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Rant: I hit 500 deer processed solo and the number that shocked me wasn't the deer count
I run a small shop outside of Kalispell, Montana, and I keep a tally in a spiral notebook of every animal that comes through my door. Last week I hit 500 deer for the season, which is a lot for one guy with one grinder and a walk in cooler the size of a closet. But the number that actually stopped me was different. I went back through the notebook and counted 371 of those deer were dropped off by just 12 people, guys who hunt hard and trust me with everything they take. That means the other 129 deer came from about 80 different folks, most of them once a year. It flipped how I think about the whole thing. I stopped trying to be fast for everybody and started really learning those 12 guys, how they want their backstraps cut, whether they save the heart, which ones want the whole thing in burger. My repeat rate on those 12 is basically 100 percent, and honestly that pays the electric bill way more than chasing new customers ever did. So here's my question for the rest of you running your own shops, have you ever actually counted how much of your business comes from a handful of the same people? I want to know if 12 out of hundreds sounds normal or if I'm just lucky in my little corner of the valley.
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amygonzalez3d ago
Man, this is the 80/20 rule showing up in a meat cooler and I love it. I see the same thing in all kinds of places, like how a bar has maybe ten regulars who basically pay the rent while a hundred other people wander in once and never come back. Same with hair stylists, same with the guy who fixes my truck. It's weird how we chase the crowd when the real gold is sitting right there in a few loyal folks who already know we do good work. Twelve out of hundreds sounds about right to me, not luck at all, that's just how small towns work, and you're smart for seeing it instead of trying to please everybody.
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