We recently connected with Kelly Josberger and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Stumpy’s Hatchet House is not just a place to throw axes. Our tagline is “The Social Throwdown” and our focus is on bringing people together in a beautiful, rustic environment to play and make memories. In addition to learning the skill of hurling an axe, we have other simple (non technology) games like giant Jenga (we call it the Social Falldown game), Stumpuck (our version of Slap Puck), table shuffleboard, and more.

Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Our story:

Back in 2015, we had a casual backyard barbecue with our friends who became our business partners one night after a sail on the Barnegat Bay in NJ. While the girls were preparing dinner, the boys were out back building a fire in the chiminea. Chopping wood for the fire, led to the creation of an impromptu game of throwing the axe to a makeshift bullseye on some log rounds from a tree that came down during Superstorm Sandy. The game evolved to a more sophisticated target of 2 x 6′ timbers on an tripod stand in the backyard. Soon, the Josbergers and the Oliphants realized this game had potential and decided to take it indoors, recreating the fun and bonding over food, drinks, and hatchet throwing competition.

We opened our first Stumpy’s Hatchet House in April, 2016. Our goal was to create a venue to provide more than just hatchet throwing. Stumpy’s is more than that — it’s a place where friends get together to create memories by doing something slightly out of their comfort zone in a beautiful rustic environment. Whether it’s a business meeting/corporate outing or a bachelor, bachelorette, birthday, or team building event, Stumpy’s hits the bullseye! Our staff is ready to assist you to make your event a success with catering packages to meet your needs and compliment your party theme.

After success in year 1, we explored opening more Stumpy’s in New Jersey. We soon pivoted to a franchise model due to the demand. We had customers visiting our flagship store for team building events and we repeatedly heard guests say this would do well in their city/state. We are proud to say that we now have 32 locations in the US.

Last year we sold the franchise company to a group of investors and are now franchisees in the system. We co-own the flagship store with our partners and have opened Stumpy’s Hatchet House Jacksonville in historic Springfield. The new owners wanted to keep us active in the system and offered each couple two additional locations franchise fee free.

The company is growing and evolving to offer some new opportunities to expand on our original concept.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In 2020 during the Covid shutdown, we had to figure out how to make a social business safe and fun. We utilized the time during closure to educate our franchisees and build stronger bonds with workshops and strategy sessions. We reopened capacity restrictions and saw large group sales drop off drastically. Our goal was to hang on and aim to break even while the country got through this difficult time.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

This process was long and drawn out. Having a good lawyer is key to protect yourself and your assets! We did a transition period with the buyers that spelled out all our responsibilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stumpyshh.com
• Instagram: @stumpyshh @stumpysjax
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stumpyshh https://www.facebook.com/stumpysjax
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-josberger-55213158/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dAWi8XD8ow