# CBB Project Brief: Gunsmith Shop Management SaaS
**Status:** Concept
**Destination:** CBB_Corporate venture (separate brand per §Open Questions; graduates to `CBB_Corporate/03_-_Confidential/Product_Strategy/`)
**Tier:** 3 — Longer Horizon
**Classification:** Internal — Confidential
**Version and date:** see Revision Control Block at the end of this document

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## Summary

A niche SaaS platform for small independent gunsmithing shops — specifically the precision rifle specialists doing barrel installs, action bedding, trigger jobs, and custom builds. These shops have no purpose-built software. They use QuickBooks for invoicing, handwritten work orders, and a filing cabinet of customer records. A modern job tracking, parts inventory, customer management, and workflow system built with precision rifle gunsmithing vocabulary would dominate this unserved niche. Jason's knowledge of the precision rifle community is a genuine product design advantage. Every customer in a gunsmith's shop is a gun owner with a network — and the gunsmith recommends ScopeDOPE™.

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## Problem Statement

Small gunsmithing shops — particularly precision rifle specialists — have poor software options. Generic shop management tools (ShopBoss, ServiceMax) are designed for auto repair, HVAC, or general service businesses. They don't know what a "barrel install and headspace" is, what "blueprinting" means, or how to track an action's serial number through a multi-stage build job.

Common workflow today at a small precision rifle gunsmith:
- Customer intake: handwritten work order or Word document template
- Job tracking: whiteboard, physical cards, or mental notes
- Parts inventory: spreadsheet or nothing — gunsmiths often order parts per job
- Customer communication: phone calls, text messages
- Invoicing: QuickBooks or paper
- Compliance: FFL-required records kept in a bound book or separate system

The precision rifle gunsmith who does 200 custom builds per year is managing a complex workflow with tools designed for plumbers. The result is missed deadlines, lost parts, poor customer communication, and under-invoicing (forgotten line items on complex builds).

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## Product Concept

### Core Features (v1.0)

**Customer & Firearm Registry**
- Customer records: contact info, FFL-required data where applicable
- Firearm registry per customer: make, model, serial number, caliber, build history
- Firearm service history: every job done on a specific firearm, in chronological order

**Job Management**
- Create a work order: customer, firearm, services requested, quoted price, parts required, technician assigned
- Job status workflow: intake → parts ordered → in progress → QA → complete → notified → picked up
- Job notes: technician can log progress, issues, parts substitutions
- Job timeline: expected completion date, actual completion date
- Customer notification: automated SMS/email when status changes to "complete"

**Parts Inventory**
- Stocked parts inventory: barrel blanks, triggers, stocks, bases, rings — tracked by SKU and quantity
- Parts sourced per job: record parts ordered for a specific job (serial number of barrel installed, for traceability)
- Low stock alerts
- Supplier rolodex: contact info for common suppliers (Krieger, Bartlein, Timney, etc.)

**Precision Rifle Specific Vocabulary**
- Service type library: barrel install, headspace, blueprinting, trigger job, bedding, recoil lug fitting, muzzle threading, suppressor fitting, stock fitting
- Each service type has default labor time estimates (customizable)
- Barrel recording: make, contour, length, chambering, twist rate, serial number — all fields present for barrel-specific work orders

**Invoicing**
- Generate invoice from job record — line items auto-populated from services performed
- Integration with QuickBooks or Wave Accounting for accounting
- Customer payment tracking

**Compliance Assistance**
- FFL bound book integration: for gunsmith FFLs, acquisitions and dispositions recorded per federal requirements
- Note: not a full ATF compliance system — assists with record-keeping, does not replace the bound book

### v2.0 Features
- Customer-facing portal: customer logs in, sees job status without calling
- Photo documentation: attach before/after photos to a job record
- ScopeDOPE integration: when a barrel install job is marked complete, send a notification to the customer's ScopeDOPE app: "New barrel installed — time to reset your DOPE. Open ScopeDOPE to start a new session."
- Waitlist management: popular gunsmiths have 6–12 month backlogs; waitlist and appointment scheduling

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## Target Customer

**Primary:** Small independent gunsmithing shops specializing in precision rifle work. 1–5 technicians. 100–500 jobs per year. Located throughout the US (particularly concentrated in states with active competitive shooting communities).

**Secondary:** General gunsmiths who do precision rifle work as a significant portion of their business.

**Non-target:** Large volume gun shops with in-house gunsmithing (different workflow, higher complexity). Cleaning-only or basic service shops.

**Market size:** Approximately 5,000–8,000 independent gunsmithing shops in the US. Perhaps 15–25% do meaningful precision rifle work. That's 750–2,000 potential customers for a precision-rifle-focused product.

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## Revenue Model

**SaaS subscription:**

| Tier | Price | Technicians | Jobs/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | $49/mo | 1 | Unlimited |
| Shop | $99/mo | 5 | Unlimited |
| Multi-location | $199/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited |

**Annual discount:** 2 months free (10× annual billing).

**Revenue potential:** 100 shops on paid tiers at average $80/month = $8,000 MRR = $96,000 ARR. This is achievable within 3 years in a niche this underserved. 500 shops = $480,000 ARR.

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## Strategic Fit with CBB / ScopeDOPE

**Every job completion is a ScopeDOPE acquisition event.** When a gunsmith installs a new barrel and marks the job complete, ScopeDOPE integration sends the customer: "Your new barrel is ready. Your old DOPE is invalid. Download ScopeDOPE to rebuild it before your next match." This is the highest-quality possible acquisition touch — a personal recommendation from the customer's trusted gunsmith at the exact moment of maximum relevance.

**Barrel maker partnership reinforcement:** The barrel maker partnerships CBB is pursuing (Krieger, Bartlein) have an additional dimension here. A barrel maker whose customers track their barrel installs through CBB gunsmith software builds a data relationship between barrel maker, gunsmith, and end user.

