ken rose

I don't know that much about business.My local dealer and a good freind past away last June.He was a small proshop and worked out of his basement.He also had a full time job and ran the archery shop in the evenings and on Saturday's.The one thing that I was impressed with him was,he NEVER sold you something you didn't want.He was also very honest(spl?)when asking for imformation or his opinion.He never had anything in his shop that he wouldn't use himself.He often told me he was a small shop owner,and couldn't compete with the big name outfitters around our area.He had a verygood customer relationship with everyone that went into his shop,allways freindly and done everything in his power to help anyone.That would be my advice to you,treat everyone as you would like to be treated,from the novice to the pro shooter.If you have fair prices and don't try and make your investment back in a year or so,you will have loyal customer's shop with you rather then the big shops.Good luck to you,and I hope it works out.

akbowhunter

ill tell you what customer service does. the company i work for has 7 locations, the store i work at has made around 6 million a year for the last 4 years, the manager was caned last january and a new manager and warehouse manager was brought in from anchorage {im the warehouse manager} the attitude from the sales people has changed, even tho there the same people, the same store. this year we did 7.3 million, thats a big jump i think. and it all had to do with service. take care of your customers and the money will come. just my .02 worth
Ron

jimmya

i agree with the customer service thing. i know nothing about business but i do know the shop i go to i go to because the guy makes me feel like i am at home and really tries to make everyone happy. also he is a strieght shooter tells it like it is. dosent try to sell you something that you do not need or want. it even cost me a little more to go there than the other 2 shops in the area but as soon as you walk in the door it is hi how ya doing haveing a good season... like he has known ya your whole life. he is open from 2pm to 9pm mon-sat. during hunting season he is open a little sooner. this is his second job. he says sun. is his hunting day.

ToddP

If starting a new bow shop I would seriously consider working in either the ITS or Dart video shooting range. By having leagues and tournaments, and even regular shooting hours, this will bring people to your shop to shoot the video and then rely on you for products and help with tuning their bows.

It may seem like alot but the shop I go to is small and they have a video system. We have a league going on right now and it's booked every evening and all day saturday with 4 shooters per hour. Not bad for the off season.

Todd