Rome, Georgia. Founded December 2020. Owner plus one helper.
Turkey Mountain Taxidermy: Clearing a Multi-Season Backlog
Brandon spent 16 years in IT before pivoting to taxidermy. When surgery put him months behind, he did what a systems guy does: built a standard operating procedure and let the software run it.
“It saves me so much time and money. It's ridiculous.”
Brandon, Turkey Mountain Taxidermy
From Computer Nerd to Taxidermist
Brandon spent 16 years in IT. When covid sent the computer nerds home, he made a hard pivot to the craft he'd learned from his uncle two decades earlier, and Turkey Mountain Taxidermy opened in Rome, Georgia in December 2020. His passion is whitetail deer, the heart of his region's hunting heritage.
One thing was clear from the very start, and it had nothing to do with mounting.
“I knew immediately that I didn't want books of papers, intake forms, just notebooks with years labeled on.”
Brandon
QuickBooks Kept the Books, Not the Shop
By year two, Brandon was running the whole business on QuickBooks. It handled invoices and records well enough to get by, but accounting software has no idea where a cape is or what stage a mount is at. When he went looking for real shop management, he found MountMonitor, which syncs with QuickBooks so the books still keep themselves.
“It didn't do everything I wanted to, but it did enough for me to get invoices, get paid, keep up records. When I saw MountMonitor's features and the layout, I knew that was the one.”
Brandon
The Surgery
A knee surgery cost Brandon six to eight months of steady shop work, which is an eternity for a self-employed taxidermist. By the time he was healed, the backlog spanned deer from two previous seasons on top of the current one.
“There was stuff that had piled up on me, and it's just kind of hard to see through it.”
Brandon
Building the SOP
The way out was a system. Brandon bought the label printer, tagged and labeled his locations, set up his stages, and turned the recovery itself into a standard operating procedure for the business. The shop went from buried under multiple seasons of work to on track to have everything in-house finished before this deer season.
“I ended up biting the bullet, buying the printer, starting to label the locations and setting up my stages. Through that process I developed a standard operating procedure for my business.”
Brandon
The QR Code in the Intake Room
In deer season, five or six customers can walk in at once. Turkey Mountain's answer hangs on the intake room wall: a booking QR code that lets customers enter their own information while they wait.
“Instead of everybody waiting on me, they can just scan that and put it in themselves. It saves us a little headache and time, and I think it's going to be a lot better for the customers and us.”
Brandon
Scan Once, Everything Happens
Brandon's locations are connected to stages, so moving a specimen is one scan, and the automation handles the rest: the location updates, the stage advances, and the customers get their texts.
“The ability to scan things into locations that are connected to stages that send out these text messages... I can send out five text messages in about 5 seconds. It's just simple.”
Brandon
Balances Cleared by Text
Turkey Mountain's process reminds customers about their balance when a mount is about to go on the form. Customers watch the progress in the client portal, the reminder lands by text, and the payment comes back before the work starts.
“A majority of people clear those balances almost immediately upon getting that text. It keeps us on time, keeps my paycheck steady. I'm not having to wait a month to get paid.”
Brandon
Building for a Team
Brandon has one helper today, who tans everything and moves his own work through the locations. The scans mean Brandon can see it all without standing over anyone, and that visibility is the foundation he's growing on.
“As we grow and add people, we'll be able to see what people are doing week to week, day to day, just through the scans. That much management is what everybody wants.”
Brandon