MountMonitor
April 18, 2026
4 min read
Most taxidermy shops run flat-out from September through March. Then tax season pins you to a desk. By the time you look up, it's April, and spring intake is either rolling in or right around the corner.
This window, right now, is the one chance you get to reset before the cycle starts over. Shops that take it walk into next season ahead. Shops that skip it spend the rest of the year fighting last year's mess.
Here's what a proper spring reset looks like, and how MountMonitor makes each step faster than it has any right to be.
Why it matters:
Every shop has jobs that have quietly gone cold. Clients who stopped responding. Mounts that got pushed aside for something more urgent. A year later, they're still on your board, taking up space in your head and your freezer.
Do this instead:
Open MountMonitor and filter your work orders by last-updated date. Anything that hasn't been touched in 90, 180, or 365 days, and isn't closed, is a job that needs a decision. Finish it, escalate it, or reach out to the client. You don't need to guess where the stale work is. The filter shows you in seconds.
Why it matters:
The easiest client to book is one who already trusts you. But most shops never reach back out. Past clients sit in a list somewhere, and when the spring rush hits, shops scramble for new intake instead of pulling from people they've already worked with.
Do this instead:
Pull up your client list in MountMonitor. Look for clients with no active work orders. Send a quick spring message letting them know you're open for spring intakes. Update any stale phone numbers and emails while you're in there. Tag your best repeat clients so you can market to them directly later in the year. This isn't cleanup. It's revenue recovery.
Why it matters:
Nothing kills momentum like running out of forms in May. Or realizing your hide paste went bad over the winter. Or ordering eyes twice because you didn't know what you already had.
Do this instead:
Use MountMonitor's inventory system to count what you actually have on hand. Forms, eyes, hide paste, chemicals, tanning supplies. Flag anything low so you can reorder before suppliers start running thin on spring stock. Compare this year's usage to last year's and adjust. The shops that come into the spring rush fully stocked are the shops that aren't scrambling a month from now.
Why it matters:
Tax season just forced you to look at last year's books. Don't close the laptop yet. The reports you need to actually run your shop are different from the ones your accountant needs.
Do this instead:
Open MountMonitor's in-app reports. Revenue by species. Average ticket size. Finish time per job type. Deposits on the books. These are the numbers that tell you whether last season actually worked, and what to change before the next one starts. If you run QuickBooks, the MountMonitor integration keeps your books lined up with your jobs so the numbers you're looking at are the real ones. Pricing review included. If the reports say your rates didn't cover your time, raise them now, not in October when it's too late.
Why it matters:
You spend more hours in this building than anywhere else. A shop that's organized, clean, and in working order pays you back every day for the rest of the year.
Do this instead:
Deep clean the tanning area, freezer, and airbrush station. Service compressors and fleshing machines before you need them. Restock gloves, masks, and eye protection. Toss expired mache, hide paste, and chemicals. None of this is glamorous. All of it matters when the shop is full again in November.
Only have an afternoon? Work through this list:
☐ Run the MountMonitor stale-job filter. Make a decision on anything older than 6 months.
☐ Send one blast message to past clients letting them know you're taking spring intakes.
☐ Count forms and order what's low.
☐ Open the revenue report and decide if prices go up this year.
That's it. Four boxes. Most shops that tick just these will walk into the busy season ahead of where they were last year.
Spring cleaning isn't about making the shop look nice. It's about clearing out last season's drag so the next one doesn't start with a backlog already on your shoulders.
The shops that grow year over year aren't the ones working harder. They're the ones using quiet months like this one to reset the board. MountMonitor was built to make that reset take an afternoon instead of a week.
Ready to run your shop on a system built for exactly this? Start your free trial of MountMonitor today.