A qeustion to organizers, store owners, and airsofters

[MarksInnerDemon]

I come from SC, and while there is a decent support it isn't as expansive or as all encompassing as many regions in the US. I believe it is partly due to the lack of large cities in general, and possibly the high number of firearm owners which I have notice are ignorently opposed to airsoft intially in my neck of the woods. (Although most airsoft owners here own the same weapons as they carry in airsoft)

I had been researching info on campaigns ranging from what airsoft is, to how people got started, unified sales and moved from a little known company to rather large ones. Part of this came from a aquaintance wanting to open a store for hobbies, and was enclined to also have a airsoft section. He actually is a big hobby distributor in Africa, but moved to the US and still likes to work even though he effectively doesn't need to.

So with these questions what I am looking to do is find out ways people have supported asirsoft and gotten fact out, and involved communites that backed the industry and hobby in kind. Anyone with info they are willing to share would be greatly appreciated, and not just buisness info, but the natural support of events like this.

[Matt]

Start a website. Host games. Post awesome videos of those games. The people will come. I've done it before, you are looking at the website. The first thing I did when I was looking into Airsoft was search online for "Airsoft Oregon" to see who was playing and what was available.

I would not advise on starting a brick and mortar store, you are only going to lose money. You need a market in your area for Airsoft first. So many things can be bought for dirt cheap online, a community doesn't need a store to get off the ground. What you could do instead is get a business license and start talking with distributors, you might be able to get deals and pass on savings to your local buddies. Plus, you'll have great contacts for when you actually do open a real store down the road.