Being a fred in a shed.

The way i see it is this-

Do you work for nothing?

I don’t that’s for certain, so therefore if I was running a food business everything is costed including a wage, if you are not charging an hourly rate for your work into your product you’re losing money.

With red deer for example for me to get a knife out of the drawer it owes me £15 an hour, that’s plus waste disposal packaging costs time on the computer finding customers local delivery answering the phone, larder running costs , larder cleaning costs and the list goes on!

You don’t factor in all of those costs into your business you are on a hiding for nothing.

These 3 reds i am cutting up on my time for nothing as i was let down buy a local dealer who was supposed to collect then 10 days ago!
But in your previous post you said ‘taking into consideration a days wage’. That is my point, you are making a days wage out of it, people don’t make profit on top of their wage, even if they own the business.

Take a tradesman, he gets £250 a day, that’s his wage. He doesn’t expect to see a profit on it.

I fully intend to get set up, I don’t intend to make money at it or even a days wage, just to get some money back to put towards the hobby. That said I’ll only be processing roe and muntjac and they can be sorted in 2-3 hours start to finish.
 
But in your previous post you said ‘taking into consideration a days wage’. That is my point, you are making a days wage kit if it.

I fully intend to get set up, I don’t intend to make money at it or even a days wage, just to get some money back to put towards the hobby. That said I’ll only be processing roe and muntjac and they can be sorted in 2-3 hours start to finish.
Small stuff is money for old rope, not Corona money out in just over an hour it’s when you start dealing with these big animals it becomes a complete ball ache, wish you all the luck in the world!
 
Small stuff is money for old rope
Yep. I mainly deal with roe deer, and charge either a fixed rate per kilo carcass weight, or an overall fixed price depending on customer requirements. Sausage and burger is priced at a premium as a) it takes more processing, and b) they get my proprietary method and recipe which gives them a 97% meat sausage or burger. That includes packaging and labelling.
 
Needless to say that a novice should seek advice / help from a good butcher. Seems to be a wide range of prices to do it, is this based on per kilo or random pricing per area?
 
Small stuff is money for old rope, not Corona money out in just over an hour it’s when you start dealing with these big animals it becomes a complete ball ache, wish you all the luck in the world!
Yeah, I help a mate out with fallow and they’re big enough that I am happy he takes them all off to the dealer!
 
I’ve a friendly butcher does anything upto fallow for £30 and he is quick and very neat.
No sausages or burgers though, they would be £3 per kg extra.
I do a little bit myself but my knife skills are seriously lacking in comparison to him.
I still keep doing a few as would like to improve.
I think a fallow would take me 5-6hrs to make anything near a decent job on it, never tried a red and dont Intend to start
 
Any of these £30-£50 butchers round Essex way? @Free range rob you’re not too far away, I’d love to get them to make a few kilos of sausages by the time I’ve bought the equipment and cases etc may be worth just paying the butcher to make some quality ones up.
 
But in your previous post you said ‘taking into consideration a days wage’. That is my point, you are making a days wage out of it, people don’t make profit on top of their wage, even if they own the business.

Take a tradesman, he gets £250 a day, that’s his wage. He doesn’t expect to see a profit on it.

I fully intend to get set up, I don’t intend to make money at it or even a days wage, just to get some money back to put towards the hobby. That said I’ll only be processing roe and muntjac and they can be sorted in 2-3 hours start to finish.
Profit on a wage comes from managing time mate .If I can squeeze two jobs in a day ,both priced at £250 I’m in profit .
The discussions in the past around venison ,dealer prices I thought were based around professional butchers commenting not garden shed hackers 😁😁
If a butcher can turn a carcass into presentable vac packs for £30 he isn’t taking all day for sure ,more like 2 hours or less .
The moaners and naysayers just need to up their game ,learn to do it properly with the proper equipment then pay more for carcasses ,see it’s simple 😎
I really don’t know what you lads would do without my input 🤓
 
Profit on a wage comes from managing time mate .If I can squeeze two jobs in a day ,both priced at £250 I’m in profit .
The discussions in the past around venison ,dealer prices I thought were based around professional butchers commenting not garden shed hackers 😁😁
If a butcher can turn a carcass into presentable vac packs for £30 he isn’t taking all day for sure ,more like 2 hours or less .
The moaners and naysayers just need to up their game ,learn to do it properly with the proper equipment then pay more for carcasses ,see it’s simple 😎
I really don’t know what you lads would do without my input 🤓
We would be completely lost without you :lol:

Calves no bother, but stinking big ole stags are a chore (and they are not the best eating).
 
But in your previous post you said ‘taking into consideration a days wage’. That is my point, you are making a days wage out of it, people don’t make profit on top of their wage, even if they own the business.

Take a tradesman, he gets £250 a day, that’s his wage. He doesn’t expect to see a profit on it.

