Waverly's Vending World

[mission vending]

Yes of course the partnership discussion has come up and been dismissed for now. We share product and services as we can but have put off any talk of partnership. Too many issues to work out before we take that step, if we take it.

As for burnout, definitely a problem. I have at least another year of hard work before I can slow down a bit and get some real 'downtime'. I still have time on the weekends to spend with my family and every evening with my daughter. We also took a couple day trips over the winter when things were slow. When I get big enough that my wife can 'quit' or cut down on her work, then everything will be easier. I think I will be there in a year.

Almost like I've been there, done that. :lol:

Let me say this about a partnership, if there is one decision in my ENTIRE life that I would change given the opportunity to it would be the decision to form a partnership.

You both bring very different experiences and capabilities to the table and over time that will be reflected in one of you doing more route work, or sales work, or repair and maintenance work than the other, its inevitable that each will eventually gravitate towards his strengths. IMO it's virtually impossible to divide the work in such a way that you both will feel that the other is putting an equal amount of work,effort (mental and physical) and time into the business.

Here is one simple example. Lets say you spend the day busting your butt setting up a new account and then go service 8-10 location afterwards and your partner spends the day out on sales calls. Did you both do "equal" work today?

What if he is much better than you at the sales side and he starts spending a lot of time on sales calls while you are sweating it out in the back of the truck? How long will this go on before you start feeling that you are wearing yourself out physically while he drives around doing things that will make you work even harder? months? years? Now multiply this across all different aspects of the business. Then throw in the spouses that listen to each of you come home and complain about the other not "carrying his weight". Then different demands on your time for family obligations. Well I hope you get the picture.

Better you remain friends and friendly competitors with the possibility that maybe in the future one buys the other out and becomes an ops manager or other key position for the other with some profit sharing involved.

[WillisNYC]

Yep, I see the future that you envision which is why we halted the 'merger' talks. I am the sales guy and he is the mechanically inclined route guy. He is almost ten years older and I can see buying him out at some point in the future as he seeks to retire. Buying him out aa a competitor looks more likely than as the result of a partnership at the moment. He sees my work eithic on the route and finds that attractive, but I am afraid that it will be just as you say when it comes to me making sales calls. I know my strength is in getting accounts and also keeping the ordering and bookkeeping straight. I am very good with numbers and he does not know how to make a spreadsheet. He has taught me a lot about repairing machines and knows a ton more about that end of the business. He could also be a pretty fair sales guy but I don't think he likes that part of the business. Nevertheless, I have a good friend I can call in a jam and keeping each other at arms length works well at the moment.

[WillisNYC]

After one month with the new additional route I am very satisfied with the purchase. My numbers are coming in at almost double what the seller had for last years numbers! And I am just starting to better service and tweak the new route! Also I have several schools in the new route and they are all off for the summer now. That is a good thing because I can be better organized for the start of the school year in the fall. When school starts up in the fall I am probably going to be too big to properly manage the new route in addition to all the old stuff. Between now and then I need to either sell off a bunch of stops or get a full time driver in place for half the route.

Additionally I have a chance to buy another school that is fairly large for a super cheap price once again! I am also in the running for placing a snack, beverage and cold food machine in a 200 person office. Adding these stops only makes the whole operation more unwieldly and really pushes me to make a decision soon. I am going to test the waters by placing some ads on craigslist for some of the smaller stops. Then decide what I want to do based on the offers I get or don't get.

I now have a part time 'rider' to hump sodas and help me out 3 days a week. It is working out so far and I certainly need the help! Maybe he can be convinced to become full time...

[spdydre]

Impressive how you have grown so much so fast. I have kept up with your posts since the first one. I started about 7 months after you. glad to see aa fellow vendor doing well!

[WillisNYC]

I picked up the new school super duper cheap. It is a private school. 13 soda machines in 13 'dorms' and 6 more in an ice rink and field house. Lots of down and up stairs to service these machines. That part is a headache, but should be worth it since there are no timers on these schools machines. Soda machines, selling sodas during school hours, heavenly! No sales tax on school sales in NJ! Definitely have to turn my rider into full time help by the time school starts back up. Made him an offfer, now to see if he takes me up on it or will I have to find an entirely new guy. I hope not. Just a few nibbles on my attempted sale, so that is probably not happening. Now just need to see if I am any good at getting, training and retaining good people for my route! So many new things to worry about...

