TC man starts up hunting company

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(Special to the Record-Eagle) Rob Garrow.

July 19, 2012

TC man starts up hunting company

Firm pushing toward offering 48,000 products

By Mike Eckert meckert@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Tue Jul 31, 2012, 01:44 PM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — For years, Rob Garrow wished he could have a career as a professional hunter.

In a way, he does now. While Garrow doesn’t get paid to hunt, he’s made a career out of hunting as president of the Traverse City-based Trophy Taggers.

“I was at my sister’s wedding three years ago in September,” Garrow said. “My buddy and I were talking about a network marketing company and something that he said struck me. It was loud and clear. I thought ‘nobody’s ever done this with hunting.’ They’ve done it with juice companies, vitamin companies, household cleaning companies, women’s makeup, but nobody’s done it with hunting. I started working the next day on it.”

The idea of Trophy Taggers is simple. A one-time payment of $199 gives hunters a lifetime membership to the online community, where they can post their hunting and fishing pictures. It also gives them access to products — and 10 percent back on everything they purchase.

“We started with 100 products last year, but we’re pushing towards 48,000 products today,” Garrow said. “We’re selling products everyone buys. They don’t have to buy the products we have, we’re giving them access to all the top-name brands. We’re really not asking you to buy something you don’t want or aren’t familiar with. Although, we are branding some of our Trophy Taggers products.”

That includes a new redemption bow, with the Trophy Taggers logo embedded into the frame.

Growing the company took some time. After working for a couple of years to get things started, Garrow began taking members last year.

“I was putting a lot of money into it way before I had a chance to ask anyone to join,” Garrow said. “I kept thinking ‘this is a big endeavor, I hope it works.’ You keep sending big checks out and you’re wondering if they’re ever going to come the other way.”

It did. After signing up his friends last year, Garrow finally reached 100 members.

“After we got 100 people at the beginning of this year, we went out on the road,” Garrow said. “We went to Ohio to the Deer and Turkey Spectacular. All of a sudden, our company took off. We found the right people, those people knew other people and we went from four states to 30 states in three months. That’s where it got exciting.”

Garrow said people in his company believe Trophy Taggers will hit 3,000 members next year.

“Google called me last week to find out who I was and what I was doing,” Garrow said. “They don’t see companies going from a local presence to a national presence so quickly. I’ve got people from all parts of the country looking at us. And we just showed up on the map a few months ago. That thrills me. It tells me that maybe we can be right there between Amazon, Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops. That’s thinking big.”

This weekend, Trophy Taggers will be represented at deer shows in Alabama and Wisconsin, as well as in the fishing world at the Pepsi Super Tournament in Alpena.

“Trophy Taggers has the Big Fish Bonus there this weekend,” Garrow said.

Plans are also in the works for the upcoming hunting season.

“We’re ramping up for our big buck contest,” Garrow said. “If you’re a Trophy Taggers member, you’re in the big buck contest and the turkey contest for the rest of your life. That’s starting to draw people in from all over the country. It’s your chance to be semi-famous. To win that contest and the award, you’re part of national attention, really.”

While Trophy Taggers continues to expand, Garrow doesn’t plan on leaving northern Michigan.

“We’re always going to be based in Traverse City,” Garrow said. “It’s the ultimate playground. That’s why I moved here 13-14 years ago. It’s a hunting, fishing and outdoors haven.”