With all the complaintes on this board and others about the lack of friendly and decently stocked and well trained gunstores/gun store employees it made me wonder how much money would it take to start a gun store up. I mean a store with all the normal shooting supplies. Any thoughts from other ffl's out theire?

You know how to have a million dollars in a gun shop?




Start with 2 million.

1 million for a decent shop
seiously there is so much friction in the gun bussiness, zoning , credit card companies refusing bussiness, advertisers refusing bussinesss, insurance .... the list goes on and on
not really worth it anymore  everyone has fucked up  knee jerk polices concerning anything firearm realted anymore

This kind of thread always comes up a couple of times and the usual answer is that gun stores don't make a lot of money. It's not a highly-profitable business after covering overhead.

Quoted: $50,000 is a barebone minimum, and would probably set you up to fail by running out of resources.  $100,000 is more realistic.

yep for a tiny hole in the wall shop  but then all the guys would say he sure is nice and gives great service but he does not have anything so Ill go pick his brain and then go buy it at "insert large chain store"  even though they are pricks it is$5 cheaper and i don't have to wait 3 days for it to get shipped in

Quoted: $50,000 is a barebone minimum, and would probably set you up to fail by running out of resources.  $100,000 is more realistic. Not many gun stores make any real money; that's why they are owned mostly by retired guys who can live off of very little income. Of course, your location is a huge factor. It would be cheaper, and probably a lot more profitable, to sell accessories. -Troy

Yea, not alot of margin in the firearms themselves, but you can make decent margins on the accs. But to do that you have to have higher overhead. Rock and a hard place with lots of money.

$87  

what about selling from your house without a "storefront" but doing everything online for th emost part? does the BATFE jam you up for even remotely trying to swing that? what do they currently consider a storefront?

Do you really know guns?  Or do you think you do?

Go work in a shop for 6-12 months and learn the business somewhat.




First, location location location.  Are there customers?  Do they have $$$?  Local climate for gun business.  Cali? HA!  SE US, maybe.

Second, Competition.  A shop between WalMart and Bass Pro isn't a good idea.

Figure making no money for yourself the first 12-18 months.  Few, if any employees.  No benefits. All $$ goes back into shop.

Couple of thousand for startup costs- legal, accounting, phone svc, credit card svc, internet, utility deposits etc

Monthly expenses.  Rent, phone, internet, health insurance for you, liability insurance, yellow pages, advertising etc

Finally, inventory.  You gotta pretty much buy it.  But it has worth and this is where bank loans may come into play.  Go for your locally owned bank, not Bank of America or other biggie.  Get an account there BEFORE you go begging for money.  How is your credit. Unless perfect, good luck.  Work on making it perfect.

Figure avg cost of $500 per item.  Maybe more, maybe less, but that is a starting point.  50K is only 100 or so guns.  

A bunch of C&R will make your shop look bigger and better for "low" cost.

Ammo- gotta carry a lot of stuff.  

Stuff- this is where you can make some $$

How good a salesman are you?  Your key to to making a living is being able to sell a soft case, couple boxes of ammo,  ear muffs, and a cleaning kit to the newbie that buys a 10/22.

Don't fall in love with your inventory.  That is for later when you can afford it. Everything is for sale.