bill123 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 I started yesterday and will cronicle my journey here, hopefully each night. I make up 12 "boxes" at a time because a lot of product comes in boxes of 12, 24, 36, or 48. Yesterday I got 4 accounts. (10/2) My "boxes" arer 3-teired and hold 100 items. My average CoGS is 52 cents. The box says minimum $1 and anything over goes to charity. Today I finished my web site. (10/3) Tommorrow I will spend all day telemarketing and post my results. I posted a picture without the name of the business, because I don't want to be embaressed if I don't succede. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbeckl Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Just a suggestion, maybe try and get your COG down closer to .30-.35 . Your Set up looks very original, nicely done! Am i missing the money box , i dont see it? Maybe consider replacing some of those items that take alot of room, an have a high COG , and replacing them with smaller, more profitable items. I dont have enough experience to offer a whole lo of advice, but im sure you will get some replies from more experienced honor box opperators. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill123 Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Just a suggestion, maybe try and get your COG down closer to .30-.35 . Your Set up looks very original, nicely done! Am i missing the money box , i dont see it? Maybe consider replacing some of those items that take alot of room, an have a high COG , and replacing them with smaller, more profitable items. I dont have enough experience to offer a whole lo of advice, but im sure you will get some replies from more experienced honor box opperators. Best of luck! I am purposely keeping my CoGS at 52% because . . . 1. I beleive you have more theft if your customers feel they are being ripped off. If you rip them off they will rip you off. 2. I will have more sales if you have a value product. 3. If there is little perceived value you will loose the account. 3. The average markup in retail has always been 100%. Therefor at $1.00 you need to have an average price of your product of 50 cents. Less than that causes 1 & 2 & 3 above in my opinion. This seams to be contrary to a lot of peoples thinking but having run businesses before I am pretty sure I am right, but am very willing to hear well explained reasons why I am wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbeckl Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 It sounds like you have your mind set. Im not sure there will be many people trying to explain why you are wrong, but more likely to offer experienced advice, and suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill123 Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Today was rough. I used to call residences all the time when I was in real estate, but business to business is different. I ran into a lot of, "You have to talk to corporate". Also, some corporations have you fill out requests by email. The process is definately going to be more follow up intensive than business to consumer cold calling. I got no new clients today. I think it will take a good week of calling and then follow up to gage how well calling works. Any advise on making calling more effective? Can anyone advise what works for them? Thankyou in advance for any advice. I do think one big mistake I made today was calling all different types on businesses. It really broke my rythm. Tommorrow I'm going to do all real estate offices. Then if I get through that something like all banks. Maybe that will work better. Anyone have advice on this? It sounds like you have your mind set. Im not sure there will be many people trying to explain why you are wrong, but more likely to offer experienced advice, and suggestions. I guess my mind is made up until someone convinces my otherwise. I think most people are that way. For example you beleive low CoGS is better and will keep that opinion until you hear reasoning that convinces you otherwise. I am no different than you. I am thankful you took the time to give you opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I guess my mind is made up until someone convinces my otherwise. I think most people are that way. For example you beleive low CoGS is better and will keep that opinion until you hear reasoning that convinces you otherwise. I am no different than you. I am thankful you took the time to give you opinion. reality will convince you otherwise Yesterday I got 4 accounts. (10/2) My "boxes" arer 3-teired and hold 100 items. My average CoGS is 52 cents. The box says minimum $1 and anything over goes to charity. So lets say I put in 5 bucks and take 1 snack but the box is shorted $10 by others, does my $4 go to your pocket or the charity? dont bother answering i think we all know the truth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill123 Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 reality will convince you otherwise So lets say I put in 5 bucks and take 1 snack but the box is shorted $10 by others, does my $4 go to your pocket or the charity? dont bother answering i think we all know the truth I give 25% of my profits to the homeless. That you could take a good thing and make it out to be bad tells everyone more about you than it does about me. Sorry, I broke my promise not to respond to personal attacks. Just curious what percentage of your income did you give to charity last year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newheart53 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Bill my suggestion is to give up you are not going to win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserri Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I for one am very interested in following this journey. I wish you all the best Bill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I give 25% of my profits to the homeless. That you could take a good thing and make it out to be bad tells everyone more about you than it does about me. Sorry, I broke my promise not to respond to personal attacks. Just curious what percentage of your income did you give to charity last year? i donate my TIME which is more valuable than money but anyway lets look at how much 25% of your profit really means so you have 100 item box expected gross income = $100 less tax... gross income = $93.00 less product cost gross profit $43.00 less theft, 20-40% ...lets say 20% so knock off another 10 bucks. gross profit = $33.00 less spoilage,lets say 5% because u have a lot of lays chips,shorted dated stuff gross profit = $30.50 now lets subtract your cost to service ..this includes mileage, gas, to do the service, etc.. this can vary pretty wildly but 7% of gross doesn't seem unreasonable especially if you get 20 locations and try to do them all in a route you cant do that in a prius you need something that gets a bit high mileage and gas is pretty bad lately. To be honest it is probably higher than that especially if you plan on actually paying yourself a salary for your time (you should unless ur working for free) but ill be generous and lets say 7% net profit $23.50 so whats charity's cut? $5.87...KA-CHING!!!!! in my case i was always honest its a for-profit business provided as a service to the location with no cost to them. i never had to lie or mislead anyone to get a location Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill123 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 i donate my TIME which is more valuable than money but anyway lets look at how much 25% of your profit really means so you have 100 item box expected gross income = $100 less tax... gross income = $93.00 less product cost gross profit $43.00 less theft, 20-40% ...lets say 20% so knock off another 10 bucks. gross profit = $33.00 less spoilage,lets say 5% because u have a lot of lays chips,shorted dated stuff gross profit = $30.50 now lets subtract your cost to service ..this includes mileage, gas, to do the service, etc.. this can vary pretty wildly but 7% of gross doesn't seem unreasonable especially if you get 20 locations and try to do them all in a route you cant do that in a prius you need something that gets a bit high mileage and gas is pretty bad lately. To be honest it is probably higher than that especially if you plan on actually paying yourself a salary for your time (you should unless ur working for free) but ill be generous and lets say 7% net profit $23.50 so whats charity's cut? $5.87...KA-CHING!!!!! in my case i was always honest its a for-profit business provided as a service to the location with no cost to them. i never had to lie or mislead anyone to get a location Yes as I said, That you could take a good thing and make it out to be bad tells everyone more about you than it does about me. And boy do you put a lot of effort into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill123 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Well I got 2 more account today from cold calling. I focused on real estate offices. I think next time will be better because by the end of the day I had my pitch ironed out. It was probable 10 times as effective by the time I got my 1st new account at 3:30 than it was when I started in the morning. Anyway it has been 3 days and 6 accounts. I know I have to get better at it or it will take me forever to build the business. Especially since I know I'll loose some accounts. I'm interested in seeing what my theft rate is. I've read theft will be low in the begining, but gets worse over time. What theft rate is average for the 1st week? Has anyone cold called on a weekend and what businesses are open then that I should target? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill123 Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 I just checked my web site. I had 20 people look at it today. I did end up leaving a lot of messages when I cold called. It looks like some of them check the web site, now I need 1 of them to call me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GW13 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 From reading these honor snack box forums it seems most people posting on here have very little experience in the honor snack box business.....just keep that in mind when listening to advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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