sbishop Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Most of the vending businessess here on the fourom are what I would classify as self employed. You are your own boss. You have the freedom to work your route when you want. You choose when you will do the bookkeeping. I believe that This is one of the attractions of the vending industry. The freedom and indepenace that comes with being self employed can also be the down fall of your business. What happens if you get sick? or break a leg? or are unable to service your route? As many of you know, I have a route guy who services my machines. I have trained him and now There are 2 people who know how to run the route. My wife helps me with the bookeeping. She loves to sit down and count quarters with me. I have instructed my route guy train another person as a back up incase he can't run the route. I have been tring set up my business so it can run(mostly) with out me. I have a full time job and I want the time to spend with my family. I am not suggesting that everyone hire someone to run your route, but Do you have a backup plan. Does you wife(husband), brother cousin, or best friend know how to service your route? or do the bookwork? or What bills to pay? Can they keep your business alive long enough for you to recover? Steven's suggested plan of action 1. take someone you trust to service your route. Teach them the things they need to know to be able to cover for you. 2. If you do not have one, set up a route book that your back up person can use to locate you machines. Keep it updated with new locations and remove the old ones. 3. Teach someone the basics of your bookkeeping. Show them how to record the inventory, sales, and expenses. Show them how to make a depossit. Have a list of bills and when they are due. 4 DO NOT GET SICK! And relax because you are covered if you do. I think we have all seen machines that are not being serviced properly. The candy machine is empty and has been for months. The snack machine has our of date food in it. I just assume that the person got tired of the vending business and is not taking care of his machine. What if that guy is sick, or injured and unable to service them. IF he has not taken the steps above his family may not know how to find the locations. Take a little time prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-man422 Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Steven, this is a great post. A lot of the time we don't take the time to prepare for the worst (wether or not it ever happens). Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laki Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Great post! I just realized that I'm not prepared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbishop Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 I have aflac..if I get hurt at work it wont hurt to miss work. They give me cash..just like real money ok, in that case you can direguard the whole post lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-Vending Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 Only problem with this is I do not trust anyone with my money You can not lock the money up in machines. So if I get sick I am S>O>O>L I have to keep working Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BudLeiser Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 The freedom and indepenace that comes with being self employed can also be the down fall of your business. What happens if you get sick? or break a leg? or are unable to service your route? You, Jax, Nam, and Beer980 are some of my favorite people on this message board. I gave you props for this post. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Profits Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Only problem with this is I do not trust anyone with my money You can not lock the money up in machines. So if I get sick I am S>O>O>L I have to keep working I have had the same concerns with running my own business. For instance, I'm a photographer. I can hire other photographers to shoot for me. But what if they figure out who my clients are, and go to my clients directly? Sure, you can have them sign non-compete agreements... but these aren't really enforceable in reality. People work for the highest bidder. The bottom line is that in order to set yourself free from your business, I have to realize that I will potentially allow people to directly compete with me. Yes, there will be some theft. That's an inherent risk of doing business. You work to keep people happy, and you need to pay them enough to keep their interests from waning. If you do pay them generously enough, I believe they will be less likely to think they're getting the raw end of the deal and steal from you. If you invest in your employees, and they don't feel like they don't have anything to lose by stealing from you... there should be fewer issues. I would just make it clear that you have counters on the machines and can perform an audit on your accounts at any time. It's called "building in accountability". Same reason why employees work harder when they have a boss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurtsman Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 I have had the same concerns with running my own business. For instance, I'm a photographer. I can hire other photographers to shoot for me. But what if they figure out who my clients are, and go to my clients directly? Sure, you can have them sign non-compete agreements... but these aren't really enforceable in reality. People work for the highest bidder. The bottom line is that in order to set yourself free from your business, I have to realize that I will potentially allow people to directly compete with me. Yes, there will be some theft. That's an inherent risk of doing business. You work to keep people happy, and you need to pay them enough to keep their interests from waning. If you do pay them generously enough, I believe they will be less likely to think they're getting the raw end of the deal and steal from you. If you invest in your employees, and they don't feel like they don't have anything to lose by stealing from you... there should be fewer issues. I would just make it clear that you have counters on the machines and can perform an audit on your accounts at any