Webinar: Back From The Brink: 3 Takeaways for Improving Your Commercial Shooting Range Plan
Over the past year at Range Systems, we have been focusing our energy in an area that is many times overlooked by companies. The mentality that we’ve developed is, “You ask, we answer”. In this section I plan to use this model of thinking to highlight questions based on improvements to Commercial Shooting Range Plans.
In June, our webinar highlighted a case study based on a true story that our coworker and friend, Brad Ross, was a part of. Range Systems learned a lot from this costumer and gained a better understanding of our role as range providers.
The story starts like this…
Brad got a call from a potential costumer who was already been moving along in the process of building their first indoor range facility. Until the point of contact, they had been doing everything correct. They went through the city, got their approvals and even started working with an architect. The costumer had also been working with a range provider who was meeting their goals and deadlines, everything was going great. They were simply contacting Range Systems to get a second opinion within the industry and we were ready to listen.
Mutual Understanding of Goals
Right from the get-go Brad evaluated the costumer’s goals and got an idea of how he could help. “The goals were pretty simple and straightforward. This was new construction, and based on the time of the year there was a bit of urgency to be able to break ground on their new building prior to the frost setting in. They’re in the northern states they had a great business plan, they had a good understanding what the revenue drivers were, a decent understanding of what expense were, and they really did a nice job of understanding what they were getting into.”
With this information gathered, along with their architectural plans, Brad started to formulate a plan. “My whole goal in working with these folks is not to worry about the previous quote but to gather everything they could tell me about their project and through that, provide them with the information necessary for them to make the best buying decision”. Brad was also excited after talking with them because their values aligned perfectly with his. He felt he could be a big help.
The Process of Saving Money
After really diving into the plans and drawings, Brad noticed a few things that were understandably overlooked but could have some costly repercussions later on. The first thing he noticed was the size of the shooting bays. The costumer had plans to make the shooting bays 5 feet wide, which to them seemed like a great plan but to someone like Brad, who had years behind him in this field, it drew a couple red flags. “They just wanted to make sure that this was a very comfortable place, a family feel to it, however there was a better way to achieve this goal.”
Brad’s first issue with extra wide shooting bays was safety. With lanes as wide as the costumer wanted, it gave the shooter a false sense of security. He was worried there would be a loss of discipline related to muzzle control with that much space in the bay. Along with safety, Brad realized the potential loss of revenue from having extra wide shooting lanes. Working as a for-profit business, having the extra revenue driver by adding another lane or two, along with cutting costs on the more expensive aspects of the range seemed like a no-brainer for both Brad and the costumer.
Other issues Brad ran into when looking at the range plans were things like improper sizing of their bullet trap for the calibers they planned on allowing to be shot. There was also the excess cost on an oversized HVAC unit within the facility. These two issues were an easy fix after resizing the shooting bays and didn’t cause too much of a problem however, changing these components saved the costumer even more money.
Patience That Paid Off
One thing that was out of Brad’s control was the fact that the project would have to be pushed back because of these changes, Brad said, “The biggest challenge was really trying to get the customer to practice some patience and I know that was hard”. Although this was the biggest challenge, the project changes went better than planned and ended up saving the costumer over $100,000. After realizing this, patience was an easy thing to practice for the costumer.
By simply answering questions, Brad was able to save the costumers money, open up potential for more revenue generation, and add components to the range the costumers didn’t think was possible before. In Brad’s words, “This was the real victory”.
After hearing Brad dissect this case study it was easy to come up with the key takeaways within our webinar, Back From the Brink, the moment you’ve all been waiting for!
3 Takeaways for Improving your Commercial Shooting Range Plan
- Find reliable resources – Feel free to use the rest of our site for valuable information along with others to gain knowledge on the industry before you dive into a plan. Many times, we run into costumers who ‘don’t know what they don’t know’ but were here to help! One of our favorite sites to recommend is www.nssf.org , this site provides information from compliance and safety to commercial shooting range improvement. You can’t go wrong starting here.
- Build a relationship between architects and range providers from the start – Do this early in the process. The link between these two parties is key. Creating this bond early will make the process of updating or building your commercial shooting range go much smoother. Along with this, it gives you the opportunity to save a ton of money, how can you resist that!
- Find a range provider that speaks to you – The core of any business is their beliefs and values. In the process of searching for a range provider you may find companies who’s values don’t align with your own and that’s okay! Take the time to find a company you can trust and let your business soar.
If you are interested in receiving more information about commercial shooting range construction please see our “Contact Us” page to set up an appointment with one of our range specialist.
Along with this, we do webinars a few times a month that cover different topics in the industry. To sign up or get notifications for upcoming webinars please visit our “Webinars” section of the site and sign up to stay in touch. Here at Range Systems we focus on answering questions and sharing valuable information to anyone who wants to learn more so never hesitate to contact us.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you on the range!
