Manager

[TKK]

So im at a point where we cant handle the daily tasks. Getting accounts, managing, inventory, installs, moves, gasing 5 vans, payroll, expenses, service calls, repairs, deposits, withdrawls, checks, and a million other things. Were getting a manager to tqk3 off most of it off our plate. What do you guys do with managers? Pay range? Commission? Salary? Tasks?

[AZVendor]

If you can't manage this yourself and do all of those jobs then you are in over your head and should just sell it.  On the other hand, any more employees you add to take on those details will be a PITA and will take a long time to find the right fit.  I wouldn't turn over management of it at all.  You can get a salesman and train him/her to sell the way you want, get a repair tech who will also do your moves and outsource your payroll to ADP, QB payroll or other service,  Pay an accountant every year to do your taxes and final year end statements.  You yourself should do the management, training, banking and accounting.  I did $1 million a year through 300 machines on three routes with just 3 drivers, myself and one part time office person.  $1M per year in the 90's is like $2-3 M per year now so you know how much product we moved.  To make this easier for you it's imperative that you have every machine electronically monitored for route accountability and for product forecasting as you've been too cheap to implement before.  If you won't spend the money on that now then why spend it on people who will be handcuffed by your unwillingness to implement it?

[Southeast Treats]

A good manager would need to either have outside vending experience or have come up thru your ranks and know your operation.  Some of those tasks sound like they should be delegated already, example - don't the drivers gas their own vehicles?  Get them gas cards and have them turn in the receipts.  If you are still selling accounts while struggling to manage what you have, maybe hit pause on locating for a few months, just work with whatever referrals or requests come in while you get other business done.  Might be time to hire an office person or repair person.  Office person can handle count, deposit, and bookkeeping, answer phones, organize the bills for you to review, etc.  Repair person can also help with installs and warehouse as needed, so on...  you might not need a manager as much as you just need the right help in the right places and be willing to delegate...  I know with your school accounts you are about to get very busy 

[moondog]

10 hours ago, TKK said:

So im at a point where we cant handle the daily tasks. Getting accounts, managing, inventory, installs, moves, gasing 5 vans, payroll, expenses, service calls, repairs, deposits, withdrawls, checks, and a million other things. Were getting a manager to tqk3 off most of it off our plate. What do you guys do with managers? Pay range? Commission? Salary? Tasks?

The first thing I'd do is turn your payroll over to a payroll service.  They take care of all the reporting, filing and record keeping as well as Workman's Comp insurance and TDI as your employees are actually their employees in the eyes of the IRS.  They do charge a fee, but in my experience it's not much more than what you're probably paying in WC now.  This will save you several hours a week and take a major PITA off your hands.  You're probably looking at 40k a year for any decent manager and you'll still need to watch him like a hawk at least for awhile.  Smells like a recipe for disaster to me.

[orsd]

3 hours ago, moondog said:

The first thing I'd do is turn your payroll over to a payroll service.  They take care of all the reporting, filing and record keeping as well as Workman's Comp insurance and TDI as your employees are actually their employees in the eyes of the IRS.  They do charge a fee, but in my experience it's not much more than what you're probably paying in WC now.  This will save you several hours a week and take a major PITA off your hands.  You're probably looking at 40k a year for any decent manager and you'll still need to watch him like a hawk at least for awhile.  Smells like a recipe for disaster to me.

Yep.

Get a good payroll service.

And a good accoutant.

This takes at least 50 of the golpher off your plate immediately.

As for moves and repairs it’s probably time to start training someone to be a dedicated mover and tech.

[Poplady1]

I agree you may want to keep as much control as possible in your hands.  We hired an experienced manager once we had lots of vehicles and employees.  In the end it was the worst move we made as he almost got us into lots of trouble between theft, lies and making extra money turning over our accounts to other vendors when they could have been saved by fixing the problem, if we had known about it.  So listen to these guys and be sure you need to do it before making an error.  

[TKK]

Randy, some of us want a life brotha, not work 8am to 1am. Cash flow means you can afford good help

[TKK]

Were on track for 1.5 mil this year, 2.1 next

[Magiccity726]

2 hours ago, TKK said:

2 hours ago, TKK said:

Randy, some of us want a life brotha, not work 8am to 1am. Cash flow means you can afford good help

I guess the goal of this business is to get passive income right? If you can take the hit of hiring a manager then go for it and enjoy your life. I do think it would be difficult to hire someone that has both vending experience and is also qualified to be a manager. Maybe look from within your company. 

[AZVendor]

Hire the help I suggested and you'll have more of a life but there aren't too many people in vending full time that have a life.  Until you have 4 -6 routes and all the employees required for that you probably won't be able to work in the office full time.  More business means exponentially more employees.  I proved that when I sold off most of my company leaving me to do just one route and I made more money each week than I had when I had all the overhead.

[AngryChris]

I'm going to stick with being a one-route operation.  I might hire a driver in the future, but that's about it.

