Becoming an outfitter
 

Hey everyone, sorry if this is in the wrong thread but I'm considering starting an outfitting business and would like any suggestions/advice on what it takes to become successful. Any info from you guys that have been to an outfitter would be greatly appreciated. I am in Southwest Ohio and my primary hunts will be Whitetails and Turkey. Thank you guys for any information I can get!

Becoming an outfitter
 

Hey everyone, sorry if this is in the wrong thread but I'm considering starting an outfitting business and would like any suggestions/advice on what it takes to become successful. Any info from you guys that have been to an outfitter would be greatly appreciated. I am in Southwest Ohio and my primary hunts will be Whitetails and Turkey. Thank you guys for any information I can get!

Be honest, it will take you one heck of a lot further than bsing. Also be prepared to to something else as well. Its getting harder and harder for outfitters to make it full time.

First, you take the salary you make now and reduce that by 80%. Then, you take the hours you work now and triple that. Next, you spend every dime you have saved leasing land, getting insurance, buying stands, hiring help, advertising, going to shows, reparing equipment, buying more insurance, paying a lawyer to handle your divorce, paying a doctor to treat your mental illness and alcoholism, paying a realtor to sell your house and buying more insurance. Then on week two...

If I could find my crayons, I'd write you a letter and explain why I quit the business after 20-years. To become a world famous and highly underpaid outdoor writer that use to have a drinking problem. But I belive you can be a huge success.


:guiness:

I sent you a pm.

But thats what makes you the scribe dog! Jack O'connor never had anything more than a little house in Lewiston Idaho but we still remember him!

When I first started considering buying my outfitting business a few years ago I called up a guy who lives about 30 minutes down the road in Montana and has been in the business all his life. I asked how business was going these days etc. The thing I remember most about the conversation was him saying "You can have a good area and be good at what you do but it is hard to compete with all the lying m*&%^$ F(*&^%s out there."

I chuckled at the time but I believe he actually summed up how you compete quite well, BE TOTALLY HONEST! I think it has always been true but with the internet age upon us you don't have anywhere you can hide from a bad reputation, not even overseas. If you don't oversell what you have and you won't ever have to worry about people cutting down your name, main complaint I hear about outfitters from my clients is that they were told things that just did not turn out to be true.

I agree with Leon. Although if you do end up in this business, there will always be a few bad apples that you couldn't please with a pink elephant with 40 foot tusks. So keep that in mind too!

Good point North Wind, we refer to them as the terrible 1%.

That about covers it!