Sooner or later, every business owner looks for way to increase their business. Perhaps organic growth didn’t happen as they had hoped, or a study of market share suggests that it may be possible to grow. Or maybe things just dropped off and you really don’t know why. FFL’s face many of the same issues as any other business owner, plus a great many no other business faces. However, paying attention to business and industry best practices are a great way to grow your business.
FFL123 makes sure we keep our customers up to date on industry news and tips, and offers one on one tailored business advice, but here are a few tips that should help any FFL grow their business.
This may seem like a no brainer, but a lot of businesses go under simply because they do not concentrate on what they are best at. A small, home based FFL probably shouldn’t keep an inventory of high end custom shotguns, and an FFL in Oklahoma probably isn’t going to stock a lot of ammo for African safari guns.
Your strengths are what makes your business the most money. Only you know what they are, but when you identify them, you can turn your focus to growth along those lines. Do you work out of a spare bedroom and do transfers of online sales? Turn your focus to growing that through promotion and relationship building. Are you an 07 with a Class 03 SOT? What do you make the most of? That is where your attention should be, and not on fringe projects or services that take time but make little money.
Another common sense thing, but one that matters for FFL’s. With many common online venues for advertising shut off for gun dealers, and even many newspapers refusing gun ads, FFL’s are often seemingly reduced to word of mouth or a visible storefront.
However, that is not the case, as the best way to reach gun owners is to go where gun owners go online. Just about every town, region or state has active gun related online forums, and even print publications. They aren’t too hard to find, and most of them gleefully will welcome your advertising dollars, and give you access to a “targeted” audience most marketers can only dream of.
Even with social media restrictions on guns, it is still possible to reach local markets on Facebook, MeWe, and Twitter by simply searching for “guns” and your town or region to find appropriate forums or hashtags. And best of all posting there is free. You can also set up your own Facebook page and as long as you don’t advertise guns for sale specifically, can still generate a lot of traffic. Silencer Central is a great example of how to maintain a brand presence on Facebook without listing inventory for sale.
Just who are your customers anyway? More importantly who could be your customers if you reached out to them? Every person who walks through your doors or interacts with your online content is a potential customer and repeat customer. You have a product and service, but do enough people want it?
Customer analysis is a fine art, and you may need to hire a professional consultant to help you with this kind of work. Or you may just be able to work it out yourself by noting who your main customers are and what they are buying and enhancing your services to be more in line with your dominant customer growth. Or you can focus on a single market and let that segment come to you. One FFL we know of in Washington State advertises match rifles and reloading supplies, and used that as springboard to develop a large, full service FFL that can sell everything from a high end match rifle to a Hi-Point, and all with the same level of customer service.
There is an old saying that the best way to make a million dollars selling guns is to start with ten million dollars. This of course refers to the way small businesses can often bleed money like mad and go belly up in short order.
Selling guns is fun. And if you have a small scale operation out of your home, it’s pretty hard to go broke, but it’s also pretty hard to grow. If you have a storefront or manufacturing operation, the loss potential is even higher. Many people enter the gun business with a love of guns and some mechanical skills, and wind up never going anywhere.
If you are currently in business, making sure you follow standard business and marketing best practices is a good idea. Hiring somebody to help with that can be beneficial – after all, experts exist for a reason. You don’t hire a doctor to change your oil, and your accountant probably doesn’t have an FFL.
However, FFL123 customers have a powerful advantage. Brandon Maddox, founder of FFL123 is a recognized business and sales expert, and passes that expertise along to his customers.
FFL123 members enjoy exclusive communications on industry news, business tips and advice and a special forum to discuss FFL and business issues with the FFL123 community.
Running a business is hard, but FFL123 is in business to get and keep you in business. Who else can make that claim?