Market research :P

[Scarlet]

I have been playing around with the insides of guns for a long time, and i have developed a love for the insides of sniper rifles, their manufacturing and the way everything fits perfectly, so i was going to start a shop selling custom upgraded sniper rifles and thats it, at the start i would only have a limited range, but if it turned out to be popular i would expand into gas rifles and such.

 

The main reason i'm doing this, is that upgraded rifles on places like zeroone cost you in exess of £350... Whereas from my research, you can get parts just as good, to do the same job for about £250 including the rifle.. Which i think most people will not sniff at.

i would also provide a very personal service, basically because it would only be me doing it =/

 

So what do you say, custom touch to a coustom sniper costing you £100 pounds less..... i could upgrade things from 270fps to 550fps, everything would be done by me, and it would be a great way for beginners to the sport to get a rifle without taking the gamble of fitting the parts themselves, or buying it from somewhere and making an enormous dent in their pocket.

The only downside would be that it would take time to get to you, as i will have to order the parts, then make it, then send it to you, unless it takes off, then i could consider ordering parts in bulk.

 

THIS is NOT a comertial post, i just want to know if people would consider anything to do with this.

[alastairthegreat]

sounds pretty cool mate, id recomend selling sniping bb's, sniper glases and stuff like that aswell though becouse people in my experiance dont like having to order from more than 1 shop if it can be avoided

[Scarlet]

Yeah, i suppose i'd have to order them all in bulk though... I'll see if it takes off =)

[justjoe]

right so what you are proposing to do if this plan did come to life, is buy the aftermarket upgrades for a certain rifle along with the actual rifle and fit the parts?

 

sounds good for people who are just starting sniping and are a lil afraid of opening up the internals, but for the more experienced airsoft sniper, they are usually able to fit the parts themselves.

 

if you sell the parts themselves seperatly, i know i for one would be a customer

[WildCard]

I'd love to have a source that has sniper bb's (SGM mostly )

[MDK_Marshal]

Sounds like a great plan! Unfortunately, you'd never get my custom for an upgraded gun, as not only am I capable of fitting parts myself, I also love doing it Still, there's plenty of people who'd be willing to go in for this, methinks!

 

The money in the airsoft industry is really in custom guns at the moment - the big retailers are hogging sales of all the complete (stock) guns

 

Which is why I want to open up my own custom airsoft shop.

 

Problem is, I'd have to get some capital behind me first That's always the worst thing about starting a business...

[justjoe]

yea, i have to agree, i enjoy taking guns apart and building custom ones. but like MDK said, there IS a market for this, and its being taken by all the major retailers.

[Hedganian]

Not to be a wet blanket, but you will find competing with the main retailers is hard work.

 

They have the buying power to get stock cheaper than you'll be able to get it, because they place larger orders than you'll be able to afford. They have the volume of sales and the profit margins to absorb selling at a loss for a while - a small retailer can't do that. They have the money for a huge advertising campaign if they want to have one, you won't be able afford it. They're a well established company with a reputation - you'll be a no-name just starting out.

 

I'm all for the small businessman, but you've got to be practical. If you can really sell things for less than the big boys, then more power to you and you'll get the sales - IF people know about it and trust that you really can do it and won't just vanish with their money (either by fraud or by going out of business)

 

Airsoft is a pretty small market, really - you can't just cram in more retailers because the demand isn't large enough. For you to succeed someone else is going to fail. It's not likely to be the big boys.

 

I wish you every success - but just be careful before you sink a lot of your money into a business that might not succeed. Good luck!

[Scarlet]

I see what you mean, but i am simply looking around all of the british airsoft shops, such as airsoftscotland who are one of the cheapest, i can make a sniper rifle fire with a tightbore at the legal limit for fps for around £80 cheaper, the thing is, i'm not going to be trying to keep a company afloat or make profit to rent a shop, or pay staff, as it will just be me, and the downside it the time you will have to wait for it =)

I'm mainly doing this because i really love changing sniper rifles and upgrading them, i get a real kick out of it, and i wont be making alot of profit from it.

[MDK_Marshal]

Heh, you sound EXACTLY like me, but for sniper rifles instead of AEG's

 

My plan was to open up a shop and buy all the bits from various places (probably HK, and have a couple of guns on the go at once, to make shipping parts from HK not so expensive), Put it all together, check that it works, and then sell to the customer who requested it for maybe £20-£30 profit. Or Do something like a 10% commission fee, so that I don't ear squat if I build a stupidly expensive gun for someone

[TheBauer]

I had thought about thismyself,

 

ive always offered people at my local site with help on there VSR's

i have a little knowledge on APS2 APS96

 

but for this to be effective you will need to have a wide knowledge of most rifles.

 

plus rember you will need to pay tax on your earnings, if your operating a business of anytime turning an income you will need to be tax'd. so at the end of the day earning a few quid on a gun for the hassle probably wont be worth it.