Brownells – Frank Talk About Guns April 24th 2009
Brownells.com – -(AmmoLand.com)- Now is the time to invest in your business. We strongly encourage every one of you to take a few moments after reading this WebBench to think about how your business is going now, where you want it to go in the future, and what it is going to take to get it there.
Many times we spend all of our energy working in our business. This is to say we are at the bench gunsmithing, out in front meeting customers, working the floor and selling, in the back doing the books or buying. These are all necessary things to do to make sure the bills are paid and the merchandise is coming to satisfy the customers. What we are asking here is for you to put the entrepreneurial hat back on, that’s the one you wore when you first opened up your business, and really think about where you need to take that business you’ve started and what you need to do to grow it.
This past weekend, Brownells had its Brownells Gunsmith Career Fair which focused on improving yourself as a gunsmith and/or improving your business. We had fantastic speakers – folks like Roy Huntington, Laurie Lee Dovey, Bob Clements from E-Myth, folks from BATF, Wally Nelson retired from BATF, Roy Christensen from Gander Mountain, members of Brownells staff and others presenting, answering lots and lots of questions and encouraging attendees to work on themselves and their businesses for improvement. This event was described as the “Best 2 days in my career…”, “A fresh look at what I should be doing…”, “I have so much to think about now…”, and one attendee said, “I never even thought of needing any skills other than gunsmithing in my business!” It is refreshing and encouraging to have these kinds of responses and to see that entrepreneurial spirit pop up again.
Take half a day out every three months and ask yourself these questions:
1. Can I turn a significant amount of my daily tasks over to somebody else?
a). If not, why not?
b). What kind of person or assistant would I need in order to turn over daily tasks?
2. Am I still delivering to customers the kind of service and quality I set out to do?
a). If not, why not?
b). What do I have to do to get back on track?
3. Is my business delivering the type of lifestyle my family and myself I had hoped for?
a). If not, why not?
b). What would I need to do to get there?
If the answer to the main questions is “Yes”, excellent work and count yourself extremely lucky! Continue doing everything you can to maintain that status. We would also encourage you to help others find their way along this path of business and self improvement. However, if there are some “No’s”, these indicate areas that need improvement, we can tell you from our own personal experiences, and you will probably need help in identifying and closing the gaps from where you are today to where you want to be in the future.
Help for improving your business can be found in reading books, finding a mentor already doing what you are looking for, attending the Brownells Gunsmith Career Fair, or finding a coach.
We’re going to suggest some books that could help influence your thinking on this concept of improving your business. A note: none of these have the “silver bullet” of success; they all have concepts that should stretch your understanding of the goals you should be shooting for.
- “Good to Great” – Jim Collins
- “Strength Finders 2.0” – Tom Roth
- “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” – Robert Kiyosaki
- “The Pursuit of WOW” – Tom Peters
None of these books alone are going to give you the answer; however, they will help broaden your understanding of what it means to run a business and what it means to be working on a business. There is a world of other educational material out there depending on your interests. The point of all this is to understand that being technically accurate and proficient as a gunsmith is really just half the battle of running a gunsmithing shop. The other half is sitting down and being able to tell yourself where your business is going and what you are actually delivering to your customers. And then working on achieving that goal.
One of the great achievements many of the participants learned at the Brownells Gunsmith Career Fair is figuring out the answers to the questions above is not hard to do. What is hard is finding the discipline in acting to close the gaps and reaching further than you are today.
How can we keep those who purchase firearms out at the range or in the field shooting or hunting? How can we keep those concerned about the Second Amendment engaged? As many of us discussed last weekend during the Career Fair, we may be at the pinnacle of the buying rush caused by an anti-gun administration. Right now is the right time to take a deep breath and focus on where you are going as a business and as a gunsmith or as an amateur gunsmith in the market to come, because at some point in time this “boom” market will change. Take the time to work on your business this week; it will be the most productive time you can spend.
About:
Brownells is the world’s largest supplier of firearm parts, gunsmithing tools, equipment and accessories. Stocking more than 30,000 items, the company supplies armorers, gunsmiths, and shooters worldwide. All of their products are backed by a 100% satisfaction, unconditional, lifetime guarantee. To order, or for more information, call 800-741-0015 or visit Brownells.com.