As for you, you have bragged for quite a long time about making high margins on your business, and if you're going to be grossing near 2 million next year, you should have plenty of profits available to just pay a payroll service, hire a commissioned salesperson, hire full-time secretary and a full-time repairman.  The repairman can refurbish machines, go get supplies, and do various other things when he isn't repairing machines, and the secretary can take care of most of the office work and even count money if you trust him/her, and you can do everything else (ie. pay bills, go with salesman on leads if necessary, visit accounts, fill in for drivers, etc..).  If you do it right, pay them well, and get the right employees for the jobs, you'll make good money without getting on a truck very often.  In fact, you should be able to take days off pretty regularly.  If someone wanted to pay me to be a manager, I'd want 40-50k/year to do it.  I could do it ,but I know I would be dealing with a lot more stress than what I go through now.

I'm working on a new business model that will hopefully see me earning at least 30k mostly passively from vending and, a long time from now, maybe another 50k+/year mostly passively through another venture.  The long-term goal is to collect close to 100k/year without working more than 20 hours/week.  It might not be able to get started with any of that until I'm maybe 40-45 years of age but I would like to be working less than 10 hours/week and ONLY from home by 55 and fully retired by 65 with a reliable steady income.

[TKK]

Very good and solid advice guys. The manager im looking at is a long time friend. Sounds bad right there right? However i know him and hed never steal a dime. Hes worked for multiple banks and customer service for over 20 years. Hes asking 25k a year to start. As far as full repairman i dont get that many repairs. Maybe 20 to 30 jams a month which get fixed the same dates by the drivers. Compressors maybe 2 a year and a guy i know fixes them within a day or two. Installs we are training the drivers to do them slowly, although i dont mind installs, we got very good at them with the right equipment, liftgate, dollies, etc. 

 

For example today, me and my fiance serviced from 9am to 930pm. We ran our ice cream route. 15 stops. We took a breakfast hour and a lunch hour. We then went to 4 locations weve been wanting and we landed 3, 2 of which need to be installed by tuesday. 

Dont u guys ever wonder, what happens if your life ends? Who will keep the business afloat? Who will know what accounts to use, payments to make, bills to pay, inventory to order, etc? Thats why i think a manager would be great id also have a peace of mind knowing the business can practically run itself. Who knows, maybe start in another city and open chapter 2?

[orsd]

I don't know where you live, but 25k is just above min wage, and is honestly suspiciously low, unless he owes you a huge favor.

Also, putting a friend in that position WILL NOT END WELL. Seen golpher like this time and time again. You know what the common thread was? "I never though he was that way."

 

[TKK]

Minimum wage here is 7.25 an hour about 1100 a month. I would raise him obviously. My route drivers went from 8.50 to 11 an hour

[orsd]

Damn...

Round here fast food starts at like 12/hr. And that's before the min wage was raised to 12/hr.

[ABCVending]

8 hours ago, orsd said:

Round here fast food starts at like 12/hr. And that's before the min wage was raised to 12/hr.

$15.45/hr minimum wage in Seattle - burger flippers that can get 40hrs/wk making $32k annually - manager up here cost at least $50k/yr and they'd get offers from competitors if they proved to be any good.

note: $15.45/ hr min is for companies considered "large businesses" - think that means more than 500 employees - small business like most vending operations do not have to comply yet as it is being phased in, but to compete in the job market up here, $15/hr is rock bottom.

 

ABC

 

[Bvending]

You would get laughed at if you offered a route driver 8.50-11 an hr here. Our drivers make between 35k and 45k a year. Supervisor starts at 50k

[Anacapa Vending]

Our best driver makes almost $20/hr. 45+ hours  a week and he's worth every penny. 

 

[Magiccity726]

3 hours ago, Anacapa Vending said:

Our best driver makes almost $20/hr. 45+ hours  a week and he's worth every penny. 

 

What area is this?

[Anacapa Vending]

Los Angeles, CA

[TKK]

Jesus christ $25 per hour?!?!?!

Yeah minimum in texas is 7.25 an hour. Went up a few years ago from 5.85 or so. Gas is like 2.35 right now if that matters. 

 

 

[AngryChris]

2.35 is cheap

[orsd]

Most "similar" jobs, like beverage distribution, foodservice, linen, bakery, dump truck, and the like pay 20-25/hr round here.

1 hour ago, TKK said:

Jesus christ $25 per hour?!?!?!

Yeah minimum in texas is 7.25 an hour. Went up a few years ago from 5.85 or so. Gas is like 2.35 right now if that matters. 

 

 

 

[Poplady1]

I hired one of our best friends when she was down and out, should have known.  It wasn't a good experience.  Glad when she left and almost had a party.  Remember when people handle money it gets tempting to take just a little here and there.  They don't realize the impact. I have 5 vendors now that have grown needing to hire another driver.  They are finding out they need to train 3 to get one to stay.  I also had a vendor that loved her driver but she was having trouble making ends meet.  I encouraged her to go out one night and do the dollar test.  Sure enough each machine was short by 4 to 7 bucks each.

TKK I can appreciate wanting to be sure someone knows the business if you are hurt or down for a couple of months.  Just keep a close on eye them friend or not.