TriggerSafe; An American Small Business Story
TRIGGERSAFE; AN AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS STORY
Starting your own business is scary, period. Long hours, low pay, financial risk, negative comments, worry and not knowing if it will succeed are part of the game. However, this great country offers everyone the chance to strike out on their own and attempt to grab a piece of the American dream. It doesn’t guarantee you will succeed but thank God we at least have the freedom to take the chance.
TriggerSafe started from an Accidental Discharge by one of our officers on our SWAT team. While his hands were off the rifle and climbing into our armored vehicle, a piece of gear on his vest got into the trigger guard of his M4. The safety must have been off, whether he had moved it to fire or other gear had swiped it off. When the gear pushed on the trigger, the rifle operated as designed and BOOM!! Now no one got hurt as the rifle was pointed straight down, but this required a team debrief.
My partner Vinny and myself set about trying to find a way to prevent this problem when you don’t have positive control of the loaded weapon in a non-operational environment. Out of some Kydex came the first TriggerSafe. Simple, quick and easy were my first words to describe using it.
Like many business stories, we thought that was it. We would just make them for the team. However, once a friend and business guy saw them, he encouraged us to think larger and attempt to get a patent and to also look at manufacturing them. We did and over the course of a few years and several thousands of dollars later, here we are.
It has taken that long to get everything in place and make the connections in the business world for this venture to start to take off, but it was worth it. TriggerSafe is starting to move and on a larger scale then I would have believed a year ago.
Skill sets I learned from being on the SWAT team for twenty years are being applied to the business. Risk assessment is something we can always apply to decision making. Nothing great comes without risk. It is managing that risk and then making the decision to go that separates those that succeed from those that decide not to try.
Talk and listen to other people, including those with a different opinion or idea. Having people around that always tell you everything is great makes us feel better, but it may not be the best advice. While we enjoy hearing what people love about TriggerSafe, I really like to hear (occasionally) what someone may not like. If it is a good idea or critique, then we fix problems or adjust and make the business better. SWAT debriefs could be brutally honest, both the good and the bad. That is how you learn and improve.
Keep your vision open. Don’t just focus on a narrow aspect of the business, watch for windows of opportunity and take advantage of them. Making an entry on a hostage rescue
requires that we have a good field of vision to run our routes and look for the target. We don’t focus on the sights or even have the weapon directly at eye level until we see a threat. Keep an open mind and overwatch on the business, and then focus when you need to.
TriggerSafe is growing quickly and we are selling around the country and overseas. Large companies are working with us and manufacturers as well. None of this would have occurred if we had not wanted to take the risk. It was a well discussed and mitigated risk, but the decision was made to go. No matter where we end up in a few years, that decision was a good one and we have enjoyed the ride. Thank God we have that opportunity in this great country. If anyone has any questions, visit us at www.triggersafe.us or feel free to email me at james@triggersafe.us. Stay safe everyone.