Starting a paintball store?

[Cconley96]

Im thinking of starting a paintball store but there isn't any place to rent out for now so im thinking f starting an online store on ebay for now. Has anyone tried this before? Do you think manuafacturers will deal with an ebay store?
If anyone has any imformation on this i will be very thankful for it.

Thanks
-Cindy

[Scootscr15]

there is someplace to rent, you just arent looking hard enough

With an online store, you need someplace to safely store your stock

you need a large financial backing if you are using this as your main income

obtain a business liscense, purchase a domain, get yourself a bank and merchant number for credit cards, open wholesale accounts with major distributors (NPS, PMI, DYE) then purchase some stock, and set up your webpage, easier said than done, but theres a crash course

hope it helps

[conley42792]

yes this does help a lot but do you think they will deal with me if i only hav an online store but i will be starting a real store once we find a place.

[conley42792]

sorry ths is cconley96 on my sons name

[Jom]

Depends...

Most of the distributors will probably sell to you without question.

However, some of the manufacturers (Dye, Site, Smart Parts, etc) may not sell directly to you until you have an established store front. There is a trend over the past several years where the manufacturers are blocking anyone that doesn't have a field or storefront.

Jom

[paintballonthefly]

you have a place that they can ship to that isn't considered a residential area. I have almost 40 accounts from mom and pop to the big guys and everybody in between and the hardest thing to make happen can't deliver to anything residential and Kingman and JT will not deliver to an adress that is in the residential list for UPS. Unless they have changed in the last few years.

[conley42792]

are you a distributar

[paintballonthefly]

I'm a retailer and field owner that has taken the long drawn out time to get pricing direct from amny first hand manufacturers and have given them the sales rather than larger distributors. We had online going for about a year and a half and the sales just can't hang with 800 and 888 and pbgear. They sell way below the MAp and not one thing is ever done about it.

I wish you all of the best but having been there it isn't easy to get product the way that you are trying to do it. I had to rent a small warehouse to get started and then had to move from that to our present location. You can't even have product delivered to a place if youcan't get mail there and the billing address is different. Credit card companies are really cracking down unless it is a drop shipment type of order and then it will delay your shipping.

I can tell youall kinds of things that have happened in the start up but i don't want to trash your dreams...But at this point I wish I had taken about another year and done even more research than I did.

[conley42792]

Now my mother is thinking that this isnt a buisness to get into. She thinks that there is no money in it. So do you make money on starting a store or is it just for the love of the sport?

[paintballonthefly]

without keeping your full time job if you think you can your gonna end up farther behind the curve then you started and I mean that with all honesty. If you think that you can just open and the traffic level will be there then I mean to tell you that it takes a great deal of advertising and that cost a whole lot of cash.

I wish I knew then what I know now.......it will take years of business to even break even from the loans and from the sweat equity that we have all invested as a family here.

[u no who dun it]

hey mrs conley you should really star a paintball store it would really benefit the kids of quincy and me and pat can work there for free until your store gets up and running and you already hav 1 sale with dan cedrone as u no he doesnt hav a gun

[JxTxCxNx]

Retail paintball is far more profitable and less costly, initially. If you manage cash flow properly and focus on service from the start, you can make an honest income.

First, only sell what you are 100% comfortable in servicing. I firmly believe that a new store focusing on the basics is more profitable than a new store that carries everything.

Our profits from sales and service of Tippmann and Piranha products is 800% higher than everything else combined. My goal in the next 12 months is to cut my SKUs from 3000 to 500. Many products I used to carry eventually lost money due to long term service costs. Looking back, I'd do better telling the customer which website was cheapest and offering to service it for them.

I believe that you can start a retail store for less than $25,000, including inventory and build-out. If you spend equal time flyering and promoting at fields as you do running the store, you can see a return fairly quickly.

We're not talking huge bucks, though. If you can sell $10,000 gross monthly at 50% gross, after overhead you can profit around $1000/month. That's with zero employees. 320 hours a month for $1000 is not a huge income. $3.12/hour.

To earn a "decent" $50,000 per year profit, you'll need to sell around $25,000 a month gross. That's still with only you working (no staff). 50 hours a week retail, 5 hours per week ordering, and 15 hours per week doing repairs. It's tiring.