time. It's called "building in accountability". Same reason why employees work harder when they have a boss. Ironically, I have a boss who keeps me from working. Her constant gophering gets in the way of me being able to work, and the library runs best when she isn't around. I've found the most irresponsible people do need bosses, but it seems most bosses just get in the way and demand status reports. IE. I clean the whole library, then get lectured for not being at the desk. (She was also scheduled to be at the desk, and was sitting there chatting with a friend) Then when we close, she sees that we don't have to clean up because I did it two hours ago, leaves early (claiming the extra minutes for pay) and says the library was clean because the kids decided not to mess it up that day. I'd be wary of the dogma that having a boss causes people to work harder, because in my experience that has only been true when the boss is good (rarely, most bosses were promoted based on nepotism and are completely beyond their capability), or the employees are particularly lazy (fairly often, but can be predicted based on other factors and controlled for in more cost efficient ways than paying a boss to sit on their fat gopher and harass employees. (IE, replacing the hiring team that makes poor decisions and require education rather than experience when looking for a new hiring manager) Just couldn't bear to see the common sense slide on a topic that has gone largely uncorrected for decades and was enhanced during the rapid job growth of the 2000 boom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 This is VERY sound thinking sbishop. Teaching your procedures to a trusted friend or family member and having a back-up/assistant should provide you with a greater lifestyle. Written procedures may even add value to your business if/when you should decide to sell...especially if your potential buyer is new to the industry. But even a seasoned pro would consider a business with well written procedures as indicative of a responsible, sound, and professional owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbishop Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 This is VERY sound thinking sbishop. Teaching your procedures to a trusted friend or family member and having a back-up/assistant should provide you with a greater lifestyle. Written procedures may even add value to your business if/when you should decide to sell...especially if your potential buyer is new to the industry. But even a seasoned pro would consider a business with well written procedures as indicative of a responsible, sound, and professional owner. Yeah write all that stuff down and you will have the newest ebook on vending! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T BIRD Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 This is certainly a big concern for me moving forward. No one is trained to do what I do. I will be hiring someone to help me very soon as my business grows. The thing is I simply do not trust anyone with my money. Route men take money for themselves. Period. Roger Folz would always say that he had 20 partners working "with" him, meaning his route men.......lol. But that's an issue for me if I want time for myself. My idea of hiring someone was for this person to do all of the grunt work, putting product in, fixing machines, refurbishing and cleaning them. But we would work together and I would handle the coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 This is certainly a big concern for me moving forward. No one is trained to do what I do. I will be hiring someone to help me very soon as my business grows. The thing is I simply do not trust anyone with my money. Route men take money for themselves. Period. Roger Folz would always say that he had 20 partners working "with" him, meaning his route men.......lol. But that's an issue for me if I want time for myself. My idea of hiring someone was for this person to do all of the grunt work, putting product in, fixing machines, refurbishing and cleaning them. But we would work together and I would handle the coin. You could hire someone to completely handle the route (grunt work and coin) for you 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time you could still handle the route work yourself. This would give you some time off when your employee is handling the routes and yet it would also keep you in touch with whats going on at your locations whenever you do the routes. It wouldn't take too long to know if your employee is stealing because their average coin amount should be close to what you get when you handle the route. THE BIG BONUS IS YOU WOULD GET SOME TIME OFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanihotdog Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Doug Cooper the owner and pioneer of the vendstar machine phrased it best when he said.. "you have to find ways to keep honest people honest". you cant prevent theft 100%.. you can minimize it by hiring smart, and letting route guys know you are watching them. when you interview someone, figure out what makes them tick... are they a people person? are they free spirited, or do they have a strong attention to detail? do they have the same entrepreneur personality as yourself? the outgoing flashy type will be well liked by employees in your accounts.. but they often cut corners, dont plan their product properly, dont wash machines, skip machines, leave machines out of order, and then not tell anyone what they did.. etc. I would also advise against picking the sales oriented entrepreneur type of a person. if you hire this person you will be training your competition. I saw it happen about 7 years ago to a guy who had about 300 vendstars. he was bragging that he found a route guy who could do sales and service. a few months later the guy quit, and started putting out his own machines. I wonder if its a coincidence that aa and cardinal are only 30 min apart? The best route guys (in my opinion) are detail oriented people who are loyal, have a strong sense of duty, are well organized, and prefer structure. we have found that vets really fit this mold well... all in all they will be the ones you can count on day in and day out... the only negative about this personality type is that they get all bent out of shape if