I do deer processing. A few of my customers know I trap. They want me to catch Coyote, beaver and raccoon. I was wondering what would be a fair price to charge? A price per animal caught. I am in Alabama.

As much as you can get. Simple enough, expect my invoice for consulting fees.

Seriously, it's a business. Figure your costs and mileage and labor and charge enough to cover plus enough to grow on. Don't forget your ancillary especially of insurance, marketing, licensing, continuing education, and just day to day living.

4.00

FYI, I'm an Alabama native. Eighth generation born and raised, spent almost four decades there. There's a reason I moved to Atlanta to trap animals. I suspect you're about to find out why.

Many times people aren't willing to pay much over the gas it costs getting to their property. You can always try to get a swap for hunting rights if you hunt.

It isn't a matter of how much to charge, but the rather what you need to charge. As soon as you begin charging a fee, you are acting as a business and as such are bound by the business laws in the state you are performing services in with licenses, insurance, sales tax, workers comp, etc.

As warrior stated, you need to look at your business expenses (including salary and profit) to determine what you need to charge as the mistake a lot make is paying the client for the privilege to work for them instead of having the client pay them. So if you're business expenses, salary and profit will be $1,000 and you've got one client, then the fee needs to be at least $1,000. If you've got 4 clients, then it needs to be $250 per client at minimum. The more clients, the lower the per client price becomes.

Thanks guys. The more I think about it the more I think I am turning something I enjoy into a job. Done that with deer hunting and now it's not as fun as it use to be. I am probably gonna ck these places out and take the best ones for some new trapping grounds. Again thanks.

We've all heard the old adage that making your hobby or pastime your job will ruin all the fun and in some cases that is true. It

certainly did not ring true for me. By turning my fur trapping into ADC work, I think I doubled the fun. If you've caught one

muskrat, you've caught them all. The same cannot be said of customers. The vast majority of customers are thankful they've got you to

handle their problems. And even the crabby customers can be funny. If you love what you're doing, it shows in your work and I have

had more than one customer scratch their head and say, "You really enjoy this stuff, don't you?"

Thanks Paul.

I charge a set up fee, per animal fee and a service call fee. If a customer doesn't like what you say he or she will let you know. My rates are based on what I want to earn not on making a sale.

I do the job right and expect to get paid accordingly.

Chuck

It really does kill me how many Landowners want you to trap but don't want to pay. Almost like they feel they are doing you a favor to let you trap there. I find this around here all the time on Deer leases with Coyote and Bobcat problem.

Thanks guys.

That's because many times they are doing it as a favor for fur trappers who aren't going to really make a difference predation wise

It's not the landowners that are the problem here. I have wealthy clients that own farms that they bought and they are excellent and

constant customers. I hate to use the "F" word here but I have to. It's us farmers that are cheap! We've been taught from the very

start that you don't pay someone to do what you should be doing yourself. ( Even if you don't know how ) Only after we've reached

retirement age and screwed up countless plumbing, electrical, and automotive problems ( And in all cases making the problem worse )

are we allowed to call professional help. And that usually means some shirttail relative that will do it for next to nothing. The

next fellow farmer that hires me will be the first. ( And then he'll want me to do it for half price )

Farmers are a price taker, not a price maker. Corn same price or less than 25 years ago, so there are consequences.

Whatever you charge... You will at sometime realize it wasn't enough.

When I first started I used my land navigator to keep track of Traveling time, Set-up time and millage. You will be surprised on how much time you can spend on doing this time of work. This does not count the cost of operating a truck and all the cost that go with it. Even if you are not doing this for a living, what is your time worth. I would start by at least making as much or more than processing deer. JMO

I too am in the same situation. I have been working on som beavers cutting down a guys trees and on some fox that are killing chickens. The beavers are close to home and are not out of my way at all. The guy handed me $50 the day I set traps and said we would settle up when I was done. I may have 5 bucks in gas and 2 hours invested. The fox on the other hand the land owner said he would give me $25 a piece and that sounds fair,but not sure ?

I am a very small ADC guy, I have all the permits but I still do not work for anyone with out a written contract. I do not lend out my trap also. For ever you are working for need to know what it will cost them in advance. If you are doing this as a friend and going to just charge according lee
that is different, only you can decide on a price. Where when doing the work for pay you have a standard that is expected to be met. When you do it for nothing they can not complain. LOL
You get a lot of calls when you work for nothing. That is what go me started.