The Power Up ⎯ SN.03/EP.05
A Guide To Maximizing Profits By Controlling Production
RightToBear.com is a veteran-owned and operated business that eliminates the frustrations of long lead times and out-of-stock gun parts and gear. With fast 72-hour shipping and no backorders, customer satisfaction is their priority.
In fact, they have also added a sister company that manufactures barrels at their facility. As the Production Manager, Kevin Gross has even more control over the product and experience they can provide their customers with. Kevin shares, “Since we’ve done that we’ve been able to really reach a different level of satisfaction with our customers as far as those who buy direct from our website as well as other companies who can purchase in bulk with us.”
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About The Business
Business name: Right To Bear
Founded: 2012
Production Manager: Kevin Gross
Website: https://www.righttobear.com
Sales diversification strategy: E-commerce, manufacturing, wholesale
About Our Guest
As a former Navy member, Kevin and his veteran friends started selling out of a garage for fellow gun enthusiasts. Eventually, they moved their parts from a garage to a house to a warehouse, and Right To Bear officially became a business in 2015. At first, Kevin worked with another manufacturing company to co-brand barrels, however, he didn’t have quite the control he was looking for.
In 2020, there was an opportunity for growth built off a foundation of trust from someone else’s barrels. That gave Kevin a launch pad to step it up a couple more notches with a superior product by manufacturing their own barrels.
Full Transcript
Sean (Thrive): Hello everyone, it’s Sean from Thrive with another episode of The Power Up, where I meet with successful small business owners and operators to learn about their business strategy so you can take their insights and level up your own business. Once your business is ready to expand, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. Our guests have some creative solutions for how they’ve tackled tricky problems and turned them into growth opportunities. Now, let’s dive into today’s episode.
Our guest today is Kevin Gross. He’s the production manager of Right to Bear, and he’s on the podcast with us today. RightToBear.com is a veteran-owned and operated business that eliminates the frustration of long lead times and out-of-stock gun parts and gear with fast 72-hour shipping and no backorders. Customer satisfaction is their top priority. They have also added a sister company that manufactures barrels at their facility to have even more control over the product and experience they can provide their customers with.
Kevin, are you ready to get started?
Kevin (Right To Bear): Let’s get started.
Sean: Cool. Well, yeah, tell us a little bit more about Right to Bear, and then also I’d love to know about this sister company you guys have going on now.
Kevin: Sure thing. Right to Bear, wow, we’ve been operating for about 12 or so years now. The founder and owner is a good friend of mine. He and I served in the Navy together, actually, and he started this business out of his apartment years ago. Fast forward to now, we have a number of employees, and we’re just trying to keep up with the orders here.
Like you said, we did stand up our own barrel manufacturing company here on site, and we’re definitely happy with that. It’s been pretty exciting watching that side of the business grow. Since we’ve done that, we’ve been able to really reach a different level of satisfaction with our customers, both those who buy directly from our website as well as other companies who can purchase in bulk from us.
Sean: Sure, that’s great. So, have you personally, did you say 12 years, is that the length of the company?
Kevin: Yeah, that’s an estimate. I can’t remember the exact day when it all came together.
Sean: Okay, okay. How did the company start and what did it start doing? Did it start doing something else and it morphed into this larger entity? What were you guys doing out of your buddy’s apartment 10, 12 years ago?
Kevin: Yeah, it was pretty interesting. It was sort of that mindset of enthusiasts and people who like to build AR-15s. You kind of get a better price when you purchase multiples of one item. The founder and owner realized he wanted to purchase maybe a box of this part and then sell the rest on GunBroker.com. I think he was using GunBroker for that so that we could have parts to build for ourselves, right? You just make a little bit of money on each of the other ones, and then you have the parts to build for yourself to continue that hobby going forward.
So that’s the beginning, that was the whole inspiration for it all.
Sean: Interesting.
Kevin: Yeah, so it started in Maryland years ago, and I moved to Florida before the founder did. He ended up moving down to Florida a couple of years after myself. I was trying to get a job in the aerospace industry, and he continued the business out of his house, working out of his garage. I would come by and help him out from time to time. Not a hungry college kid anymore, I had already been in the Navy, so I was in my 20s, but regardless, I wanted to help him out.
He said, “Look, I’d like to have you full-time. I could really use your help all the time.” So I gave up my dreams in aerospace, and we started working out of his house. We had another ex-Marine working with us at the time. Next thing you know, the orders picked up, and we decided that we needed to move into a warehouse. That was easily 2015 when that happened, so we started working out of the warehouse.
Sean: That’s wonderful. So, how did you guys make the decision to stand up the second business, the barrel manufacturing? Like why barrels of all things? Was that the most expensive product and the lowest margin for you guys to resell?
Kevin: Barrels definitely have a favorable margin if you are the manufacturer. However, the machinery and equipment required to set that up are definitely not cheap stuff. It’s some really, really big machinery.
We wanted to start because we were partnering with another very large barrel manufacturer. They allowed us to do co-branding, OEM, and put our name on their barrels. That was great because they are definitely one of the bigger names in the business. However, there were certain nitpicking criteria that we had that would fall short at times, and it was such a pain and a hassle to get those little details ironed out when we weren’t the people actually manufacturing the barrels.
So around 2020, we were fortunate to benefit from an uptick in online sales, and it just felt like probably one of the best choices we could have made in terms of where we wanted to go and how to take this opportunity for growth.
