We were lucky to catch up with Dustin Bunnell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dustin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Early in your career, how did you think through the decision of whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?

Long story short, I was 8 years into a lucrative corporate career in operations. I had made it to a director role and was making almost $200k per year. However, I always knew that I wanted to be on my own (with a goal of not needing to trade time for money) and I was facing a promotional move to Los Angeles… I never want to live in a big city. So, after selling my house, my wife quitting her job and preparing to move and take the promotion, I decided (literally) overnight that I did not want to make that move. I spent that whole night crunching numbers and digging into my finances and had made up my mind… we weren’t going. The next day I called my buddy who was in the pawn industry and asked if he wanted to partner up… he said yes. Within three weeks, I quit my job, my wife asked for her job back, we moved into my mothers in laws rental house (remember my house was sold, I dropped my income to $36k per year (the minimum I concluded we could live on) and I bought my first pawn shop.

I am now 8 years in, operate 4 locations (consolidated down from 6 in the last two years), have grown the business 300% (including negative growth years during covid), my income has more than recovered, my wife quit her job to start her own dream business and I have been very successful in commercial property ventures. I bet on myself, took big risk from a very secure spot and have come out in an even better position than I could have dreamed in this amount of time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Pawn shops:

Typical thoughts people have – dirty stores operated by crusty old dudes with outdated, broken and stolen product. Also, people believe that our core business is buying and selling things.

Not that these types of stores dont exist, but….

What my stores are actually like – Clean organized retail stores that specialize in firearms, jewelry, high end luxury items (most specifically high end watches and hand bags), high end sports memorabilia and coins and bullion. We also deal in the usual items like electronics, tools, musical instruments, etc. Our stores are staffed by highly trained, well paid individuals that take pride in their specialties. We diligently work local police directly and through a centralized reporting system to deter anyone from bringing in stolen goods. Lastly and most importantly, our core business is actually short term collateral loans. People give us their valuables to hold in exchange for cash to get them through a personal cash flow crunch. These customers can be anyone from your average joe that needs money for an unexpected vehicle repair to high earning business owners who need money to make payroll before they get paid out on their last job. We write loans from $5 to $100,000 and sometimes even more.

What sets us apart from other pawn shops is our deep expertise in specialty markets. This not only includes what people bring to us over the counter but also sourcing specialty items that we may not have available in our inventory at that time. Our customer relationships are far beyond what most people would expect as well… 90% of our business is return customers and referrals.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Never stop learning. There is a secondary market for everything and as long as we keep learning, we can keep growing. Though I probably run a business that is in the top 10% of my field, I have peers that are conducting business in ways that make me look like small fish… luckily, none of them are in bullhead:)

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I have always lived well below my means been smart with money. I used the Dave Ramsey approach to managing my personal finances which allowed me to have the financial means to bootstrap my own business. Every job I have ever had, my employees had nicer cars and other material objects than me – but they also have never been able to climb out from under their debt. I have never had debt other than a mortgage and I would say that is the biggest reason I have been able to take advantage of opportunity when it presented itself and been able to scale a business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Jumpawnit.com
• Other: The only social media I use is FB and I only use it for business… I don’t want to provide that. However, my marketing manager can provide all of our business pages to everything listed above.

Image Credits

I took them