doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT, career change

I'm at a point in life that I'd rather be working for myself. But I have a good job and it keeps the bills payed and kids in the newest digital hoopla!
If you where in my shoes and have a interest in guns, hunting and shooting what is out there? I always have pictured having my own business in the used double gun market kind of what Hill and Rod has going on. Or perhaps importing shooting/hunting goods and or equipment. I'm sure someone has a great idea that hasn't been acted on. Though I'll probably be here at this same desk and computer. Just curious, and would love to here what you might think would work!
chris,

I'd be thinking of doing whatever I'm good at. As for great ideas, there's not much new under the sun. Service is at a premium these days. As for compensation, if you're working in the wage economy, something without hassle. Happiness comes from meeting your own expectations and from those around you. Working for yourself isn't easy under the best of conditions, requiring patience and discipline, without a safety net, income up and down. The key is satisfaction from doing something well and having the respect of those around you.

Craxon
The world is littered with people who wanted to be in the gun business and tried. One problem is that a specialty is generally too special to generate enough cash flow to make a living, so they end up working two jobs and never get out of the old one.

I think the biggest question is whether you really love guns as a hobby or guns as a profession. If you are a professional, you have to cater to the desires of the customer, even if you don't agree.

I speak from experience, in a way, on this. I have a lot of interests/hobbies. One of my main loves for 25 years was photography, and I was pretty decent at it. I was totally involved in large format art and landscape photography. I won numerous regional and national awards and competitions over the years. I recieved several compliments on my work from "name" professionals in the field.

Most photographers, for some reason, suffer the malady of wanting to be professional on some level. I believe this is some form of psychological need for validation. I never suffered from this; however the job came to me. Over the span of a year, I recieved requests to do several commercial projects. I supplied the artwork for a bank remodel, a new Holiday Inn construction, and a calendar for a banking consortium. I made several thousand dollars in the course of the projects. I also was forced to spend hour after hour with customers who didn't even understand the pictures but were more worried with the color coordination between the print and the wallpaper. I would show them slide after slide of quality images, and they would pick the garbage of the litter to publicly display.

I found this so disheartening and frustrating that it was one big reason I lost interest in photography, eventually completely. I now don't even own a serious camera.

I think this is the first thing you have to decide. Do you love guns and shooting or do you really want to be in a shooting related business. If the first is true, you need to be absolutely sure that you can handle the tremendous downside of adjusting from an idealist viewpoint to a commercial one, and be certain that what you give up personally is worth the risk. A few people who are knowledgeable collectors and experts are able to carve out a niche market and balance the commercial and hobby aspects of the endeavor, but they are not many.

Upon reading King's and Art's posts, I agree with all that they've said. I would not necessarily get into gun business because I like guns. Personally, I think the small end of the gun business is hard to make money at, generalizing, of course.

I loved guns/shooting/hunting and working on them --- a great hobby. I found I had a purchant for engraving and pursued it. For the 48 years I have been a fulltime engraver. I work seven days a week and somewhere between 10 & 15 hours each day . I live in a hunt rich area but don't hunt or shoot anymore. You'll have to decide if you want to have guns as a hobby or if you want them to turn into work. I'm glad I made the choice I did --- each day I get to creat something that will be special to someone. Of course, I don't have many engraved guns --- clients come first as they will with you IF you get into this biz. FWIW, Ken

If I were thinking of starting my own gun business, I would first invest a couple of years working for an established gun business, to learn the ins and outs and ups and downs of the trade. You need to know the guns of your gun business, but you also need to know the business of the gun business: the licenses, the permits, the manufacturers, the customers, accounts payable and receivable, marketing and advertising, the IRS and BATF folks, state laws, shipping and insurance, overhead, inventory, business loans, estimated quarterly taxes, and a gazillion other etceteras.

Being self-employed is almost everyone's dream, but it becomes a practical reality for relatively few. It is risky, it is expensive, it is lonely, it is stressful for you and the whole family, and the odds are long against you. However, having said goodbye to my last boss 39 years ago, I can tell you that being self-employed is the most humane and satisfying way to make a living!

The gap between hobby, passion, avocation, etc. and a business is huge. One of the surest ways of curing yourself of a passion is to try to make it a business. Winning enough money in the self-owned business environment to care for your family is a difficult undertaking under the best of circumstances. Wishing to run your own business is very understandable. However, this must be done with a straight up business approach. First, you must, absolutely must, identify a need for which people will pay money. This will usually be something nobody else wants to do, not something everyone else wants to do. Then, you must realize that your job is business development, not doing whatever it is your business does. If you don't have a passion for business development, stay out of business. If you imagine that as your own boss you will have time for all the things you don't now, don't go near your own business. If you are going to succeed, the committment is 24-7-12-20; 24 hours a day seven days a week every month for the next 20 years. Family and marriage will have to take a back seat. And, you still may fail. Don't even dream of quitting your day job until you absolutely know how you can make a successful business. If you can't make your hobby make money in your spare time, you sure can't make it into a family supporting business. The realities of a self-run business are stark compared to the dream.

Mind the gap!!

If you are still having the dream, start on a business plan and start checking it with other, successful business develpment people who, hopefully, will tell you the truth about its viability. Especially listen to those who would loan you money (because unless you are already independently wealthy you will have to have capital).

Thanks all who have contributed! I'm in no way thinking of quiting my job. I was thinking more in the area of the web and a on-line business. Products that could be marketed and sold over the net. What those products are is what stumps me?
chris

There's apparently some $$$ to be made on the internet selling dreamers these products - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=start+own+business+kit&btnG=Google+Search

I always wanted to be my own boss as well and I am, sort of. When you become self-employed, every customer or potential customer is your boss. You do not make your own hours, they make them for you. Weekends and holidays, don't have the meaning they had when I was able to hit the time clock and punch out. It doesn't have to be that way, but it sure is hard balancing customers, income, family and don't forget yourself.