We have 10 employees. To pay minimum wage, rent, and overhead, we need to sell ~$60,000 a month gross. Not easy! That's paying 10 employees rock-bottom pay with zero left over for us. And both of us still put in 50+ hours a week each.

We've made thousands of mistakes, costing us tens of thousands of dollars of our own money. Vacations are not possible. Cable TV is out of the budget. Eating out? Forget it.

Do I love it? Absolutely. Not for the players, not for the sport. I love the interaction. Seeing a new kid smile. Seeing a dad connect with his kid. But the downside is seeing that same kid 3 years later in a yellow jersey with a Shocker hating on me, my new customers, and taking it too seriously.

There are many days I go home elated because an 12 year old loved his $80 Piranha he used that weekend. There are even more days I go home in tears because the now-15 year old took apart his Ion and I'm going to have to pay $60 out of pocket or the mom will yell some more.

--dada

[notRaTiMp03]

woah? someone is starting a paintball store in the town i live in? Who are you guys btw? i play on james cedrones team.

you may have seen me post here before..ive been a member since 2003 on my name that just got temp banned (ratimp03).

But in order to open a store, it's most likely gonna have to be a retail location unless you plan on making an online store that carries alot of stuff. I doubt most companies would setup dealership accounts with ebay sellers. Most paintball ebay sellers have retail locations or websites, but sell some of their stock on ebay. Call some of the major distributors (dye, nps, wgp, etc.) and find out what their policies are.

[M1sTaWIggLes]

starting a new buisness is really hard. when my aunt opened up her second KFC, she was in a real slump from all of the expenses, but then after some good marketing she bounced back and now her stores are doing great.

all i can say is that you need good marketing. Post your stores name everywhere, whether it be online or not.

some good workers would also help XD ( looking for a job <<<<<-----)

[mynameisgeorgel]

ok first of all, you have to know your location. I opened a paintball store in a town where people who played paintball thought walmart had a huge selection. they had never heard of an electronic hopper non the less an electronic gun. People would come into the store shocked that there were paintball guns that cost more than $150. If you live in a town that doesnt have a field or an established paintball "scene" you're gonnna have a hell of a time trying to get off the ground. The income from paintball was so low I had to start selling skateboards and surfboards because the cultures seem to blend well. Don't get me wrong, after more people got involved in paintball the profits were nice. I would make $300 a day off of CO2 fills alone. The only thing is paintball comes and goes around here. I might make $1000 one weekend but not sell any paintball stuff for weeks. thats where the skateboards kick in.

Also, an online store is ALOT easier to set up. My experiences have showed me that if you get in good with a distributor they'll drop ship stuff for you. Somebody orders from you, you get their money and their address, then you call the distributor and give them the address, they ship for you. This way, you're not stuck with a lot of stuff you'll never sell. Also there is no huge first order. You sit behind your computer and as soon as you receive and order and the money, call the distributor and you're done. The only downfall is that unless you have dirt cheap prices you won't get anywhere with it cause they're are thousands of people doing the same thing you're doing.

hope this helped, anymore questions, feel free to ask

[StealthModeCustom]

First, I was in "Paintball on the Fly" a few months ago, and they ahve a very nice location, and a very friendly staff.. I plan to return soon.

Now, I actually started an online store and Ebay store just over a year ago.
We have done very well. which is surprising since we follow all companies MAP policies. I can't stand companies who will break map. Anyway, we have been kicking around the idea of opening a retail store. We have put about 3 months of research into it and have come up with the fact that over head can kill you, and that location is SO IMPORTANT!! We decided there is no chance of us making a profit with out continuing our online sales, especally during the winter month when there really isn't any paintball being played in PA over the winter!. So my advice for anyone looking to actually make some $ or possibly (dare i say it) make a living in the paintball industry. You need multiple streams of income, or become acustom to eating Ramen and hot dogs!

[JxTxCxNx]

Chicago winters are terrible yet we do better in January than in July. Indoors help a lot!

A great location can mean better opening year sales but a much higher overhead. You'd be amazed at what we did with our first store -- middle of nowhere and very successful.

--dada