I fully intend to get set up, I don’t intend to make money at it or even a days wage, just to get some money back to put towards the hobby. That said I’ll only be processing roe and muntjac and they can be sorted in 2-3 hours start to finish.
Not exactly true. My profit is my wage.
Take your figure of £250 a day. If that’s what I was charging, I would need to deduct my van, tools, materials and other costs. What is left my “profit” is the wage. This is a mistake many young sole trader’s make to their cost. They get work because they’re cheap/er then go bust when they can’t replace kit or pay their tax bill. I have seen it many times over the years.

It’s a bit like the home loading vs buying ammo. I can make rounds for less outlay cash wise. But it gets closer to the cost of shop bought if I add my hourly take home wage.

Hobby or not you could be spending the same time working, therefore should count your take home pay when costing. Otherwise it is not a realistic comparison.

A mate of mine used to work for a slaughterhouse who also culled a lot of deer. He can skin and butcher a lamb faster than I can get it’s skin off (made it look like I was stood still). He can break down a deer into quality cuts in short order too. It’s not his job now, but he always counts his time in the final cost. Let’s face it you can always be doing something else, and that potentially could earn you money.
 
Let’s face it you can always be doing something else, and that potentially could earn you money.
Same can be said about recreational stalking. All boils down to how important money is to you. Frankly, I don't give a fig about it, provided that I've got a roof over my head, a meal on the table, and the bills are paid. Anything more than that is a luxury. We're not on this earth for long, and you can't take money with you when you go. Enjoy the time you've got.
 
Not exactly true. My profit is my wage.
Take your figure of £250 a day. If that’s what I was charging, I would need to deduct my van, tools, materials and other costs. What is left my “profit” is the wage. This is a mistake many young sole trader’s make to their cost. They get work because they’re cheap/er then go bust when they can’t replace kit or pay their tax bill. I have seen it many times over the years.

It’s a bit like the home loading vs buying ammo. I can make rounds for less outlay cash wise. But it gets closer to the cost of shop bought if I add my hourly take home wage.

Hobby or not you could be spending the same time working, therefore should count your take home pay when costing. Otherwise it is not a realistic comparison.

A mate of mine used to work for a slaughterhouse who also culled a lot of deer. He can skin and butcher a lamb faster than I can get it’s skin off (made it look like I was stood still). He can break down a deer into quality cuts in short order too. It’s not his job now, but he always counts his time in the final cost. Let’s face it you can always be doing something else, and that potentially could earn you money.

The excess left after your costs is your earnings or you could call it profit. My point is NDS is expecting to take earnings/wage as a cost and then make a profit on top. Most people, unless they are employers or doing price work, don’t expect to make a profit on top of their wage.

As for my time against reloading or indeed butchering I do take your point but there’s 2 ways of looking at it;

It’s part of your income and your time should be chargeable.

It’s part of your hobby and something you get enjoyment from then it’s exactly that and you’re not going to cost it.

I am definitely in the latter camp, if I was to put my normal hourly rate against it - what I could earn consulting outside of my normal day job say- then I would have to be doing deer very quickly. But it’s not, both reloading and processing (small) deer is part of my hobby that I do to relax and get away from working….

The flip side is if I take any profit the HMRC are going to basically take half so I don’t want to turn a profit, just to cover my costs.
 
Not exactly true. My profit is my wage.
Take your figure of £250 a day. If that’s what I was charging, I would need to deduct my van, tools, materials and other costs. What is left my “profit” is the wage. This is a mistake many young sole trader’s make to their cost. They get work because they’re cheap/er then go bust when they can’t replace kit or pay their tax bill. I have seen it many times over the years.

It’s a bit like the home loading vs buying ammo. I can make rounds for less outlay cash wise. But it gets closer to the cost of shop bought if I add my hourly take home wage.

Hobby or not you could be spending the same time working, therefore should count your take home pay when costing. Otherwise it is not a realistic comparison.

A mate of mine used to work for a slaughterhouse who also culled a lot of deer. He can skin and butcher a lamb faster than I can get it’s skin off (made it look like I was stood still). He can break down a deer into quality cuts in short order too. It’s not his job now, but he always counts his time in the final cost. Let’s face it you can always be doing something else, and that potentially could earn you money.
I think that’s the crux of the issue. For casual stalkers that “something else” is the butchering of the deer.

I’m PAYE so I can’t just do extra work when I have time spare, and I’m not really going to fill my odds and ends of free time going and picking up shifts at the local pub.

So in reality, for the recreational stalker, selling some of your venison isn’t going to make profit, but it might offset the cost of your hobby either through sales or through reducing your meat/food expenditure.
 
Profit on a wage comes from managing time mate .If I can squeeze two jobs in a day ,both priced at £250 I’m in profit .
The discussions in the past around venison ,dealer prices I thought were based around professional butchers commenting not garden shed hackers 😁😁
If a butcher can turn a carcass into presentable vac packs for £30 he isn’t taking all day for sure ,more like 2 hours or less .
The moaners and naysayers just need to up their game ,learn to do it properly with the proper equipment then pay more for carcasses ,see it’s simple 😎
I really don’t know what you lads would do without my input 🤓
I’m talking about day rate tradesman, not people who run a business on pricework.

Equally the bloke pouring your coffee in Costa gets his wage, doesn’t expect to make a profit on top.
 
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