Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Robert Mills. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Robert thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
Yes, it is challenging running a business. As I expand my services, I require more help from my friends, my network. Very soon I hope to bring in full-time employees. Even the prospect of employing folks in the community feels rewarding. I have no degree in business, I barely graduated high school, everything I do is trial-and-error fueled by my own independent research. There have been times that I was not certain I would make the monthly bills, I stayed the course, trusted the plan, and paid the bills.
Am I happy as a business owner? Yes. I believe owning a small, independent business is one of the most noble, rewarding, and personally fulfilling endeavors a person can undertake. That said, you absolutely must be passionate about what you do. It takes passion to fight through the lean times and stick to the plan, or change the plan as needed. I take immense satisfaction in every single key stroke, transaction, personal interaction, and idea that takes place in effort of making my business more valuable to my clients and my community. I am happier as a business owner than I ever was as, in my case specifically, a soldier. I cannot imagine ever working for any government or private organization again, in any capacity.
Do I sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? No. I have a network of friends, other local small business owners that are mutually supportive. They are my “coworkers,” they fill the spaces of social interaction, professional development, and sounding board for my ideas, as I fill that role for them. My only boss is the market. I do not feel compelled to navigate a specific boss or leader with bipolar disorder. I do not have to tiptoe around bizarre social issues or government and corporate policy mandates that I disagree with. I create the culture of my business. The beauty of laissez faire capitalism is that I will succeed or fail on my own merits. If I do right, the market responds positively. If I do wrong, the market responds negatively. Even now, especially now, a clever idea, strong work ethic, and common sense is the recipe for the American dream. It is simple and pure, I love it.
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
Osprey Shooting Solutions (OSS) is a firearms training and education business. It is my passion is to train the untrained across class, cultural, and political spectrums in support of our natural, God given right to self-defense. OSS is available to anyone with a desire to learn. We will remove all barriers to train anyone that wants to learn. OSS is not meant to be a homogenous group of straight, white, Christian men. I welcome anyone who has a baseline respect for individual liberty and personal accountability in reference to gun ownership. A part of that priority is to usher shooters of all skill levels into the competition world, either USPSA, IDPA, 3-Gun or countless others. Competition is fun, furthermore it is an excellent form of training.
We offer a broad range of firearms, defense, and custom training opportunities to suit unique client goals. We conduct courses on weekends, private individual or group sessions and custom courses as requested. For those that shoot often, challenge yourself in our monthly Fun-Day shoots and themed “outlaw” matches. We also offer Ultimate Training Munitions (UTM) force-on-force capability to suit specialized skill sets and objectives such as home defense, as well as military and police agency training. Training happens at our private, purpose-built classroom and outdoor range in Rome, GA. We also offer traveling courses pending range coordination.
We create a non-intimidating yet focused learning environment. We perform in-depth analysis of individual needs and keep training realistic, relevant, and safe. Our performance-based approach ensures clients maximize their potential by doing the best with what they have. Clients get the most out of each round, regardless of experience or skill level. Our client base are loyal return clients with clearly defined, and increasingly challenging goals. Unsure about your goals? We will help you develop and achieve them. Our experience, dedication, and proven training approach inspires confidence and trust in Osprey Shooting Solutions.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I served in the US Army for 25 years. In the last half of my career, I began to realize that I wanted to run my own business. OSS began as a simple, dismissive statement from my son in 2010. I was recovering from surgery and was off my feet for about three weeks. He and I played a lot of Call of Duty! A particular map on the game was a simple shipping container battlefield. My son said, “Wouldn’t it be cool to set that up in the back yard?” After already having spent several days on the couch, my mind was constantly racing to solve non-existent, future problems. His statement instantly put my mind on the problem of how to practically set up a small battlefield in the backyard. Within two days I had drawn up training facility diagrams from two acres to two thousand acres. We started with the OSS idea in 2010 and have applied continuous refining of the vision, and course of action development, ever since then. We became a limited liability company in 2017 with the practical application of the OSS vision as a part-time, official firearms training company in Colorado Springs, CO. These early years were very productive in developing curriculum, SOP, and other critical policies for future operations as a full-time business. In addition, we built the OSS culture and reputation as thorough, professional, and relatable. During this time, we continued detailed planning for the plan as it exists today. Since 2017, we have trained a few thousand people and conducted over one hundred courses and events. We did this to build my son’s experience level training others, and to build word of mouth, trust, and loyalty with our clients. We initially executed all courses at existing indoor and outdoor ranges, at a substantial financial cost. We finished building the “starter” range in Spring of 2021 after our move to Rome, GA. We did not expect to make profit as a part-time operation, we viewed that phase as our training and development period to work out our procedures, develop our course content, and refine our company culture. Now that our range has been up and running for over a year, the business has become successful. Since its inception, OSS was meant to become a stand-alone facility, we were only waiting on my active-duty retirement in 2020 to commit to the full plan. Here we are. We are working to action expansion to a twenty-acre facility within the next year.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I have discovered, only in the last two years, the importance of genuine networking. My friend Justin S. is an ambitious, successful guy. Justin is always switched on, with a sharp mind for business. He and I met through a mutual friend about a year ago. He volunteered to help with one of my courses and we hit it off pretty well. We went for a bike ride one day, just a little PT, feeling each other out, and discovered what a small world it really is. We discovered, through idle conversation, that we lived in the same neighborhood in 1987-1988 . Not only that, my wife and his sister were good friends, and Justin was good friends with my younger brother-in-law Joseph (RIP). After decades, he and I have independently developed similar goals and values. Today, he is one of my most valued supporters and partners. All this thanks to reaching out to good people
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ospreyshootingsolutions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ospreyshootingsolutions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OspreyShootingSolutions
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-edgar-mills-1b64b0a/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OspreyShooting
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO1seJvE3dCR9SjPHQmNidg
- Other: https://linktr.ee/OspreyShootingSolutions
Image Credits
Emilee Ramsier. Brooke Wright. Dennis Rousseau.