something goes wrong.. (coin jam, service call etc.) the good news is, they will never leave a machine down! and though they may not have the personality of the free spirited person, they will be better liked by the owners of your accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whaletail116 Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Hey Bishop, Good post. It turns out that I actually got into the bulk candy vending business because of someone else's laziness. The triple-head in the hotel which I work was sitting completely empty one day when I decided to call the the who owned it. I was interested in the business so I asked if he was wanting to get rid of them. It turns out he did. He told me that he had a total of 6 machines and wanted $75 for each machine. That evening, my girlfriend said "Ask him why he wants to get rid of the machines." Well I found out the next day as he took me to each location. He was just flat out lazy. A super, super nice guy, but lazy! The machines are high-quality, and the guy even brought along candy to fill each machine for me! $75 for each machine, and the guy was even too lazy to grab the quarters that were already in there! I couldn't believe it. I went around the next day to remove the quarters (to see what they'd bring in the following month) and collected $89!! Three of the machines netted more than $50 the next month and the slowest machines earned $24.50. It was unreal to me why he was getting rid of them, but he just simply didn't want them anymore. Anyways, it's good to be in the business. Lurtsman, It sounds like you should be the boss... Why not? Best to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Vend Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Very informative!! Mr Vend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisdunn77 Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 Great point it has me thinking i need a back up plan! people you can trust are hard to come by and being a "cash" business this would be harder! great post thanks for getting me thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 I have back up plans in place that I think would allow me to be away for several weeks if needed. Most of what is in place has already been mentioned but I thought that I'd mention another piece of the puzzle. "Keyman Insuance" a insurance policy that will cover the expenses incurred if a vital member of management or ownership is disabled for any length of time. For someone without large cash reserves this could be a vital element to insure survival of a small business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey B Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Last year, July 9, 2008 my wife was in an auto accident that required 2 surgeries in a 4 day period of time. She spent 8days in the hospital and was unable to get "out and about" for 4 weeks after. It got me thinking, "What if that had been me?" Sure, my wife knows how to empty the coins and dollars. She knows how to load them with product etc. But that is all she knows. So I have mapped out the route and installed the route onto two SD cards that will fit into the garmin gps. 1 I keep in the garmin, and the other is in the safe for back up that my wife knows the combination to. I also have papers showing what goes where in case something is sold out along with weekly papers containing what was stocked and how much was stocked in there. Also have papers for each stop letting her know who gets commission and what the commission is and who to pay etc. Even though it practically killed me, lol I sent her on her way to do the route on her own. it took her quite a while to complete it, but all went well with no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbishop Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Mikey, That is a great backup plan. The next step is to plan how to handle both of you being in the wrek and unalbe to run the route. This is where is get difficult. I just started working for aa apartment managemant company that is in charge of 44 complexes here in El Paso. They have what they call the "Black Book" it has all the information anyone would need to step in and cover for a day or what ever length of time is needed. If I am out sick they can send someone from another property and they can just pick up where I left off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey B Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Mikey, That is a great backup plan. The next step is to plan how to handle both of you being in the wrek and unalbe to run the route. This is where is get difficult. The back up plan to that would be my father, however I hope that never happens cause the route would suffer. My father is the type that he does his "stuff" first then if there is time he will move on to different things.. Guess thats why he missed the birth of my younger brother and the passing of his own Mom. As he put it, "I was busy with things I needed to get done." Although he is unreliable, I can trust him with being honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANDERSONVENDING Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 I've taken my wife with me on numerous occassions to keep her current on my route so if something were to happen to me she would know to do it.I also told her she could hire someone from a temp labor service for the day to do all the grunt work.Less strain on her. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmac Posted April 10, 2010 Share Posted April 10, 2010 Very good post. My uncle took over a vending route, from a fanily member that had passed away unexpectantly. He didn't even know where the machines were . He had to drive around and find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limitless76 Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 It is understood that the backup person would be someone who is trusted. Even so, do you think there is a means to ensure that the money is not short in any way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mizugori Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 wow really? all my machines are booby trapped so no one but me can open them ...kidding of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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