Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Sloane.
Jared, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Shoot Smart got its start from a simple idea – a nice, comfortable, and safe place to target shoot. The owners wanted a modern business that was welcoming to everyone, not just traditional old school shooters. Shoot Smart was founded in the kitchen of owners Roxanne & Jim Laney in 2010, and the first location opened its doors in March 2011.
Since 2011, Shoot Smart has continually outpaced local range competition and grown the market for target shooters. We’re a safe, well-lit and comfortable place to bring the family or friends, and we provide a reliable and fulfilling customer experience.
Our Grand Prairie store is notable for the diversity of its clientele, including significant populations of African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Most notable, though, are the new shooters we bring in and cultivate for our sport. We’re very proud that our efforts to be inclusive, welcoming, and educational have proven fruitful.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, of course not. We have struggled with the ups and downs of our economy since 2010. Even getting started was a battle – a local competitor sued us before we even opened in an attempt to keep us out.
But the greatest struggle has been navigating the political upheaval in our industry. We’ve operated through the days after Sandyhook, and all the incidents since then, and our industry has been rocked by buyer’s panics, industry supply shortages, and election cycles.
Our response to those struggles though was to reinforce firearm safety and continue our mission to provide a safe and comfortable outlet for shooting sports fans.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Shoot Smart story. Tell us more about the business.
Shoot Smart is a gun range business, operating 3 locations around the metroplex, with eyes on at least 7 more locations over the next several years. We operating ranges, training centers, and gunsmithing operations. What makes us unique in our market is our ability to provide a unique shooting experience, superb training, and a professional atmosphere in one customer experience. We do that by providing trained/certified instructors as range guides, and we believe in offering customers solutions along their journey. At Shoot Smart, we like to say we provide entertainment through education. We also have fewer restrictions at our ranges and far more opportunities. For example, customers rent by the day, not the hour, and they can rapid fire in our suites or draw from holsters – commonly prohibited activity at other ranges.
We’re industry leaders, too. I serve on the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Range Advisory Council, and several members of my team have been called on as advisors on diversity and management.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’d say luck is something I blame when things don’t go my way. And I give myself or my team all the credit when things do. So luck is mostly a stressor. We plan, we prepare, and then we do the best we can to work through the problems of our business. And that’s why Shoot Smart is successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shootsmart.com
- Phone: 972-641-2335
- Email: info@shootsmart.com
- Instagram: /shootsmart
- Facebook: /shootsmart
- Twitter: /shootsmart
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