[greenecj]

This is to all you guys that have archery shops. Could you give me some advice in starting my own archery shop.
I would like to sell bow, accessories, pretty much everything dealing with archery hunting. Eventually I would like to maybe expand into selling everything dealing with hunting such as crossbows, rifles, shotguns, ect...

If you can give me ANY advice it would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks guy!
Cj

 

[Dale_B1]

Cj do a search on here this subject it has been beat to death on here. Best advice DON'T. It is a very low return on the investment and one of the toughtest business to get into and make any money at. I have worked part time at a very good pro shop(archery only) and I'm here to tell you there is no way I would do it.:wink:

 

[ryninger]

Cj do a search on here this subject it has been beat to death on here. Best advice DON'T. It is a very low return on the investment and one of the toughtest business to get into and make any money at. I have worked part time at a very good pro shop(archery only) and I'm here to tell you there is no way I would do it.:wink:

+1 My manager got out and hunted twice last year......

Don't turn a hobby into a career, you won't have time to do it anymore...

 

[Archersteve]

And if the above advice does not stick, well consider the current economy. If you decide to start now, HOLD ON TO YOUR WALLET.

 

[HuntinFreak]

I haven't owned a archery shop but I have been in retail and let me tell you man it sucks. Retail and lot's of competition is great for the consumer but darn near impossible for the proprietor. Even with good book keeping and business skills it's tough. What tops it off is when your bustin your you know what to keep your business in black ink and some jerk comes in complaining about this or that.

On the other hand if your retired or doing it as a hobbly and have superb people skills, then it might work. I try not to tell people they can't do something, but I have a hard time telling people that retail is anything but dismal. However, I do know that some can pull it off, fortunately for us. While I'm at, don't buy any gas stations ether.

 

[Hoyt1945]

I thinks it is a big mistake. There are too many places to buy stuff cheap. Archery Talk classified is one of them. There are lots of places to buy archery stuff on the internet at a much lower price than you will be able to sell it for. If you want to do it as a hobbie, do not expect to make any money. you will probably lose money. You can have an inventory that would fill a basketball gym and still not have what they want.

 

[richard91577]

I disagree open one if you want learn how to do things better. I would not go hard at it at first move slowly see if its right for you. And why pay someone else to do the things that you can do for your self. And get the stuff cheaper and make a little money on the side doing it.

 

[Profitup]

It is location, location, location.

This is to all you guys that have archery shops. Could you give me some advice in starting my own archery shop.
I would like to sell bow, accessories, pretty much everything dealing with archery hunting. Eventually I would like to maybe expand into selling everything dealing with hunting such as crossbows, rifles, shotguns, ect...

If you can give me ANY advice it would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks guy!
Cj

The bow manufactures are starting to market through the big box guys in some locations. Make sure you really know your market area and your special skills will offset the competition. Hoyt, Bowtech and Mathews all are using the big stores in some locations. Why?

If you can super tune, have the money to buy the state of the art equipment and the people skills to make customers have reasons to come see you, you will succeed and work 65 hours per week.:darkbeer::darkbeer::darkbeer::darkbeer::darkbeer:

 

[Elf Friend]

I don't wanna rain on your parade but give this some serious thought. You will not be able to get a major bow line like Hoyt, Mathews until you are established and then only if you are far enough away from the other dealers. Hunting will be out of the question as you will be butt deep in repair work and unless you can con someone into helping you for very little if any return on thier time you will be putting in 18 hour days only to be told that your rates are high, you make too much of new bows and all that other crap you read on here all the time. Not much good said about archery shops.

 

[AndyMo]

You are going to need about $100K in start up money... or a lot of favors in a really good location.

The shop I work for has been in business for over 50 years... and got in with Mathews when they first started making bows. They are in a killer spot (more so for fishing than for hunting.... but they have an unmatched reputation).

It is a hard business to get into. Good luck... I wouldn't want to do it.

 

[Tiger1]

I agree with most of the other post, don't do it unless you don't need to buy food, pay your house note, truck note or any other basic necessities.

Not a very good time to try a new business venture!!!