Advice Appreciated on Starting a PRS Business!

[arm017]

I have been in the PRS world for the past few years, and I absolutely love it. I have a passion for it like no other as I'm sure many of you all do as well. I love every aspect of our sport from the gear, the reloading, and the caliber of people. That being said I have thought really hard over the past year about starting a small mom n pop LLC on the side intending to cater to solely PRS based shooters. My main purpose is to have an avenue to continually test and review new gear, and provide a service to PRS guys to hopefully be one more resource to use when deciding what to buy and save people time and money. This would be augmented with appropriate social media / youtube content to add to the conversation of those already in this space. I have bought and or tested it all and feel a need to put together a resource and shop to ultimately save people money.

So my question to the hide is, what are your thoughts in general of starting a business around your passions? What would you like to see in terms of another online resale shop? All thoughts are welcome.

 

[Kwe1982]

Get 6BR Lapua brass?

Sounds cool.
I don’t run a business so I can’t give you any advice there.
Inventory would be the main thing, people hate waiting, when they want something they tend to want it right away.

OTM has been my go to store, with the 8.99 shipping, it’s a great place for barrels.
http://shop.otmtactical.com

I’ve also purchased thru Colorado Precision Rifle, Brian and Ron are good guys.
https://cprifle.com

Brownells is good too, they have damn near everything. But sometimes their price reflects that.
https://www.brownells.com

I’m not really looking for a fancy site, just one that shows inventory status and in easy to navigate.

Testing the products seems nice, but may be somewhat biased if your pushing products you sell, that’s just my opinion though.

Last thing, good luck to your possible adventures.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

Not to discourage you but if you're looking to go retail based it will be tough. I'm a business owner in the kitchen and bath industry doing mostly Ecommerce as well as an investor always looking for other avenues to expand. I set up another company several years ago to dabble in this market and I decided not to after heavy research, every time I've thought about it since I've dropped the idea again. There's a lot of irons in the fire in what is a very niche market overall and for the most part the profit margins just aren't there. Furthermore this is my hobby and I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't turn your hobby into your job.

With that said, you can make a crapload of money doing videos on youtube if you're successful at it. At the very least you'll have companies send you cool stuff to check out without having to come out of pocket to buy it and then sell it at a loss if it doesn't work out for you... again if you're good at it. There's a good bit of people doing vids like you're talking about but certainly not too many and I think there's some stuff that they don't touch on.

If you can get a following for your vids I'd say you'd have a good chance getting customers through that channel to gain a customer base for a retail side too. You could test this by keeping a very small inventory of less expensive items on hand and/or drop shipping orders or making orders with a short lead time to get them in and offer the customer an incentive to buy from you (great price) so they may not mind an extra week to get their stuff vs someone who has it sitting on the shelf to ship out that day. This probably won't be profitable in the short term but it would allow you to gauge the market to decide if you can get the customer base to justify sinking the cash into an inventory and buying into quantities often required in order to get the best pricing tiers so that you can offer competitive pricing while making an acceptable profit.

Knowing what most margins are in this industry I'd say you're going to need at least a $50K inventory and make some smart decisions in what to stock in order to make it even remotely worth your time as a side gig. $100K+ is far more ideal. Even at $500K you wouldn't be able to be the one stop shop that most people desire.

Again, not to discourage you. I'm a fan of anyone that isn't a scumbag starting a business and it taking off, and I hope it works out for you. Capitalism baby!

 

[strikeeagle1]

^^^ RedneckBMXER24 is too kind.

So, here are some discouraging words.

Only attempt to start such an enterprise IF every penny you will spend on the business is discretionary income that you could forego and never miss any of it. I am going to state that again:
Only attempt to start such an enterprise IF every penny you will spend on the business is discretionary income that you could forego and never miss any of it.

95% of all new business startups have failed by year five; that's a lot of sweat equity and money in a black hole.

Do not ever involve family and friends in the business as your relationship with them often ends up with the same fate as the business. With mom and pop, mom is no longer mom but rather an indentured servant and disgruntled employee that you meet every night at the dinner table; mom doesn't recognize pop anymore as he is tired and continually distracted with issues related to the business.

As a small business owner only after every bill and employee is paid is there then a chance for you to take home any income from the business, every week, every month.

