It's only a full time job if you can't find a trustworthy employee or 3.
Your cigar shops have managers, why can't a gun shop?
Pawn shop I used to work in was lots of hours for the first few months, then the boss got his "manager trainee" to the point where he could handle the majority of the day to day stuff, and that made a situation that they did well with for 5 or 6 years, until boss got tired of being a pawn shop owner and sold it so he could open a computer store instead.
Well I see it a bit differently. I knew the cigar business long before I got into retail and when I got into retail it was as the 'behind the scenes finance' guy not the operating partner. It didn't quite work out as planned, and for a while I ended up doing more of the operations than I planned, but as I said, I knew the tobacco products and had a very clear idea of the customer base, marketing, etc.
If I do the guns & cigar store I start out not knowing the gun business. Heck I don't even know gun values beyond the one brand that I play with so it would be a HUGE learning curve for me to start this up. The first time I talked to the owner his brother was interested, I figured I could buy the real estate and go into partnership on the business side of the set-up. The brother could run the gun side of the store while I learned it and brought in other people too. I could set up the cigar side with my tobacco manager and teach that to the gun shop owner's brother. 2 people are needed to manage the store under its current set up, that would be all that would be required under the 'cigars & tobacco' concept. But it would start out with a guy who is already experienced in the gun store operation, paperwork, FFL procedures, etc. The brother is out of the picture
(he took another job while I was in England) so the gun side of the business has no experienced staff. That strikes me a big problem and therefore would require a lot of time from me, more time that I want to devote to the situation. The other problem is the cost of the building, I'm able to easily afford it but I don't know that it would generate a return on investment that I am looking for. I'd rather lease it with an option to buy to see how it goes . . . but again, that would be based on the gun shop operating in addition to the cigars.
Barrels of Fun would be a great name for a gun range
FWIW, I'm looking at opening store #4 in the Pit Stop Smoke Shop chain, if we can get the lease worked out, at the end of September. This location will probably focus more on cigarettes than cigars because of the demographics of the area it is located near, and will have a proper drive-thru window in addition to the sales area.
"Smokes in the Fast Lane" will be part of the graphic package for the drive-thru. The shop will be, like the others, very small with a nice selection of high grade cigars at reasonable prices. . . we actually got visited by one of our competitors who was upset that we sell cigars at such low prices! He gave my manager hell and demanded to see my partner to complain.
That brought a lot of laughs among my staff, nobody bothers my partner when he is golfing
Anyway we are slowing building up our premium cigar business and going about our jobs as we think appropriate. The stores have an 8' wide by 7' tall humidified selection of premium cigars with cigars priced between $3.50 and $22.50 each. One nice thing about the new location is that it also located very near my home so it will be easy to keep an eye on this store as I drive past it when I take my daughter to/from school and sports.
Now as for the gun shop, it is also in my normal travel pattern, and is located between 2 of my stores. But the more I think about the gun & cigar concept, the more I think it would take me away from what I want to have by wrapping up my time and putting me back into the 'working world' full time.