When Success Means Staying Home: Why Local Entrepreneurs Are Betting on Small-Town Arkansas

There's a business calculation that happens in boardrooms and coffee shops across America. It goes something like this: Where can we make the most money? Which market has the most customers? Where's the growth?

And then there's a different kind of calculation—the one that Josh McMillan, Robby Sims, and Brent Hottinger made when they decided to build the I-40 Shooting Range and Gun Store in Pottsville instead of Conway or Little Rock.

"Why would we want to go to Conway or some other market to launch a product for monetary gain?" Josh asks in a recent conversation. "It sounds kind of wrong."

That sentence—it sounds kind of wrong—captures something we don't talk about enough. In an era when every business guru preaches scale and growth, when success is measured in expansion and market capture, some entrepreneurs are making a radically different choice. They're choosing to build where they live, not where the spreadsheet says they should.

The Numbers Don't Tell the Whole Story

Let's be clear: from a pure business perspective, Pottsville isn't the obvious choice. Conway has nearly double the population. Little Rock dwarfs both. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 data, Pope County—which includes Russellville and Pottsville—has about 64,000 residents. That's not nothing, but it's not exactly a major metropolitan area either.

Any business consultant looking at demographics alone would push these three partners toward a larger market. More people means more potential customers means more revenue. It's Business 101.

But Josh, Robby, and Brent—who collectively bring over 40 years of experience in law enforcement and firearms retail—aren't just looking at population density. They're looking at something harder to quantify: roots.

"We've got deep ties to this area," Josh explains. "We know people. We have a lot of friends in this area, a lot of family in this area, and we just want to be here for them."

The Hidden Economics of Staying Local

Here's what's interesting: choosing to stay local might actually be smarter business than it appears at first glance.

A 2024 study from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that locally-owned businesses recirculate an average of 48% of revenue back into the local economy, compared to just 14% for chain establishments. When Josh mentions they've been recruiting founding members through their networks, he's tapping into something powerful—what sociologists call "social capital."

Social capital is the value created by relationships, trust, and community networks. It's why word-of-mouth marketing works. It's why people drive past three chain restaurants to eat at the place their neighbor owns. It's the reason a new shooting range in Pottsville can sign up founding members before the doors even open.

"We've been here for over two decades," Josh notes. "We've grown some roots and we planted roots here as well." Those roots aren't just poetic—they're economic infrastructure.

Building What the Community Actually Needs

The I-40 Shooting Range isn't just another gun store dropped into a market. It's the answer to a specific, local need that Josh identified through years of teaching firearms training in the area.

He'd been running classes at a small range that could only accommodate five or six people at a time. As he talked with students and other shooters, he kept hearing the same frustration: there was no quality facility in the River Valley. The nearest comparable range required a 30-minute drive minimum, often longer.

So instead of accepting that gap or waiting for someone else to fill it, these three entrepreneurs decided to build exactly what their community needed: a member-driven facility with a 500-yard rifle range, multiple pavilions accommodating 30-40 shooters simultaneously, and programming shaped by what local members actually want to do.

"We're not just gonna be one of those people that says we offer this and this is the way it's gonna be," Josh emphasizes. "We want to be a member-led shooting facility."

That philosophy—building with a community rather than for a market—reflects a growing trend. According to the American Independent Business Alliance, communities with strong local business sectors show higher levels of civic engagement, better environmental outcomes, and more economic resilience during downturns.

The Ripple Effect of Local Investment

Josh uses a metaphor that gets at something essential about local entrepreneurship: "You drop a little bead down, it ripples out. I think this shooting range is gonna come in here, we're gonna offer some really awesome things, and you're gonna see small ripples leaving and you're gonna see them affect the larger community."

He's not wrong. The construction jobs for building out the facility at 724 Mountain Base Road. The ongoing employment once it opens. The firearms instructors who'll teach classes. The families spending weekend afternoons together learning to shoot. The law enforcement agencies that will use it for training.

But the ripples go beyond economics. Josh, Robby, and Brent talk about their business through the lens of "faith, family, freedom"—values they don't just market but actively embody through church involvement and community service. When local entrepreneurs succeed, they tend to reinvest not just financially but through time and leadership.

"We want to basically reinvest, pay it forward," Josh says. "This shooting range and this gun store is a way for us to pay it forward to our local community."

What We Lose When Everyone Leaves

There's a flip side to this story that's worth considering. What happens to communities when their most talented, ambitious people always leave for bigger markets?

Rural sociologist Patrick Carr coined the term "brain drain" to describe this phenomenon, and Arkansas has experienced it acutely. According to Arkansas Economic Development Commission data, the state has historically struggled to retain college-educated young adults, with many leaving for cities in Texas, Tennessee, and beyond.

Every entrepreneur who chooses growth over community represents not just lost business revenue but lost leadership, lost mentorship, and lost social infrastructure. When Josh mentions teaching his kids, serving at church, and building something for his neighbors, he's describing the kind of social fabric that holds communities together—the kind that frays when everyone talented enough to build something substantial decides to do it somewhere else.

The I-40 Shooting Range represents a counter-narrative. It's three experienced professionals saying: We're good enough to compete anywhere. We're choosing here.

The Path Forward

The facility isn't open yet—construction is ongoing, with the building framed and sheet-rocked, waiting on final touches. But they're already enrolling founding members, offering lifetime rate locks and other benefits for early supporters.

For anyone interested in becoming part of this local venture, the path is straightforward: visit I40Range.com, fill out the contact form, and someone will walk you through membership options. They're offering individual memberships, group packages, and even corporate memberships for businesses that want to offer this as an employee benefit.

Whether you're interested in shooting sports or not, the I-40 Shooting Range matters because it represents a choice. In an economy that constantly pressures people to optimize for scale, to chase the biggest market, to prioritize growth over everything else, Josh, Robby, and Brent are making a different bet.

They're betting that building something substantial where you already are—where you have relationships, where you know the needs, where you can see the impact—is not just a viable business strategy but a better way to live.

Want to hear more about the vision behind the I-40 Shooting Range and what it means to build a business rooted in community values? Listen to the full conversation with Josh McMillan on the Why Not Here Podcast.

Visit i40range.com for more information on their business