Almost certainly your credit score will head south, especially if the business fails.

You will probably require new and ongoing business tax advice as well as assistance in unfamiliar tax form filings. You will meet a new accountant and help his business along.

You need to be prepared to explain to significant others why your nights and weekends are tied up and can't take usual vacations because of the debt service on old inventory and acquired new inventory. why you borrowed just a little money from the children's college fund just to make business ends meet a few months in row.

Most of retail customers in such a business as you are contemplating rely on their customers economic well-being to succeed. When the economy slows either generally or locally due to weather disasters such as major hurricanes etc, all your customers discretionary income is now directed toward more immediate expenditures such as fixing their homes, or businesses....not purchasing new "stuff" such as your offerings. All the while your business debt service is staring you down every week like the proverbial train with the flashing light.

Online viewers will use your valuable information to then really shop online to find the same product being sold by other outlets willing to squeak by with even smaller margins!

Have an Exit Plan from your business that makes sense; kind of like the first and last day of boat ownership.

Read these statements out loud to your significant other and see which one of them causes flinching.

Ponder how much more fun you would have if you just spent that time and less money pursuing your hobby rather than a business adventure.

 

[superde]

^^^^Good advice. Especially: "...every penny you will spend on the business is discretionary income...".

It will need a lot of attention to get from the red and into the black, it took my business partner and I 3 years of long hours. My business partner is my best friend, and there have been times when it has strained the relationship - luckily, neither one of us is too much of an A-hole. And there was a time when my kids told me they wished I didn't have said business because they never saw me.

Not trying to discourage you, but however hard you think it will be, multiply that by 5. It's rewarding coming out the other side, and with: good friends, sound financial decisions, family support, and luck you can make it happen.

 

[Mormegil87]

Nobody that I've found makes soft mag pouches (AICS and AW) that are specifically designed to mount to a standard belt. Everyone seems to use the malice clips which I'm probably in the minority but I find them stupidly annoying.

 

[lash]

Nobody that I've found makes soft mag pouches (AICS and AW) that are specifically designed to mount to a standard belt. Everyone seems to use the malice clips which I'm probably in the minority but I find them stupidly annoying.

How about these from Armageddon Gear?


http://www.armageddongear.com/10-round-Adjustable-AICSAW-Mag-Pouch_p_90.html

 

[Mormegil87]

How about these from Armageddon Gear?

View attachment 6880996
http://www.armageddongear.com/10-round-Adjustable-AICSAW-Mag-Pouch_p_90.html

I should have been more specific. I'm looking for one with the bungie retention system. I love Armageddon Gear kit but just not quite what I'm looking for. HSGI Tacos are probably the closest to what I'm looking for but they're pretty deep for a AW mag.

 

[lash]

I took a couple HSGI Tacos, folded them up once from the bottom and hand sewed them that way. They work great for AW mags like that. Just the right height.

I take it back. Mine were not HSGI, they were Tactical Tailor, so no hard side. A piece of closed cell foam in the bottom of an HSGI would work similarly though.

 

[Mormegil87]

I took a couple HSGI Tacos, folded them up once from the bottom and hand sewed them that way. They work great for AW mags like that. Just the right height.

I take it back. Mine were not HSGI, they were Tactical Tailor, so no hard side. A piece of closed cell foam in the bottom of an HSGI would work similarly though.

I've done the foam think with the molle version, it does work well.

 

[strikeeagle1]

It seems the thread has taken a momentary turn toward pouch mounting.

I make a few modifications to the various pouches to increase their efficient modularity in belt / pack loading. I too like the Taco-style for certain applications as well as Blue Force Gear that use malice-type strap attachments to MOLLE rigs.

For the Taco style I attach Safariland ELS clips, trim all the unnecessary elastic cord length, secure the cord with braided florocarbon fishing line, and when desired 550 cord to lift some short magazines upward out of pouch to easily grab it.

 

[strikeeagle1]

With the malice style straps I fabricate QD pull ties to easily release the otherwise stubborn and awkward release tab.
Some other malice-ELS hybrids for QD mounting. The holes in the malice clip coincidentally align perfectly with ELS / QLS mounting holes making them easy to mate to each other.