We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin Arocho a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Back in my early 20’s, I shot my first pistol at the range and I was super excited and yet nervous all at the same time. I had never handled a firearm before then so I didn’t know what to expect. I looked at my target and I saw my first hit and from there I become very interested in learning how to grow and expand on my newly acquired skill. After months of training, I decided to go and attend a firearms concealed carry class. As I was sitting there, I started to think about how I could help other learn and grow just like the instructor was doing and how I could maybe create a small business to do this. When I would go to the range, I would end up helping others and made sure that I covered gun safety with friends and family. I always had a passion for teaching others, so it just seemed like the natural progression for me to teach firearm safety as a business.
In 2018, I finally managed to put that dream into a reality. I went and took more classes to learn and grow and finally went to get my nationally recognized firearm instructor’s certification so I can start teaching others. The rest is history after that. I called 3 of my cousins and explained that I wanted to start a family owned firearms training company. They were super supportive and completely on board to helping me. I went out and got an LLC, website, insurance and everything else needed to start a business and in June of 2018, Arocho Firearms LLC was born.
From there my cousins and I began teaching and learning and expanding. Shortly after, 2 of my cousin went and became nationally recognized instructors as well. We have taught thousands of students over the years on firearm safety throughout Ohio. I wanted to make sure that our business took great pride in our students and could provide them with more than just a piece of paper for completing a class we wanted to create a community of protectors.
We now teach a wide variety of classes including basic safety, Concealed carry, legal use of force, emergency medical, defensive rifle, children’s safety, instructor development courses and more! Of course we are always looking to grow and expand even further in the near future.
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?
We started as a family owned firearms training business and have grown into a company that truly makes a positive impact on the community. Arocho Firearms teaches firearm safety, Concealed carry, Countering The Mass Shooter courses, emergency medical classes, defensive rifle and pistol classes, how to create a home protection plan, women’s only classes, classes offered in English or in Spanish, instructor development courses and more!
As a company, we really listen to our students and we adapt and expand into the areas that people are asking for. For example, we had students asking about classes that could help teach kids about firearm safety and so we now teach children’s safety courses.
We want to ensure that people will continue to grow and learn more about firearm safety, the law and self-defense and so we do our best to help everyone achieve their goals.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media is tough for our line of business. We had to contact Facebook and Instagram in order to allow content to be put out for our students. Students wanted to connect with others and with us so we creating our business Facebook page first, a Facebook group page for students that have already been certified through Arocho Firearms (#CertifiedAF), and an Instagram page so we could share images of the students that we are so proud of.
We started by simply requesting friends and family to like and follow but soon it just started to grow on its own. We currently sit at over 3,100 followers on Facebook and over 400 on Instagram (we started this much later).
Since we have more restrictions in our line of business as to what we can or cannot post, we would say that simply starting is the hardest step. If people like you and your business, the audience will grow. Patience is a virtue because as a business, you are in it for the long haul so just keep pushing and your media presence will grow.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
For us, we provide high level training and our instructors make it fun and enjoyable at a price that anyone can afford. Word of mouth from students, friends and family has really helped us grow and become the company we are today. We also added a company emblem, our AF Spartan helmet, which serves as a unique and very recognized symbol throughout our area and beyond.
Our students and our community have really been our driving force to help solidify us within our market.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arochofirearms.com/
- Instagram: @ArochoFirearms
- Facebook: Arocho Firearms