is a number they obviously pulled right out of their a...thletic supporters. I have no idea how they arrived at this lump sum, and I'm sure they don't either. They would surely make money on this job becuz they take shortcut after shortcut. I used to work for these chiselers, and I know how they would cheat a customer rather than take a loss.
Point is, I guess, is that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and I price things to make good money on (nearly) every job. Both you and I have enuf experience to know how to price jobs, and for myself, I price in the variables. It makes for a more complicated bid, but the a la carte pricing seems to be most fair to me.
As for fur trappers who would invest $49.95 in time and capital for a $50 'yote, yeah, that ain't business...that's a HOBBY,... and, with all due respect, they'll find out soon enough (hopefully not the hard way--being sued without insurance). I used to do rodeo photography, ran it as a business, didn't have insurance (yes, the bulls were real, and sometimes they were real mad, and sometimes they would gladly try to take their frustrations out on innocent ol' me, the photographer) VERY STUPID, from a bidness standpoint. No way could I make a living at it at that level, but I friggin' loved it!!

There is really no way anyone can agree or disagree on the per animal verses per job argument.

I have always used the per animal method and if my son found out he could make more money on the per job method, we'd have a new way of doing business tomorrow.

After many years in the business I have gone the gambit of charges and have seen the benefit and negatives of each type of charges.

I finally settled on a per trip charge as per our contract language and at times I charge per trip and per animal. This is dependent upon the job whether it is commercial or residential also.

When you charge per animal you can get burnt many times over if you just have ordinary circumstances occur. Such as someone or something sets off your traps, moves your traps, non target catches, you catch the neighbors cat etc. You have to go back at your cost to re set or service your traps.It becomes a loss of income if you or your employees have to go back for work and no pay.That gets old fast.

A good business will try to always have compensation paid for his or her time for most all services. Granted we all do some freebee token services at times but for the most part it is business as usual.

You will eventually learn the ropes and what jobs will require multiple catches and charging per trip always pays for your time and covers the animal charge too.

If I set up a coon job and feel I may be catching other target animals in the process as well or multiple coons I bid a per trip charge. If I remove one or 3 coons on that trip I am already there anyways. If I bid it for $85 to $125 per trip regardless of the catch number I am still ahead.The time for most removals is under 30 mins per stop with removals and re sets when multiple traps are incorporated.

The guy charging $50 an animal will sometimes run into a problem with costs when the multi animal scenario shows up. Then the consumers are prone to get upset.Then they talk to a per trip business operation and that business may likely end up with the job if the customers are price shopping and do the math.

I have a friend who is close to my business and he is a per animal job bidder. We usually both get the same calls at times and when they do the math with per animal vs per trip we usually get the job.

When he has interference and set off traps and non target catches he has to go back at his expense and time to do trap maintenance. I have gone round and round explaining to him the animal charge isnt working well for his business over 60% of the jobs he does he has return trips for fired traps or interference.

Mole jobs I sell 10 day programs initially for most residence jobs.I make 3-4 checks in that 10 day program.Depending on the distance traveled and the size of the project.I usually charge $350 to $600 per program. Not per catch.

Persistant or probable reinfestation jobs I will sell a seasonal program.The last few mole jobs I sold were all over $500 and up and they couldnt wait to give me a check.Doesnt that make a fella feel like he is under charging for his services.

When I charge per animal it is exactly that "PER ANIMAL" it don't matter if it is the neighbors cat or a snake. If it is in my trap they are charged for it. The key to this is knowledge of what bait to use to prevent incidental catches, but nothing is fool proof.

I offset the empty trap runs by charging milage for any distance over 10 miles.

Perfect example. I did a skunk job last week. Customer swore he had 3 skunks in a hole under a barn. I drove 36 miles one way to set up the job. Customer knew it was per animal, milage, plus my set up fee. Told him he could save a few bucks by checking the traps in the morning and avoid paying me milage for checking empty traps. He was happy with that. First night had 2 skunks, second night nothing. After 2 more days nothing. Didn't drive out and he didn't get charged. Last day I showed up picked up my gear dropped off an invoice and was done. He ended up only paying milage for 2 days and he was happy and I was happy. If I would of bid that job as a set price I would of charged a lot more than what I made, but I think the customer would of been upset since he thought he had more than what he did.

Like Paul said, you will never get everyone to agree on what is better. I do both set prices and per animal depending on the job. But regardless if its per animal or per job I always charge an hourly rate for exclusion work. That never gets added into the set price or per animal price.

If you dont mind me asking, what do you charge for a seasonal mole control contract?

Each job is priced according to travel distance and anticipated work time.Pricing ranges from $1200 to $2100 for 6 months. Trapping for 5 days with 2 checks in that 5 day time once a month.

If I am close and a call comes in from a seasonal customer and it isnt out of my way I may do a spot set up and removal in between monthly set ups.If out of my way they have to wait until my normal service week of the next month.

Once you become proficient at mole work, single or new break in moles are quickly removed and easy to catch in shallow runs.Distance traveled is the key in pricing and the size area that needs cleaning and how fast you work.

I'm happy this thread has kept going.LOL As I said a while
back, I'm just starting a pest control business, and learning
from all the adc guys on trapperman has been helping me tons!!
Lt grey,winkleman,krausen, All your input is helping me put
a great program together.
Patheticly bad price quoting is what got you guys talking.LOL
If ya want to be the best, ya have to learn from the best,
and I just happen to know where to find all the best instructors
in one place.
Thanks ADC trapperman

Here are my thoughts on charging. We have a Kill that the general public does not. If the general public could trap a skunk under there house they would do it themselves. The people will pay a plumber a 115 doller show up fee to come an fix there plumbing problem. If the custumer does not like your price at the time, they can live with that smelly skunk till the women of the house can not stand the skunk smell anymore. They will call you back an pay your prices. Dont kiss the custumers [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot] just cuz they feel the price is to much. I had a guy ask me for a 50% percent discount on a 100 doller job an I told him no he called me back 3 weeks later an I told him that I was kinda of busy an for me to get to hime it was going to be a 500 doller job an the client payed it. So there is some food for thought.