The shop is up and running - smooth sailing from here, right? That is not the case. When I mentioned in my earlier article that we didn't think about starting a business other than let's do it, that wasn't an exaggeration.
I figured I love airsoft; what could go wrong? To give you an idea of how ill-prepared we were - our first shop did not even have price tags on items. You'd find something you like, come up and ask how much it was; we'd pull out our 10-page printed spreadsheet list and try to find the correct pricing. One of these days, I intend to write a book titled "How not to start a business".
Despite being ill-prepared to run an airsoft business, I have a deep passion for serving people - I want to ensure I find the solution that best meets your needs and that you have a great experience. We used to be very reactionary in approaching this compared to our current proactive approach. When I look back at these early years, I'm convinced that we only made it through them because we had such a deep-rooted desire to take care of people.
Now that you've heard the story of selling out of the back of the Jeep, I'll tell you how we got to our first physical storefront. We limped around the first couple of years as a hobby/business, and we came to the point where it was time to pursue this wholeheartedly or move on to something else.
In any business, resources are scarce, and this time was more amplified than any other. Our inventory consisted of about 6 guns (on a good day), some BBs and a random amount of parts. This is what we had when we decided to leap to a physical storefront.
Leaping was intimidating - we had little inventory and money to work with. When we first opened the shop, we were open 3 days a week for only 2 hours each day ( Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). Since all of us were in the beginning stages of our other careers, we only had so much time to dedicate. We rented this office on the 2nd story of an office building with an external stairway that would allow entrance into the store without going through the building - yes this was very sketchy. The location has become affectionately known as the "n00b cube"
This picture is of some of the team members in the original "N00b Cube" - notice how few guns were on the wall
Earlier, you heard my inventory woes of only having 6 guns in stock on a good day - this created some enormous challenges - as customers would walk in, we'd work with them to find what they wanted and order it in and try to have it within 1 week. It is considerably harder to service someone this way versus having everything at your fingertips ready to provide, but this was the routine, and we kept it going in this format for about 2 years. During that time, we produced one of our first YouTube videos, titled "Don't Be a N00b" - this was our first attempt at advertising humor.
This was one of our first advertising videos titled "Don't Be a N00b
After limping along for a couple of years in this fashion, we were at a turning point again when we decided to bring on Jarrod full-time to run the shop. I remember Jarrod's enthusiasm to get into the shop and make this thing work, to which my reply was: "That sounds awesome, but the reality is I don't know how I'm going to pay you in 2 weeks..."
This was our 2nd Shop Location - this was an upgrade from the original N00b Cube
That change occurred in the summer of 2010, and Jarrod has been working full-time since then. He is currently working on business development at the Fox Custom Shop. Over the next 2 years, we moved locations 3 more times as we continued to expand our retail shop into our current facility at the time of this writing.
This picture is an early version of our current shop - this was our first purpose-built location
During this time, we continued to participate in major airsoft operations, we attended many events: Irene, Bulldog, Lion Claws, Oklahoma Invasion, Sudden Strike, and Night Scorpion just to name a few. In my next article I'll talk about the major changes we have made since starting moving into our current location as well as some of the fun adventures Jarrod and I have had.
Click Here to See History of Fox Part 1
About the Author:
Matt is one of the owners of Fox Airsoft and actively participates in national and international airsoft operations. He also enjoys flying, running, hiking, and doing anything that challenges him personally.
