Impact Guns was founded in 1997 by 3 firearms enthusiasts. The company has since grown to include 3 physical locations that feature a gun store, range, and training facilities. These are located in Ogden, Utah, West Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boise, Idaho. The company also maintains an extremely large online presence. Robert Vogel, one of the founders of the company, agreed to participate in an interview with me.
Why did you decide to open a gun store?
The partners decided to open a retail business after having some success in brokering machine gun collectibles for collectors. It was more of a hobby than a business at the time. As relationships grew with the collectors, we began offering products to meet the needs of our growing customer base.
Explain the evolution of your venture into 3 stores and a strong online presence.
We grow when the opportunity presents itself. We started in the front reception room of a machine shop in 1996 that one of the partner’s family owned. It was vacant, about 10×12 and free rent. We had about two customers the first week. As we attracted more local customers, we cleared out the Bridgeport milling machines from the back room and started putting in racks to hold retail products, (guns and ammunition.) We continued to expand into a warehouse next door as we needed room to process deliveries for the growing internet business. The website presence began to grow rapidly after 9/11 and we
continued to grow with the traffic from the site. We acquire shooting ranges when we can negotiate a good deal. We usually let the offers come to us, putting us in a good position to negotiate the deal. The company has grown from 2 customers per week to about 2,000,000 per month on the web, we continue to evolve turning more of those browsers into transactions.
What are some examples of the challenges you faced in starting your company, and how did you handle them?
We had to build a contact center to keep in touch with our customers. We decided to do it on our own, rather than outsourcing to a call center or relying on vendors to service our company. Although this presented a challenge of having to learn new technology and management, the dividends have paid off and we’re more agile and adaptive with our communications. We try to put this bootstrap method into most of our business development.
What advice can you give to an up-and-coming entrepreneur regarding raising start-up funds?
Bootstrap it and read Guy Kawasaki’s books. Focus on building value and provide something a consumer will pay money to get and you’ll have all the capital you need. It’s better to have investors at your mercy than be at the mercy of investors. I like to think that investors are pretty savvy (in general) and the money will find you when it’s warranted. You’re in business to make business, not to raise funds. It’s a great feeling
to be able to turn down an investment banker or VC. If you think there’s a need for capital, at least you can prove why you need it, how you’ll prove a return and you will already have a track record.
I’ve heard that getting an FFL can be a complicated and time consuming process. How did you and your co-founders handle this issue?
Setting up the FFL is probably the easiest part of the business. Keeping up to date and
compliant is the complicated part. We hired a controller and a legal team to make sure we
keep up to date on legal matters.
How do you handle the extreme work load for customer service that naturally comes with having a large online presence?
We answer the phone for customers. We have a customer service team that focuses solely on taking care of customer’s questions. Customer service is something we’re always working on to improve. It’s the core of any good business. We continue to modify the business to provide self-service tools to help customers make decisions and improve their experience. Developing these self-service tools help us handle more customers more effectively and keep our overhead expenses down.
What is your strategy for competing with the numerous other online gun retailers?
I focus on creating value. As you create something useful for customers, and keep making it better you become a better competitor.
How have your past experiences influenced how you run your company now?
I look for opportunity where people are frustrated and solve those problems. Everyone has
something to contribute, it’s important to find each person’s strengths and get them into an
area where they can perform their best. Relationships are the only thing that really matters in a business and if you can grow and solidify relationships a company will flourish.
What factors influence who you choose to bring into your company?
When looking at a candidate, I look at the following: Why is this person applying here? Are they here for a discount, are they looking for a stepping stone for their career, or do they love the business and want to make something with it? Is this person going to take ownership and treat this company like it’s their own? How is this person going to treat my customers- are they going to build relationships or deteriorate them? Can I trust this person with our most valuable asset- the customer?
How do you handle a tumultuous political age with numerous issues that inevitably affect your business, but, if made too prominent, could potentially alienate some customers?
We keep it simple. When someone is thinking about buying a gun or has questions about
responsible gun ownership, we’re here to help. We focus on that and leave political agenda
aside. I can appreciate the concerns of both sides on the issue. I see a gun as a tool to keep
the peace and encourage people to learn about responsible firearm ownership.
What advice can you give to an aspiring gun store owner?
Keep a good attitude and get to work.