[mission vending]

I picked up the new school super duper cheap. It is a private school. 13 soda machines in 13 'dorms' and 6 more in an ice rink and field house. Lots of down and up stairs to service these machines. That part is a headache, but should be worth it since there are no timers on these schools machines. Soda machines, selling sodas during school hours, heavenly! No sales tax on school sales in NJ! Definitely have to turn my rider into full time help by the time school starts back up. Made him an offfer, now to see if he takes me up on it or will I have to find an entirely new guy. I hope not. Just a few nibbles on my attempted sale, so that is probably not happening. Now just need to see if I am any good at getting, training and retaining good people for my route! So many new things to worry about...

Dude, keep it up and in not too much longer you are gonna pass me up. Not quite sure how I feel about that . Seriously through, what a great success story!!!!

[WillisNYC]

My head is spinning...I have been so busy and I am so tired that I forget what 'normal' tired is like anymore. Spent yesterday unloading a tractor trailer load of sodas with my buddy. 6 pallets of soda for me and 10 for him! I also moved 5 machines into new storage and got another 5 prepped to go out on location. Wifey wanted to go shopping with me and kept calling asking when I was going to get done! 8PM we finally made it to Macy's! And that was just a 'normal' Saturday!

Got the contract on a middle school and high school and will be installing the 4 machines there next week. Three more machines are going into the 'ice rink' at the new school with the dorms on Saturday. I really need to get a full time driver or sell some of this route! I have one serious 'nibbler' for my ads to sell my route. He has little money and wants to do a deal over time. Unfortunately he is short on money and experience! I might do a very small deal of 5 small locations with him and see how he does. Have him put 50% down and the rest over time. If he does ok with them, then I could look to him for more deals in the future.

Anyone here from New Jersey want some locations? I have at least 20 I would like to sell! Some good, some not so much. PM me if you have interest.

This morning I am 'banging' out paperwork before I go to the beach with my family and the inlaws from Queens. Got to have some fun to remind me why I am doing this. Well, my break is over and back to my work...

[WillisNYC]

Ok, this is just crazy good luck that I have had all summer! Just visited my 'newest' hotel account and spoke to my contact there. His company is buying three more hotels and they want me to do the vending in all of them! My contact will now be the GM of one of the three hotels and another contact will be the GM of another of the new ones. Since my contact does the soda in 'my' hotel, his moving on will probably mean that I get the soda as well as the snack in this hotel at last. They close on all of them mid month. Time for me to scrape together enough scratch to get some snack machines into operation and hopefully some sodas as well. So much for using extra cash to pay off debt...but this is a good problem to have.

New 'helper' might be capable of becoming the route driver I need to run what is quickly becoming a large second route. If not, I doubt I will have a weekend off in the future until I get a route driver in place.

[mission vending]

Ok, this is just crazy good luck that I have had all summer! Just visited my 'newest' hotel account and spoke to my contact there. His company is buying three more hotels and they want me to do the vending in all of them! My contact will now be the GM of one of the three hotels and another contact will be the GM of another of the new ones. Since my contact does the soda in 'my' hotel, his moving on will probably mean that I get the soda as well as the snack in this hotel at last. They close on all of them mid month. Time for me to scrape together enough scratch to get some snack machines into operation and hopefully some sodas as well. So much for using extra cash to pay off debt...but this is a good problem to have.

New 'helper' might be capable of becoming the route driver I need to run what is quickly becoming a large second route. If not, I doubt I will have a weekend off in the future until I get a route driver in place.

When you work hard and take of business things like this will begin to happen on a regular basis.

[WillisNYC]

I have been sprinting 12 hours a day 5 days a week and 1/2 a day on Saturdays, sometimes Sundays since May of this year. The last two weeks it finally slowed down to 10 hours a day and I can finally come up for air! My 5th helper is finally ready to go out on his own after 4 weeks of training and I feel good about his prospects. The only other driver that I thought I could put out in a truck got a different job after two weeks. That was over 6 weeks ago and I have been anxious to get my first driver in place since the start of the school season. Monday I will finally realize that dream with my newly trained driver going out on his own for the first time.

