I know often we comment about we get paid for what we do not shoe salesmen ..I agree with that for the most part..on special stuff...alum..pads..impression material..so on and so forth...what kind of mark up do you use if any...it drives me crazy to see stuff sold to the clients at cost..no business I have ever been around or apart of does this..also I hate the way the gen public can purchase the stuff ad the same as we can..I understand anyone can shoe so how would a supply co know who is who...so do you guys over the pond get a dealer discount...we risk all the carrying cost ....most places I know even charge a restocking fee on cancelled special order things..
I look at it this way if it is an extra and I have to have it on my truck to get the job done correctly then the client need to pay for that service. Equi-pac $90 a tube or $15 a line pads $15 each Alum. shoes $35 to55 bar shoes $75 a pair these are just a few. I always here that guys (gals) do not like to do the corrective shoe because there is no money in it I beg to differ.
Travis, the mark up thing is pretty tough to put into an exact calculation. There are ,in my opinion many factors to consider, today I 'm giving it some more thought. This morn I'm waiting on a truck delivery of Pferd Hoof Planes, these are usually delivered by UPS , brought into the driveway, put on the porch by the driver, leaves me free to go about my shoeing, and or other work. This delivery ,I presume because of the size is being sent by motor freight , mean I need to be available in a 4 hour window of time to unload and sign for it. While I have other work that I can do I still feel like 4 hours are tied up, ? should I factor that into the price of Hoof Planes? if so how? In our shoeing products needed to do the job there is not only the actual monetary price of the product but also time or cost to get it, store it etc.. I don't think that there is a simple formula to follow so it in my opinion becomes " what the market will bare". regards Ray
Ray I deff agree with you on that..and that is one of my complaints..guy do not figure that stuff in..I have seen many that charge what they pay for the stuff...that's crazy to me..I think farrier schools should cover the business end with as much passion as the Shoeing end..the other issue I have is that vendors sell to anyone who wants to by stuff at the same price as farriers.. so when the client look stuff up for what ever reason they see what we pay and if we mark it double they think they get rip off..because they never see what it takes to use the product or that we have to store it ..we have to order it ..we have to take out time to learn how to use it..
I often check with my supplier. They have another price for stuff sold to non farrier customers. I will not under sell their price. This is usually no less than 50% mark up. On many things more.
Travis, this is an age old debate. If I figured in the 4 to 6 hours that I waited for that truck yesterday on the price of the hoof planes , I'd be trying to sell them for about $160.00 ea. instead of $56.00 ea. this month. In other words I would not be selling them! Some of it just needs to be figured in on the other end. In my farrier business I've not sold products, I'm am the product (and some might suggest that my expiration date is coming up)! Customers can have supplies in hand or it can come out of my rig, the service and price is the same for the base job and goes up for extra work. The xtra work includes picking up or having special items shipped in. As a dealer of farrier products ,it's pretty difficult to determine who is and who is not a farrier, I don't try. Just as I don't give special/discount prices to clients that have lots of horses because they are "professional" or anyone of the other reasons I've heard. I actually like it when clients have their own shoes ,nails etc. , it saves me inventory and since I charge for my time, using their supplies add to my bottom line. Some years ago I spent a couple of days with a man named Dave Spence, he had been a farrier after WWII and worked the racing circuit, that was when a race horse farrier did anything that raced Standardbred, T'bred, quarter horse etc. Dave told me that farms would hire farriers to care for their stock, hire just the man and his hand tools, everything else was provided by the farm ,and evenings,the farm would allow the hired farrier to take some supplies to work some moonlighting jobs for xtra money. When I bought HU back in 1990, their were several top t'bred trainers who purchased cases of plates direct, I I were a plater, I know I'd suggest that my clients have their own plates. All of this is to say that there is, in my opinion no simple solution,so again I suggest, charge what the market will bare. Regards Ray Steele