**Credibility signal:** A company whose software runs in gunsmithing shops is in the industry, not just adjacent to it. This credibility matters for partnership conversations with manufacturers and for an eventual acquisition story.

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## Competitive Landscape

| Product | Gunsmith-specific | Precision rifle vocab | Job tracking | FFL compliance | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShopBoss | No (auto repair) | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | $100+/mo |
| Lightspeed Retail | No (general retail) | ✗ | Limited | ✗ | $99+/mo |
| SimpleConsign | No (consignment) | ✗ | Limited | ✗ | $99+/mo |
| Gunsmith-specific systems | Very few, outdated | Limited | Limited | Limited | Various |
| **CBB Gunsmith SaaS** | **Yes** | **✓** | **✓** | **Assisted** | **$49–199/mo** |

The gunsmith-specific software that exists is largely legacy desktop software or subscription tools with poor UX. A modern, purpose-built, precision-rifle-specific web application has a clear differentiation path.

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## Technical Overview

**Platform:** Web application (mobile-responsive for shop floor use on a tablet)

**Stack:** Same as Club Management SaaS (Brief #02) — React + Tailwind, Python/FastAPI, PostgreSQL, hosted on CBB Kubernetes cluster. Building both simultaneously or sequentially shares significant infrastructure.

**Key integrations:**
- QuickBooks Online API: invoice sync
- Twilio or similar: SMS notifications to customers
- Stripe: direct payment collection (optional, not required)

**FFL compliance note:** This product touches regulated activity (firearm transfers through FFL gunsmithing). Legal review is required to ensure the software's record-keeping assistance doesn't create unexpected compliance liability for CBB. The product assists — it does not replace the bound book or ATF Form 4473 compliance.

**Complexity estimate:** Medium-High. More complex than the DOPE Card Generator but similar scope to Club Management SaaS. The FFL compliance angle adds legal review requirements. 4–6 months for a focused v1.0 build.

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## Go-to-Market

**Direct outreach:** Jason has direct relationships with precision rifle gunsmiths from his shooting community connections. Call Krieger, Bartlein, and Brux (existing contact list) and ask who their best gunsmith customers are — then contact those gunsmiths directly.

**American Gunsmithing Institute / NRA Gunsmithing School alumni:** These programs produce precision rifle gunsmiths who are early in their careers and more open to modern tooling than established shops.

**Gunsmithing forums:** Accurate Shooter forum, Sniper's Hide gunsmithing section. Post as a gunsmith tool, not as a marketing exercise.

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## Success Metrics

| Metric | 12-month | 24-month |
|---|---|---|
| Active paying shops | 10 | 50 |
| MRR | $800 | $4,000 |
| ScopeDOPE downloads attributed to gunsmith referral | 50 | 500 |
| Average shop retention (monthly churn) | <3% | <2% |

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## Risks & Mitigations

| Risk | Likelihood | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| FFL regulatory complexity creates liability for CBB | Medium | Explicit ToS: software assists, does not comply. Legal review before launch. |
| Gunsmiths are resistant to new software | High | Onboarding: white-glove for first 10 customers. Offer to migrate their existing records. |
| Market too small for meaningful revenue | Medium | 100 shops at $80/month = $96K ARR — meaningful but not transformational. Build only if Club Management SaaS succeeds first. |
| Feature requirements are much deeper than scoped | High | Strict v1.0 scope: job tracking, customer records, parts inventory, invoicing. No FFL compliance tools in v1.0. |

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## Resource Requirements

- 1 developer (Jason) — 4–6 months for v1.0
- Legal review: attorney review of FFL record-keeping assistance features ($1,500–3,000)
- Infrastructure: shared with Club Management SaaS (Build both on same backend platform)

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## Recommended Timing

**Build after Club Management SaaS (Brief #02) is live and stable.** The two products share a backend infrastructure and the Club SaaS proves the multi-tenant SaaS model first. Gunsmith SaaS is a Tier 3 priority — build when bandwidth allows, after higher-tier projects are shipping.

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## Open Questions

- Should this product be under the CBB brand or a separate brand (e.g., "GunsmithPro" or "StonePoint")? Recommendation: separate brand for the B2B product, with Cold Bore Ballistics™ listed as publisher — keeps the CBB brand clean as a shooter-facing brand.
- Is FFL compliance (bound book, Form 4473 records) in scope? Recommendation: explicitly out of scope for v1.0; consider a compliance add-on in v2.0 with proper legal vetting.
- Should parts inventory include pricing and supplier ordering (PO management)? Recommendation: parts inventory yes, PO management deferred to v2.0.

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## Document Control

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| **Document owner** | `jschwefel@coldboreballisticsllc.com` |
| **Classification** | Confidential (03_-_Confidential/) |
| **Location** | `OneDrive/ScopeDOPE/03_-_Confidential/Product_Strategy/CBB_BRIEF_13_GUNSMITH_SAAS.md` |
| **Cross-references** | `CBB_PROJECT_BRIEFS_TOC.md` |
| **Created** | 2026-06-02 |
| **Last updated** | 2026-06-09 |
| **Next full review due** | 2027-06-02 |

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## Revision Control Block

| Rev | Date | Changed By | Reviewed By | Approved By | Summary |
|-----|------|------------|-------------|-------------|-------|
| 0.9 | 2026-06-02 | jschwefel | — | — | Initial release |
| DRAFT | 2026-06-09 | Claude (Opus 4.8) | — | — | Removed header version number (→ Status/Destination + revision-block pointer); added Destination tag (CBB_Corporate venture — separate brand); applied ™ to first use of ScopeDOPE/Cold Bore Ballistics. |