The new driver will have 5 days worth of route work, leaving me with 2 or 3. Standard 'starting' wage around here is roughly 10% of the routes gross and that is where my driver will be. He can also increase his salary by doing more gross and I will reward him with 10% of it. I will be able to continue to expand the route by 'locating' during part of the 2-3 days that I now freed up during the week not doing route work. Using some of the new 'free' time to catch up on paperwork and other business necessities that I squeezed in during my working days or after their completion, should also enable me to get my life back and finally be able to enjoy some of the benefits of being an owner.

I have been working closely with 2 other owners most of this year. We buy some products for each other and help each other out with problems and the like. One of these owners would really like to merge his company with mine and the other has decided he definitely does not wish to do that. I have told the one who would like to do so that I would only consider it if he brings a big deal that requires us to hire more help. In the event that we do a merger, our separate roles would be laid out in great detail prior to taking that step. He sees himself as the 'route' guy, training the help and serving as the fireman whenever a client call or repair is needed. I get to do sales and paperwork. We still need to discuss setting up new accounts equipment and other details when and if we ever do this.

In the meantime we are working on some new accounts together and sharing some ordering to get cheaper products. A couple small deals we are working on will enable me to hit the ground running on locating during my first week with some 'free' time due to the new driver. I am still chasing down the three hotels that I have been promised and I think they will fall in my lap in the next few weeks. The one that I recently took over the soda vending in is looking like a great addition as well as the high school that I added recently. The other new additions are 'ok' accounts, so I can't complain.

Enough for now, maybe I will be able to update more frequently now that I have some 'free' time opening up.

[mission vending]

I have been sprinting 12 hours a day 5 days a week and 1/2 a day on Saturdays, sometimes Sundays since May of this year. The last two weeks it finally slowed down to 10 hours a day and I can finally come up for air! My 5th helper is finally ready to go out on his own after 4 weeks of training and I feel good about his prospects. The only other driver that I thought I could put out in a truck got a different job after two weeks. That was over 6 weeks ago and I have been anxious to get my first driver in place since the start of the school season. Monday I will finally realize that dream with my newly trained driver going out on his own for the first time.

The new driver will have 5 days worth of route work, leaving me with 2 or 3. Standard 'starting' wage around here is roughly 10% of the routes gross and that is where my driver will be. He can also increase his salary by doing more gross and I will reward him with 10% of it. I will be able to continue to expand the route by 'locating' during part of the 2-3 days that I now freed up during the week not doing route work. Using some of the new 'free' time to catch up on paperwork and other business necessities that I squeezed in during my working days or after their completion, should also enable me to get my life back and finally be able to enjoy some of the benefits of being an owner.

I have been working closely with 2 other owners most of this year. We buy some products for each other and help each other out with problems and the like. One of these owners would really like to merge his company with mine and the other has decided he definitely does not wish to do that. I have told the one who would like to do so that I would only consider it if he brings a big deal that requires us to hire more help. In the event that we do a merger, our separate roles would be laid out in great detail prior to taking that step. He sees himself as the 'route' guy, training the help and serving as the fireman whenever a client call or repair is needed. I get to do sales and paperwork. We still need to discuss setting up new accounts equipment and other details when and if we ever do this.

In the meantime we are working on some new accounts together and sharing some ordering to get cheaper products. A couple small deals we are working on will enable me to hit the ground running on locating during my first week with some 'free' time due to the new driver. I am still chasing down the three hotels that I have been promised and I think they will fall in my lap in the next few weeks. The one that I recently took over the soda vending in is looking like a great addition as well as the high school that I added recently. The other new additions are 'ok' accounts, so I can't complain.

Enough for now, maybe I will be able to update more frequently now that I have some 'free' time opening up.

Pretty scary when the first hatchling leaves the nest flying solo for the first time isn't it?

[WillisNYC]

Pretty scary when the first hatchling leaves the nest flying solo for the first time isn't it?

Yes, well I have to do this to get my life back and continue to grow my business. Both goals are worth the worries that I have letting this employee drive my route for the first time.