We already had our name on these barrels and a good reputation built off someone else’s barrels. It was kind of a best-kept secret sort of thing. It was a great launchpad and a perfect platform for us to take what we knew we could do as far as quality and step it up a couple of notches, and that’s exactly what we did.
Sean: So why start a whole new business entity? Why not just spin off a product line inside of Right to Bear?
Kevin: We wanted it to have the ability to have its own name and its own microverse that it is established in. We have a whole wall connecting the machine shop from the Right to Bear warehouse side of things, but there are some financial aspects to standing up companies and LLCs.
One of the main things is we wanted it to be able to stand on its own, and Right to Bear is going to be the main beneficiary, if you will. So our barrel company is selling to many other companies wholesale OEM, whereas Right to Bear was the first customer.
Sean: Interesting, that’s very cool. How long has this second business been going for the barrel?
Kevin: We’ve had it fully operational for about two and a half years now.
Sean: How many wholesale customers? What you say, just like ballpark?
Kevin: Honestly, there is another sales guy who has that information way better, but ballpark, I want to say easily 20 regular customers ordering on a weekly basis.
Sean: Interesting, that’s very cool. Is this the barrel side of the fence where you’re spending more of your time? Is this growing more quickly, or is Right to Bear growing at a greater clip?
Kevin: Right to Bear is not growing wildly. We were able to utilize some of the growth earlier in this decade, and we’re trying to keep that going now. I definitely want to help facilitate as much growth at Right to Bear as possible. It’s a steady, very organic, very steady trajectory right now.
The barrel manufacturing side is growing as fast as it can, and we are attempting to keep up with the demands and sales there.
Sean: Great. Do you happen to know how your wholesale customers grew from zero to 20 in two and a half years? Door to door knocking, pamphlets, what’s the strategy?
Kevin: We are lucky to have a lot of connections through Right to Bear. A lot of our vendors that we purchase things from may also need barrels. If there’s a company building their own rifles, it’s pretty likely we already knew who they would be getting barrels from.
We reached out to people we knew would potentially be in the market for barrels. There was a lot of canvassing, not door to door, but through our contacts. You can never downplay the value of solid networking.
Outside of networking and utilizing vendors, there’s a huge gun convention every year in Las Vegas called SHOT Show. We have been there for the past couple of years as a vendor with a booth, promoting our product.
Sean: So to find new wholesale customers, you looked into your vendor network for Right to Bear and sold into them on the barrel side?
Kevin: Yes, exactly.
Sean: That’s super interesting and smart. How about repeat customers? Do you have loyalty programs or discounts for frequent buyers?
Kevin: We don’t have an exact loyalty program set up, but we’re interested in implementing one in the future. Some competitors have those programs, and I’m sure it helps their business.
We do have loyal customers, and when we notice them, we try to take care of them as best as we can. Maybe a little extra attention, a special touch, or addressing any issues quickly. If we notice customers spending lots of money and coming back, we want to keep them coming back and facilitate that as much as we can.
Sean: Great. Before I get into five rapid-fire questions, is there anything I’m not asking that you wish I would ask or want to dig into?
Kevin: I’m very interested in how the customer base perceives marketing. That’s not something I can actually answer. It’s a much bigger conversation. We put out marketing content, we see sales, but how does the customer really perceive it? What do they say? What do they like? It’s a Holy Grail-type question.
Sean: Are you talking about the psychology of how customers respond to your marketing material and how that connects to sales?
Kevin: Yes, exactly.
Sean: Interesting. That’s a good segue into my first rapid-fire question. What would you say is your fastest-growing sales or marketing channel for either of your businesses?
Kevin: We have a robust email marketing system set up. It’s pretty regular, and we have a very large email list at our disposal.
Sean: What do you use for your email marketing tool?
Kevin: We use Constant Contact. I like it. I’m used to it now. I don’t have a lot of experience with Mailchimp, but Constant Contact is user-friendly for the most part.
Sean: What inside email marketing drives the most results? Monthly newsletter, drip campaigns, follow-ups?
Kevin: Typically, we have a weekly email that goes out showing deals and sales, especially around holidays. We also have a once-a-week email about new products on our shelves.
I personally head up “Workbench Wednesday,” an informative blog that helps people understand different parts of the AR-15 or Glock platforms. Basically, as long as it’s a product we sell, we try to provide tips, tricks, and helpful information, especially for customers who may feel less comfortable with guns.
Sean:
That’s great. What’s your favorite resource to grow your skills or business? Blog, YouTube channel, book?
Kevin: For me, I get blogs and emails from marketing gurus personally. I try to stay on top of new trends and what’s working, especially in e-commerce and digital marketing. I also like listening to podcasts about business growth and leadership. They help me think about how to scale the company and improve operations.
Sean: Great, that’s very helpful. What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone starting a similar business today?
Kevin: I would say focus on customer service above all else. The product is important, but if you don’t take care of your customers, they won’t come back. Fast shipping, clear communication, and standing behind your products make a huge difference. Also, don’t be afraid to invest in quality equipment and people. It pays off in the long run.
Sean: Excellent advice. Last question: What’s one thing you wish you knew when you started Right to Bear?
Kevin: I wish I knew how important it is to build a strong team early on. You can’t do everything yourself, and having reliable, skilled people around you is critical. It takes time to find the right folks, but it’s worth the effort.
Sean: Kevin, thank you so much for sharing your insights and story with us today. It’s been a pleasure.
Kevin: Thank you, Sean. I appreciate the opportunity to share.
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