Want to start business. Need your help!

A

aztec777

New member
Well, I just came into a healthy chunk of money and have decided to fullfill one of my dreams. To start a business. It will be an indoor/outdoor shooting range and gun store. Gunsmith services will also be offered. What I need to know is details on equipment, local LE agency contracts, zoning, number of lanes, surveillance equipment, RO's, safety rules and any experience any of you may have running a range/shop. I have extensive experience with the financial and labor area. I have worked in shops and gun shows, so I know that end of it. I need specific experience/suggestions from you, the shooters, so I can build the best facility I can. Thank you all for your help.

Steve

P.S.
Since I live in an area that rains a lot I would want to have two underground tunnels for centerfire rifle. I figure that 100 yards is enough. Thoughts?

Steve
 
That's great! This is going to be in central Ohio, right? ;)

Be prepared to take a lot of flak from the local busybodies when you go public with your plans. A new indoor range opened in my area about two years ago and even though it's a very clean, very quiet, highly reputable operation, they've had to deal with all sorts of complaints. Example: Even though the sound of gunshots is barely audible a hundred feet from the building, a neighbor two hundred yards away complained that the noise was bothering her inside her house.
 
I am a pessimist when it comes to investing in most gun ventures only because most fail! Good money doesn't come along often so I would caution extreme care in selecting location ,stock and a bunch of other items and have an independent managing firm do all the leg work and if the numbers are even close don't let your heart influence your business sense.
 
First thing you will learn is the cops won't want to pay much if anything. Secondly you will be in a business that hasn't much of a future. A presidents ink pen could put you out of business or a single law.
I wouldn't stock green bananas.
Also insurance is getting to be all but impossible and if findable, damned expensive and going up.
To build from scratch you have to get into the clean air thing etc. That alone can cost you a fortune and one range near me was built to "standards" and never opened. The EPA claimed the backstops weren't "right" etc.
Plus you will find it hard to find a location ala zoning often, and if you do they will try to change the zoning rules.
IF someone puts a daycare next to the range you will probably have to close. What is cute is we had an outdoor range forced to close when residents complained they were finding bullets in their yards etc. Several brought the ENTIRE CARTRIDGE to the meetings to show us proof.
Another was closed when a bullet hit a car passing nearby. So they closed the outdoor range to all civilian shooting. Interesting to note that the only ones using that range on that day were local cops.
I'm a shooter but opening a gun range to me ranks right up there with wanting a cafe with a speciality on cooking Spam.
Good luck!!!
 
Two old ranchers were asked what they would do if they were given $1 million, tax-free.

The first allowed as how he'd retire, sell out and move to the beach and spit tobaccy juice at the sea gulls and watch the cute gals wiggle by...

The second allowed, "Well, I'll just keep on ranchin', til it's gone..."

I wish you all the luck in the world. But incorporate in Costa Rica and let THAT corporation own 98% of the stock in the corporation which owns the business name. Don't buy any gunsmithing machinery; lease it. You, yourself, are just an agent; you don't own anything. Land, buildings, whatever.

Drives lawyers nuts! Who to sue? "I'm just the agent and manager; sue THEM!" "Where are THEY?" "Costa Rica, I think. I'm not sure. I don't really know." :)

In Costa Rica, there is no income tax on profits until those profits exceed $250,000 in a year. :) And they don't release names of corporate stockholders...

Regards, Art
 
Brooms for the floor, I hate going to the range and not being able to find a broom to sweep out my lane.

Coat hooks. I know it sounds dumb, but they are cheap.

I'm still thinking. I'll let you know if I recall any other suggestions.

BTW where would this range be? I'm not happy with the indoor ones here in Indy, and if you'd ever met Don you'd know why.

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"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." -Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8.
 
aztec777. Keep your chunk of money. Shoot for pleasure at a facility owned by someone who wants the headaches.

We have a pawnshop. I forego the extra 30-35% volume we could do if I did guns.

A colleague of mine is $70,000 into defending himself from a lawsuit from a guy who pawned his gun, picked it up, and then went home and killed himself. Widow is "saying" (without proof of course) that she called the shop and told them (on the phone) not to let him have it. She will not win. But he still has to defend the lawsuit.

Also don't forget that everyone who gets asthma will blame the indoor range and you will get to be sued for that too.
 
We passively looked into the possibility of opening a range out behind the Edge-Works facility. First inquires revealed that any effort to do so was going to be an up hill battle involving a tremendous expense in capital and time resources each of which is a precious a commodity. Especially to young business. An example of some of the problems we ran into were;

1.) The County Govt. stated that we would be required to purchase a liability policy … (at first this sounds reasonable) When we found out the Insurance that they were talking about was not to cover us but the County ( in case anyone ever sued them for allowing us the “privilege” of running a shooting range) I was infuriated to no end. My area of the County is not Zoned and listed as “Unrestricted”. A battle I am sure we could have won in court if willing to spend the time and money.

2) Initial search for such a policy yielded no insurance company in our area willing to even give a quote.

3) Next the County was expressing that they would be requiring regular inspections of our soil for lead content. When I asked who would conduct such test they said that they were looking into an EPA program. That was enough for me as my hands are currently full with our holster / Tactical gear business. I was simply looking to add something to the operation that was fun. It was becoming the opposite of FUN.

So … I dropped the idea of a public range “business” and installed a privet range just for me, my employees, our personnel friends and families. It is a work in progress and we improve it here and there as we have the time. No income from it but loads of fun with no hassles. If I were determined to start a business as you described I would have made more of an effort. However, It would have cost more then it should have. Far more then an initial business plan might reveal.

I don’t want to be a wet blanket as what you describe is a great concept; however that was my experience.


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“We are the pilgrims masters; we shall go, always, a little farther. “
 
Oh gosh yes! I forgot the insurance. My carrier told me that my "slip and fall" insurance would QUINTUPLE just for the privilege of pawning guns.

Personally, I haven't seen that many clumsy gun owners falling all over.

Oops! I forgot Silva in basic training. He even managed (God's truth) to put a 30-06 round thru the glass in the range tower. Kinda funny because all the officers and noncoms couldn't figure out anything BAD enough to do to him for that stunt.
 
If possible, get some land that could also be used as a rifle range about 200-300yd stretch if possible. Although I have a few places to shoot on private property I would like to see a good rifle range open up where I could go and compare skills and methods with fellow RKBA'ers.
 
If possible, make it very friendly toward women. I think if you look around TFL and other web sites you'll see a great need for a place where women can feel comfortable buying a gun. Think out of the box: ask some women who are just starting to warm up to the idea of getting a gun what kind of place and employees would make them feel comfortable? What kind of guns are they really interested in? Find a need, execute a good solution for that need = money. (And we need more gun 'totin mommas to vote for our RKBAs!)
 
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