Check-It Paintball is closing its doors, unable to pay its bill after less than a year in Leesburg.

Franchise owner Keith Cross attributes the business’s failure to its small customer base and his inexperience as a business owner. But the continuing military effort in Afghanistan also has had an impact.

There are “not enough people coming through the store,” Cross said, although he thinks Leesburg has a sufficient paintball clientele. Traditional advertising did not reap the customer base he was hoping for and the store began sponsoring teams later than they should have, he said. Team jerseys with the Check-It Paintball name and logo have spurred customers, but Cross said they did it “a little too late.”

Customers aside, Cross said he really wasn’t the one who was supposed to run the store. “I have paintball experience, but as far as the retail, the books and the taxes, that’s really his neck of the woods,” he said in referring to his brother Kyle Cross who is currently deployed with the Virginia National Guard in Afghanistan.

The brothers shared the dream of opening their own paintball store and were only two weeks away from opening it at 212-A Loudoun Street when Kyle was deployed. Kyle is a National Guard reservist with the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division. Keith is a Marine Corps reservist.

Kyle is expected to spend 18 months in Afghanistan, but Lt. Col. Chester Carter III, a Virginia National Guard public affairs officer, said Kyle’s service could be extended to 24 months.

Kyle learned of the store’s failings via e-mail. The brothers try to e-mail every week or so, but Keith said it really depends on where Kyle is stationed and what his duties are at the time.

“Kyle can’t do much from where he is,” Keith said. In a recent correspondence, he did advise Keith to try and minimize the financial strain associated with closing the store.

The National Guard doesn’t provide much help either. “If a person owns a business, to my knowledge there is no kind of outreach,” Carter said.

“My plan was to fight it out ‘til the last minute. He pretty much gave me the go ahead” to close it now, Keith said. “We will be closing at the end of this month. We worked out how the customers will be transferred over to the other stores.”

Customer John LaBillois said he used to travel to Sterling for his paintball equipment, but has been a customer of Check-It ever since it opened last year. “This is just so convenient to have Check-it right in town,” LaBillois said.

Before he closes, Keith must find a way to ship all of the care package items overseas. Customers have been dropping of comfort items for the reservists—including a Christmas tree with ornaments—at the store for Keith to mail. Instead of sending a large care package he will probably send the items “piecemeal” he said, since he can no longer write it off as a business donation.

Keith said he is closing before the holidays because he doesn’t want to sell equipment that requires support and not be around to fix it if something goes wrong. Customers will be directed to Check-It’s other locations in Chantilly and Fairfax.