Introducing Firearms Training Hub 2.0

[David S.]

Things are kind of on hold for a bit til we get the maps figured out.

The plug-in developer is doing some behind the scenes shenanigans that is causing only a fraction of the 500 events to populate on the maps.

I am positive this will be a good thing in the long run, but it's been frustrating in the short term.

[TheNewbie]

Things are kind of on hold for a bit til we get the maps figured out.

The plug-in developer is doing some behind the scenes shenanigans that is causing only a fraction of the 500 events to populate on the maps.

I am positive this will be a good thing in the long run, but it's been frustrating in the short term.

Thanks for working on this.

[David S.]

North TX Weaponcraft

A new concept: Regional Training Groups.

Dagga Boy approached me a few weeks ago about creating a regional training calendar specifically for our Dallas/Ft Worth area. This would obviously help locals find training in our area. It would also help prevent doubled up classes because hosts and instructors would have access to a broader schedule.

I've decided to expand his idea to include hosted classes within a "reasonable" 3 hour drive of the Metroplex because there's a bunch of cool stuff happening at Austin, OKC, and North Houston that folks would travel to.

I hope you guys find this helpful.

Cheers,

[David S.]

Firearms Training Hub is getting ready to roll out an event management option for participating instructors. This would be an alternative to Eventbrite that is run on the Firearms Training Hub platform.

History: I’ve had three instructors independently approach me since I started Firearms Training Hub. They have all stated that they are unsatisfied with Eventbrite and the other event management products. While I believe the long-term, cheapest option for most instructors is to run a marketplace on their own website, there are a few folks that prefer to outsource that end of the business. I’m offering a third way that includes customized service at a low price.


I expect to offer

- Simplified pricing structure that is cheaper than EventBrite. (standard credit card processor (PayPal, Stripe, etc) fees still apply.)

- No fees for free events.

- No fees for tickets paid in cash, check, etc.

- discount codes and sales (price reductions) for classes.

- seamless integration with our current events maps and instructor profiles.

- No initialization fees, annual fees or deposit required. No strings attached. You can use our service as much or little as you like.

- I do not hold your funds. Tuition funds are processed through the instructors credit card processor (Paypal, Stripe, etc) and go directly to your account.

- Optional cancellation and refund management. (higher admin fees, and I will hold funds until event is completed)

- Full Customized service and personal support. You communicate with me directly. With a simple email, text or phone call, I can personally set up your account, list or modify events, adjust inventory, set pricing and sales, and provide tech support.

- You will have access to an Instructor Portal where you can do all everything yourself.

There's some other cool options we are looking into and I expect to go live in the next couple weeks. Contact me if you are interested or have any suggestions.

Cheers,

[David S.]

We're still working on the above project. Soooooooprize, it's taking longer than expected.

We're waiting on our payment processor to fix some things, which we hope will happen in the next week or so. Then more beta testing before we launch.

#soon .

[jc000]

I'm facing a couple of challenges.
-Nobody knows how many private citizens take open enrollment classes beyond the super basic NRA and CHL courswork. Of the millions of gun owners, I've heard a couple instructors suggest that less than a thousand people regularly receive professional training beyond state requirement. I'm not sure there's any data to support that claim. I'm guess it's low considering something like 300 people were at Tac Con last month. What's the number? 5,000? 10,000? I'd be really surprised if there were 10,000 people that actively and continuously train. Of those, how many are looking for my kind of training, as opposed to wiz-bang InstaFamous instructors? Presumably some fraction of that number would be the base for any monetization plan. Are those numbers big enough to support a business? time will tell.

Sorry to necro this post, but just saw it and as a software developer (ok, as someone who harasses my software developer business partners) involved in a number of ventures of varying success I thought I'd share a thought with you.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Lean Start-up approach, but there are some solid concepts within this methodology that are worth considering, some of which include:

• Extensive customer-discovery to formulate and test business model hypotheses
• Mapping out your customer segment(s), value proposition, channels, etc. and aligning these findings to measurable activities
• Minimal, rapid development

Typically, if you can document 100+ potential users (firearms instructors? people who are interested in firearms instruction? businesses interested in advertising / selling to either of these groups?) who have a hair-on-fire need for what you are offering, you may have a solid business model. A good summary of an experimental approach to determining customer need before major development can be found here in the Zappo's example.

The point being, just from reading through your comments in this and your previous postings on the Training Hub, my completely unsolicited opinion is that you might benefit from this approach. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a business enterprise development center at one of your local universities running a lean start-up workshop. Speaking as someone who has gone through the pain of costly development for a project that crashed, I have found that adopting some of this methodology has greatly improved the quality of our current offering and go-to-market plan. Anyway something to consider. You may be well aware of all this or simply not interested, just thought I'd share.

[David S.]

I've created new pages so that you can view classes in you USPSA Area.
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
Area 5
Area 6
Area 7
Area 8

The idea is that you can bookmark your particular Area page (and neighboring area if you live on a border) and go straight there when you're looking for classes.

Over the next week or so, I'll be adding links to local instructors who are in each Area.

What do you think?

Cheers,

[SeriousStudent]

I like that idea, it is very useful.

[jlw]

I've created new pages so that you can view classes in you USPSA Area.
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
Area 5
Area 6
Area 7
Area 8

The idea is that you can bookmark your particular Area page (and neighboring area if you live on a border) and go straight there when you're looking for classes.

Over the next week or so, I'll be adding links to local instructors who are in each Area.

What do you think?

Cheers,

I may have missed it, but is there a link to this map and the areas on the main page?

[David S.]

I may have missed it, but is there a link to this map and the areas on the main page?

Not yet. That's beyond my skill level. We'll get that up in the next week or so.

Also, Instagram and Facebook profiles for each area.