We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brian Lohman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brian below.

Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

I think one of the hardest issues and unexpected problems to face businesses in the last 100 years is Covid. Each business evolves each year and to be successful you have to project, pivot, and scale.

In 2021 I decided to scale my business up and open a second Gunsmith shop in Old Town Spring Texas. One of the hardest things to do is scale up and with Covid it has been a real challenge.

Covid has caused supply disruptions, customer disruptions, inflation, and uncertainty. With supply disruption you have to project and plan for things you need to run your business. These are items you have to pay market price and keep a good supply to stay in business. Buying larger quantities of these items is important. By doing this you add to the supply problem, but these are items you have to have to keep your doors open. Second, you need to see if you can optimize your use of these items so they will last longer or buy from a different vendor so you can get a better price.

Customer disruptions change weekly depending on what phase of the outbreak your customers are in. These disruptions lead to a longer pipe line to convert a lead to a client. The flip side is people picking up projects that are done might be longer than normal. This can pose cash flow swings up and down instead of steady.

Inflation is tricky and can fool some businesses owners when it is a supply and demand issue and not a price increase issue. You have to watch the overall index to be sure prices are going up access the board. It is always hard to raise prices as a business owner in a repair industry like Gunsmithing. You need to be able to look at your employee output and time it takes the person with the least amount of experience to complete a task and set your rates accordingly. You only go up when your percent of profit falls below your set percentage.

Uncertainty of what come next is what separates the businesses from being break even or losing money to being wildly successful. Most business struggle with projecting what the future holds. History generally repeats itself and the longer you stay in business the more you see and can pivot or scale. Advice I have is to look at the most successful business owners like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, Walton who were all contrarians.

Brian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

This year 2022 marks 10 years in the gunsmith business. I coached college and pro football for 8 seasons and moved to Houston in the late 90’s and loved coaching but wanted more out of life than football. I started in the financial / insurance industry 21 years ago in 2001 and still have this business, and work with clients each week. After President Obama was elected I knew his agenda would hurt my insurance business and I needed to pivot and do something else. This is when I got into the firearms industry.

My first restoration project was when I was in 5th grade at the 4H Fair. I restored my dad’s .22 rifle. I got a Blue Ribbon on the stock and bluing and my love for guns was put in motion.

My brand of Lohman Gunsmith has always stood for quality. We are restoration specialist and have done thousands of flood and fire guns. I have a full machine shop, coating shop and wood shop. I have 8 gunsmith/artisans that work for me. We are able to work on any gun. We get some of the most rare guns ever manufactured into our shop to work on. Some of these guns are hundreds of years old. We also do repairs and cleanings of new /modern guns.

I think I am most proud of the fact that our work is second to none, and I have some of the most skilled artisans who are gunsmiths. There is no other gunsmith shop in the United States that does everything we do at the quality we do. Something else I am very proud of is being featured in 4 major gun industry magazines during Covid.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think the most effective strategy to grow your clientele is to reach back into history and do things the old school way. When I grew up in the 70’s in the small town of Cedar Falls, Iowa, you still went to a gas station where they pumped your gas and checked your fluid levels. The owner of Rapp Filling / Gas station, Johnny Rapp, went to high school with my dad, and every time I stopped by his place to get gas we talked. At the time I did not realize our talks were more than chit chat as he pumped my gas. He was building a relationship with me and giving me personal customer service. In our iPhone world and instant everything, not to mention COVID, businesses are being less interactive with their customers.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

At Lohman Gunsmith, we have always been customer centered and have strived to build relationships with each patron that comes into the shop. I think this is very important in a service industry. Also, I have always stood behind our work which is very important. Lohman Gunsmith has always done restorations, but on April 16th and 17th of 2016, we had the Tax Day floods. Immediately following the floods, we started to receive hundreds of guns that had flood and/or fire damage. It was at this time we had to pivot and put other projects on hold and stabilize these guns coming in so they would not get worse. Because of this, we started to have one gunsmith dedicated to restoration work. 16 months later, the historic Hurricane Harvey came. This brought so many guns into the shop that I had to hire more gunsmiths. We quickly became restoration specialists and learned how to restore these guns back to factory original. I never intended to have half of my gunsmith business dedicated to restorations, but when high water comes it cuts a different path for the river to flow. This was a great opportunity for my business, and we have set ourselves apart. We continue to do a large amount of flood and fire damage restorations each year.
This pivot has changed my business for the better. Just like Houston never anticipated the Tax Day floods, we never anticipated becoming firearm restoration specialists.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LohmanGunsmith.com
• Instagram: lohman_gunsmith
• Facebook: lohmangunsmith