I would like to take a moment to recognize- and perhaps brag a a bit- that July 1st, 2023 officially marks my Twenty-Fifth Year in business! 
I had kind of hoped to have something special to mark the occasion- a secret project, a special comic, a video, a B-52 flyby... But unfortunately I've just been too busy. The story, as they say, of my life.
I officially hung out this particular shingle on July 1st, 1998. My 'shop' was a small, dimly lit storage room, of which I occupied perhaps sixty square feet. My first machine was a worn-out Jet mill-drill, and it was a few months before I was able to pick up a Grizzly 9x19 lathe. I made do with those, and upgraded as funds and opportunities allowed. And with a great deal of hard work and perseverance... that room is no longer dimly lit.
I started out doing mods to paintball guns and making paintball parts, and I am still doing so today. There have, of course, been uncountable ups and downs, innumerable side-tracks, and of course the endless issues of trying to run a one-man business in the back waters of Left Armpit, Alaska- especially when that one man has all the business acumen of an inebriated snail. But with luck, hard work, skill, and a great deal of outside help from friends and family, I'm still here.
I can't be completely certain- I'm sure somebody will correct me- but I may very well be the longest-running paintball airsmith at this point. We might need to modify that with full time airsmith- this has been my day job since day one- and the entire time under the same 'shingle' (company, business name, etc.)
... Aaand that and two-fifty'll get'a a cup of coffee.
Twenty five years, five Presidents, more than twenty different machine tools, over three hundred different products, I'd wager between four and six thousand different markers through the doors, likely better than 30,000 individual sales, and and I can very probably legitimately claim over 150,000 items made and sold.
When I started this biz, I gave myself a year. If at the end of that year, things weren't working out, I'd go and get a 'real' job.
That was twenty-five years ago.
Doc.
I had kind of hoped to have something special to mark the occasion- a secret project, a special comic, a video, a B-52 flyby... But unfortunately I've just been too busy. The story, as they say, of my life.
I officially hung out this particular shingle on July 1st, 1998. My 'shop' was a small, dimly lit storage room, of which I occupied perhaps sixty square feet. My first machine was a worn-out Jet mill-drill, and it was a few months before I was able to pick up a Grizzly 9x19 lathe. I made do with those, and upgraded as funds and opportunities allowed. And with a great deal of hard work and perseverance... that room is no longer dimly lit.
I started out doing mods to paintball guns and making paintball parts, and I am still doing so today. There have, of course, been uncountable ups and downs, innumerable side-tracks, and of course the endless issues of trying to run a one-man business in the back waters of Left Armpit, Alaska- especially when that one man has all the business acumen of an inebriated snail. But with luck, hard work, skill, and a great deal of outside help from friends and family, I'm still here.
I can't be completely certain- I'm sure somebody will correct me- but I may very well be the longest-running paintball airsmith at this point. We might need to modify that with full time airsmith- this has been my day job since day one- and the entire time under the same 'shingle' (company, business name, etc.)
... Aaand that and two-fifty'll get'a a cup of coffee.
Twenty five years, five Presidents, more than twenty different machine tools, over three hundred different products, I'd wager between four and six thousand different markers through the doors, likely better than 30,000 individual sales, and and I can very probably legitimately claim over 150,000 items made and sold.
When I started this biz, I gave myself a year. If at the end of that year, things weren't working out, I'd go and get a 'real' job.
That was twenty-five years ago.
Doc.
Comment