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I talk with owners of shops all the time, and from all over the country.
As has been mentioned, location is extremely important.
Inventory is a killer. If you can't turn over your entire inventory at least once a year, you're losing money on the stuff you bought.
People want both great selection and low prices, but they're being unreasonable. You can have one, but not both. If you have hundreds of guns in stock, you either owe the bank a lot of money, or you're using your own capital. Either way, you need to move those guns.
Keeping a smaller inventory and special-ordering guns is another route. However, you'll have to be very competitive on price, or people will go elsewhere.
Shops with a large inventory of guns will get 25% or more above their cost on new guns. Shops that special order go as low as 5% (that's the lowest I've found). Most shops that do a lot in the way of special orders seem to charge around 10%.
The shops that are doing well are concentrating on providing what the big discount chains don't offer. Some won't even sell Remington or Mossberg. Others really push the service aspect.
The owners I've talked to who do really well are businessmen first, gun nuts second.
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