John Bocker talks with Rob McNealy about TUSC and the compliance challenges that FFLs face with government regulations and how to avoid them.
John Bocker is the Managing Director and co-founder of FFL Consultants and provides expert guidance to firearms dealers around the country on various topics including physical security, ATF compliance, profitability and retail operations. John is an independent consultant for the National Shooting Sports Foundation and serves as an FFL subject matter expert, speaker and author. For more information visit FFLConsultants.com or call John @ 720-336-0028.
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Facebook DELETED My Profile & How You NEED To Protect Yourself
I'll tell you what happened in the video but here are my suggestions. These are the things that I believe every business owner that uses Facebook MUST do and have in place to protect their business assets on Facebook:
The Facebook Profile Loss “Parachute Plan”
Just In Case You Ever Get “The HAMMER”
Requesting a Review: If your profile is disables or banned you can normally request a manual review to get your profile back and the link will be found on the page you are sent to when you login with a disabled personal profile.
Business Pages: Always have at least one additional admin set up on all your business pages **Spouse, kids, second profile, friends, etc
Ad accounts: Always have at least one other person is directly added to your add account with full access. They must have full access so pick someone you trust. This is different than giving access through **Spouse, kids, second profile,...
How To Make The Most Of An Unprecedented Year, Now and For Years To Come
The year 2020 will go down in history. This was already set up to be a big year because of the election and the politicians willing to do almost anything to take control of firearms in America. Add in a global pandemic, food and toilet paper shortages, riots, and a lot of uncertainty within our communities.
How is all of that affecting sales? They are through the roof for most retail FFLs. It feels like you don’t even need to do anything to get business right now. Many retail FFLs are unable to keep stock on their shelves.
You may never get an opportunity like this again. This is about creating the fuel that is going to keep your business running hot for years to come. It’s time to double down on smart marketing no matter what your business model is and no matter how well your business is doing.
The professional advice I give my FFL is to create social media content that your tribe will eat up and then get that content in front of as many of your...
Don’t Repeat the FFL "Inventory Sins" of the Past
Over the last several weeks, the firearms industry has been booming thanks to public concern centered around COVID-19 and the societal impact it is having. With millions of Americans concerned about the protection of life, liberty, and property; it’s easy to understand why demand has increased.
The industry has seen demand spikes before; 2008, 2012 and 20016 being prime examples. However, after each one of these periods gun shops across the country were forced to close. One of the leading causes for shops going under was that they didn’t have a strategy to manage their inventory investment and made critical mistakes that caused them to tie up precious cash. It’s easy to make these mistakes and any buyer that has been around more than a year or two has done it to some extent. The trick is to have a plan to minimize the impact and avoid repeating the “sins of the past”.
Below are a few basic strategies you can implement...
FFL Consultants Daily FFL Crisis Brief # 6
What You Can Do Today:
- WE RECEIVED MANY CALLS REGARDING NICS DELAYS TODAY:
- Advise all customers that NICS is so backed up that we are hearing 3-5 day delays are routine and any delays requiring a human check are being slated for release on or after (25+ days out). If you receive a delay with a Brady release date that is more than the traditional 3 business days, you MUST adhere to the date returned to you on the MIDI report for each NTN. >>> BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR NICS STATUS REPORT DAILY for UPDATES.
- Where gun stores are not designated "essential businesses" (see article below), some FFL owners have moved to board up front glass windows to create an EXTRA LAYER of protection / security. It may be prudent to purchase plywood and necessary materials before businesses are shut down.
- FFLs are asking; "Can I move my guns to my home for safe keeping is shut down?". The answer lies in a) your ability to reach an ATF...
FFL Consultants Daily Crisis Brief # 4
Crisis Actions FFLs Can Implement Today
- As cases ramp up where you are, INCREASE the health protection of your staff by increasing "safe-distancing", using creative ways to protection including for using gloves to handle all paperwork, guns, money during the crisis. The medical science reporting tells us that the virus (germs) can live for several hours on paper and several days on hard surfaces so do your best to PREVENT CROSS -CONTAMINATION and use sanitizers and alcohol sprays to prevent illness.
- Plan for "Stay at Home" directors if your state is in the "Top 5" of cases reported. (see above). We predict that this directive will be rolled-out slowly but surely as states are affected. The governor of each state has the authority to do so. This will include calling out the National Guard to assist in monitoring compliance, hand out supplies, etc.
- We have spoken with FFLs in California who have NICS / DROS pending or DELAYS that are now...
Los Angeles County , CA "Safer at Home" Order - FFLs are NOT an Essential Business
To access the Los Angeles County "Safer at Home" order issued on 3/19/20 click the link below. This will be VERY SIMILAR language to any other order issued where you live by your governor.
Note that Firearms Dealers / Ranges ARE NOT listed as an "Essential Business" and would therefore be required to remain closed during such an action.
Protecting Your Firearms Business and the Public During a Crisis
By John Bocker, NSSF Security Consultant Team Member
An emergency or crisis can erupt at any time, and it is your greatest responsibility as a firearms dealer to maintain your inventory in a way that prevents any threat to public safety. This includes your firearms sales and compliance practices, especially when it comes to dealing with a surge in demand, as well as securing your inventory if it must be left unattended.
It’s Not Too Late to Put a Plan in Place
The best time to design a crisis plan is before you need it. Although that may not always be the situation for all our FFLs today, it’s not too late to create a plan and kick into high gear with basic protocols to protect your business, your inventory and, most importantly, your staff and the public.
The first thing to consider when an emergency occurs is the increase in concern for personal safety. With this, we typically see a rapid increase in sales, which can lead to a depleted supply chain. This increase in...
What Does the Pandemic Mean for YOUR FFL Business?
OK FFLs Friends and Partners,
We are contacting you directly as a "VIP" partner, Premium FFLC Client or someone we have worked with or supported in recent years.
Here we are with the a situation we never expected to occur. Also one that most of you were not prepared for.
But panic is not necessary. This is real BUT it's NOT TOO LATE for FFLs to react!
And we are ready to help you with your plan!
I’m writing to you about how you can succeed as a firearms dealer managing through this unforeseeable and untimely crisis involving Covid-19 but before we get into that let me tell you a little about us.
Most of you may know JC (John Clark) and me (John Bocker) as “JC & JB” from our Facebook, Linked-In or Instagram posts and videos, or maybe you’ve attended one of our many Pawn Expo or ATF-NSSF workshops at SHOT Show and across the country in recent years.
And most...
Why are firearms traces important?
Why are firearms traces important? The first thing we should answer is what is a firearm trace and how is it used by law enforcement?
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) National Tracing Center (NTC) is the country's only crime gun tracing facility. The NTC mission is to conduct firearms tracing to provide investigative leads for federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies. The purpose is to provide critical information that helps domestic and international law enforcement agencies solve firearms crimes; detect firearms trafficking; and track the intrastate, interstate and international movement of crime guns.
Firearms tracing is the systematic tracking of a firearm recovered by law enforcement through the chain of distribution to identify the first retail purchaser. The reason firearm traces are important is that they support investigative leads, possibly linking a suspect to a firearm in a criminal investigation, identifying firearms...