We recently connected with Jess Hellmich and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jess, thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
When starting Dueling Axes, the intention was always to scale up to multiple locations. However, even the best-laid plans take hard work and time to execute. For us, the ability to scale is largely focused on developing an exceptional team with the right complementary skill sets to facilitate growth, and picking the right real estate that would help our locations be successful.
When planning for and building out the original Dueling Axes location in Downtown Columbus, we were relatively confident our nightlife activity would do well and attract attention. We had spent the previous several months developing a business plan with the intention of talking ourselves out of this crazy idea of opening an axe throwing bar. The thing is, the further we dug into the plan and as we kept turning over the rocks to answer the unknown, the more and more it felt like a good idea. Fortunately, we were right.
In the early days, it was an incredibly small team. Myself (Jess Hellmich) and c0-founder Paul Sherry, and less than a handful of hourly employees. While also working a full-time 9-5 job, Paul and I worked in, and operated, Dueling Axes in the evenings and on the weekends. We opened in the middle of June 20128. With the plan always to open more, we were thrilled when a developer from New York contacted us two months after we opened about expanding to a new, and first-of-its-kind, immersive entertainment complex in Las Vegas, NV. Of course, we were interested and were eager to learn more, but we were so new with little operating experience under our belts. After a few discussions, the developer decided to pass on us in pursuit of an operator with more experience. Understandable. Here’s the thing, though. We planned with the future in mind. We didn’t build Dueling Axes to be a single location. We planned with policy and procedure in mind. We planned for expansion and team development. We planned our business to stand out from the competition and be the best version of our activity that it could be. We planned to build our concept in the right areas and to attract the right customers. This was the opportunity we saw in this industry. A few months later, the New York developer contacted us again and decided to overlook our short history of operations.
Today, we operate 5 locations. Three in the Greater Columbus, OH area (central, northeast, and south), Cincinnati, OH, and one in Las Vegas, NV. It has taken seven years……late nights, long days, sweat, blood, tears, staff changes, ups and downs, good decicions, bad decisions, re-dos, celebrations, and everything in between.
Locations two and three (Las Vegas and Northeast Columbus) were perhaps the most difficult, but also provided the most educational benefits. Originally the locations were planned to open roughly eight months apart from one another. However, in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and quite literally took away any and all control we had of the situation. The locations opened two weeks apart from one another in the middle of December 2020 — not fun.
While the process was filled with red tape and hoops to jump through, there was a silver lining. Due to all the unprecedented regulations and restrictions put on businesses, we were able to use this time to fully flesh out our employee manual and operations manual, preparing to open the next two locations, and prepare ourselves for future growth. Additionally, especially in the Las Vegas market, there was a pool of incredibly experienced and qualified General Manager candidates that were suddenly available due to so many of the market’s operations not being able to operate. This was really the beginning of building out our management team with someone we, as owners, could trust to help us open a new location and operate it, while we lived more than 2,000 miles away.
This General Manager was a true professional and helped us develop the operational procedures that needed to be in place for consistent operations. He took the time to groom existing staff members into additional management roles, and he is now Dueling Axes’ Director of Operations. We have since built a very close-knit management team consisting of COO, CMO, Director of Operations, Marketing Manager, General Manager(s), and Accounting Manager. We communicate every day, are open and honest with each other. We all work hard towards a common vision, and support one another in responsibilities. Our roles are clearly defined so everyone knows what they are responsible for, but we all are willing to jump in and help each other out when needed.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’ve known for a very long time that I wanted to own my own business. I didn’t necessarily know what that business would be, but I knew that an entrepreneurial path was for me. My approach was to get a college education (San Diego State University – Go Aztecs) and then get professional career experience, building and fine-tuning the skills and experiences I would need to eventually own something of my own. Thankfully, my entire professional career was in small business, which gave me a unique professional upbringing of always working directly with, and alongside, the owners of the companies I worked for. This was an invaluable experience and I encourage and even challenge all the business leaders out there today to take the time to mentor your team members. You never know who you will influence to create the next big thing. This experience allowed me to be part of business-focused conversations and debates on what decisions should be made in different situations, and then see the outcomes of those decisions. I was able to be hands-on in my role, as well as wear multiple hats, so I experienced a breadth of responsibilities. I was close enough to the people at the top that I was asked my opinion and influenced decisions. I had a sense of ownership and pride.
After a successful start to my career in marketing/advertising/sales, I found myself in a position of really yearning to get out on my own and start a business. I just didn’t know what it was. In 2016, I decided to seriously start thinking about what I wanted to offer to my community, what would be the right fit for me, help me accomplish my goals, and make me happy. In early 2017 I was perusing through LinkedIn and came across an article that was about healthy ways to relieve stress. The story focused on “rage rooms,” which is an activity you can do where you pay to go in a room and break things, throw plates at the wall, or take a sledgehammer to a TV set, etc. The rage room part of that story is what caught my attention because I had never heard of that as a thing to do before. It was different and interesting. It got my brain turning, but I quickly came to the conclusion that the business model involved wasn’t for me. However, it just so happens that the “suggested” reading after that article was about an axe throwing facility located in New Jersey. Again, this caught my attention. Axe Throwing? This is a commercial thing? Does it make sense? Are others doing it? It got me thinking.
In 2017, axe throwing was nearly non-existent in the United States, but had been around for several years in Canada and the UK. Some quick napkin math and sorting through some high-level business model ideas gave me the gusto to dig into this as a real business opportunity. After all, I had been hearing for years about the shift towards spending money on things to do and experiences, versus things to own and store. I thought, “This could make sense.”
Today, along with my business partner and team, we operate five axe throwing bars + lounges + kitchens. At Dueling Axes, you can experience the exciting sport of axe throwing like you can’t anywhere else – in a safe, comfortable, modern setting, with state-of-art-digital scoring installed at every target. Join us at one of our Central Ohio locations for the best axe throwing experience you’ll find anywhere. No Beards or Flannel Required™! Our axe throwing venues are conveniently located in the entertainment districts where you want to be and likely are already. Dueling Axes is one of the only axe throwing facilities in the country to give our guests private throwing lanes where your safety training and 1-on-1 coaching take place before your reservation time starts. That’s right: We promise to never pair you and your friends with people you don’t know, and you will always get your entire reservation time to throw and play any variety of games that you choose. Each of our locations has a full service bar and lounge space, and allows you to bring in food with you for your time with us.
How’d you meet your business partner?
My business partner, Paul Sherry, and I have been working with each other loosely starting back in 2013. We were both home-based in Columbus, OH. At the time, I was working as an Account Manager for a local B2B marketing firm, and he was traveling around the Midwest selling residential roofs. In 2013, one of the guys he was selling roofs with purchased an existing residential roofing company in Columbus, and Paul moved into an operations role helping the new owner revamp the business from the ground up. The marketing firm I was with was brought in to revamp marketing efforts, and I was put on as the lead for the account. Fast forward to 2016, revenue for this revamped business doubled in the first year, and doubled again the second year. While continuing to grow, I eventually transitioned my role to work internally for this roofing company as Director of Marketing. This is when Paul and I started working together much more closely. Shortly after starting in this position, the owner of the roofing company decided to open a building material distribution center. Paul and I were tasked with spearheading this effort, and this is really when we began working with each other in a capacity that led us to go into business together. With my background being in marketing, I was tasked with the brand development, online presence, messaging, and marketing strategy for this new venture. With Paul’s experience being in operations, he took on finding the real estate, onsite logistics, hiring, and took the role of Managing Partner. At the same time we worked with a local software development team to create a custom piece of software that delivered an Amazon-like buying experience for the B2B distribution customer. It was a success.
I eventually left the company to pick up some sales experience and about two years later, that distribution company sold. This gave Paul an opportunity to consider what he wanted to do next. It was about this time I was really looking into starting my own business and had stumbled across commercial axe throwing and being a potential industry to get involved in. After hearing of the recent sale of the distribution company, I asked Paul if he wanted to go golfing, and there on the greens, I pitched him the idea of going into business together to open an axe throwing joint.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
When we started out in the axe throwing business, the industry was brand new. It had been around for a while in Canada, but it certainly wasn’t mainstream. And here in the States, it was largely still unheard of. As my business partner and I started to investigate whether or not this was something we wanted to get involved in, we paid attention to the opportunities we saw in the industry that would help us stand apart and excell in our operations, and that is the real reason we decided to move forward with this endeavor.
In the early days of our industry, almost 100% of the time you told someone you were going to go axe throwing, their response was, “You’re going to do what?” It was so brand new and novel that no matter what the customer experience level, people who did it (went and threw axes) absolutely loved it and wanted to do it again. While we were researching the industry, we saw that the only bad reviews from customers revolved around major operational blunders. These blunders involved mostly customers showing up for their reservation, and the establishment not being open,
We also noticed a pattern in the majority of the current establishments in where they were located and how they were built out. You see, one of the great things about this industry for many of the people who got into it is the relatively low cost of entry it could be. Many of the very first axe throwing venues in America were located in industrial complexes, warehouses, and even garages. They were off the beaten path, away from everything else (this translates to low rent), and there was no established standard for the level of build-out that someone should strive for. The activity was so fun and new that early-early adopters of the industry could do very simple build-outs of bare plywood, 2x4s, chain-link fence, and construction-grade lighting. And with this presentation of the sport, all the online reviews were stellar. People loved it, wanted to share it with everyone else, and wanted to do it more. While this was great in the beginning, Paul and I saw the opportunity to do it differently, to focus on location and high-end finishes and the overall experience. To make our experience part of the area’s nightlife, to be in the locations where you were already, and to produce an atmosphere in which customers wanted to come and hang out time and time again. This is what we focused on, and this was an uncompromising pillar of our vision in what we wanted to build. It is what granted us the opportunity for a location in Las Vegas, NV, the entertainment capital of the world, and what has brought us multiple other expansion opportunities since then. This focus on what made us different from the competition is what our reputation is built on, and our loyal customers have come to expect. It is what we will continue to grow on and deliver.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theduelingaxes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duelingaxes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DuelingAxes/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dueling-axes/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKE3Ch0T5fYy3G_THHZCjA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dueling-axes-columbus
Image Credits
Dueling Axes