[WillisNYC]

The driver is working out well so far. He is servicing most of the route, leaving me time to locate and do all the maintenance things that I let go during the summer. (light bulbs for instance) I have picked up three small accounts in the past month. (Soda and snack at each) Two of them are installed and the 3rd one goes in next week. Lost a small acount to a large national deal that was done by the 'corporate office'. Really hate when that happens! Was able to move those machines into a new home at the same time they were removed, so I saved $200 there. I have a new hotel account set to install the first of the year so the growth continues!

Working with the driver to make sure he draws down the soda inventory this time of year. I don't want to have too many stales in the dead of winter. Implementing Bev's suggestion to put lines in the machines to indicate stocking levels. (With a W to indicate winter stocking.) Also telling customers that I am raising prices come the first of the year. For non commission accounts, LSS chips need to be at $.85 from $.75, small chips stay at $.50, cookies go to $.85 from $.75 in most cases, chocolate is already at $.85 and needs to be at $1.00. I will only be raising a few locations choco prices since they just had an increase to $.85 earlier this year. The cake prices will go to $1.00 for those locations where they are at $.85. Am telling them that I am holding soda prices in line for now, but may have to raise them later as I get hit with more price increases. All new accounts will have these pricing levels so I don't have to raise them later. My COGs was close to 55% and rising in the second half of the year thanks to all the price increase I have been getting. This increase should move the COGs back down to 50% or lower where it belongs.

[mission vending]

The driver is working out well so far. He is servicing most of the route, leaving me time to locate and do all the maintenance things that I let go during the summer. (light bulbs for instance) I have picked up three small accounts in the past month. (Soda and snack at each) Two of them are installed and the 3rd one goes in next week. Lost a small acount to a large national deal that was done by the 'corporate office'. Really hate when that happens! Was able to move those machines into a new home at the same time they were removed, so I saved $200 there. I have a new hotel account set to install the first of the year so the growth continues!

Working with the driver to make sure he draws down the soda inventory this time of year. I don't want to have too many stales in the dead of winter. Implementing Bev's suggestion to put lines in the machines to indicate stocking levels. (With a W to indicate winter stocking.) Also telling customers that I am raising prices come the first of the year. For non commission accounts, LSS chips need to be at $.85 from $.75, small chips stay at $.50, cookies go to $.85 from $.75 in most cases, chocolate is already at $.85 and needs to be at $1.00. I will only be raising a few locations choco prices since they just had an increase to $.85 earlier this year. The cake prices will go to $1.00 for those locations where they are at $.85. Am telling them that I am holding soda prices in line for now, but may have to raise them later as I get hit with more price increases. All new accounts will have these pricing levels so I don't have to raise them later. My COGs was close to 55% and rising in the second half of the year thanks to all the price increase I have been getting. This increase should move the COGs back down to 50% or lower where it belongs.

It took me a long time (years) to learn that raising prices is a fact of life and needs to be done if the business is going to survive over the long haul. For me, I got to the point where I was sick and tired of busting my a$$ and not making much and made the decision that if I was going to stay in the business I needed to get over my fear of losing an account by raising prices. I'm sure I've lost an account or two over the years on pricing issues but I'd rather lose the account than work for nothing.

[WillisNYC]

I wonder if folks get tired of reading about the good luck that I feel I have had...because it continues through the new year! I picked up two new service station accounts where the old vendor had abandoned perfectly good machines. (Well almost perfect since one needs a new dba and the other has a short in the display wiring. Howeve they are third party Coke machines and they are coming to repair my 'new' machines! I don't expect them to be high volume accounts, but they are near other accounts and fit right in to the scheme of current routes. The price is right as well since I have zero equipment outlay!

I got a referral to a new place to move my 'dormant' combo machines. I say dormant because the location had refused to fix the outlet for the last two months and I was not going to pay for it myself since it is a low volume account. Thus I am happy to have a new home for this machine where it can at least make a little money!

I also got a call from one of my private schools today. I only have a snack machine at this school and Pepsi has the 3 soda machines. I had noticed that the machines were frequently empty and 'suggested' that I would be happy to provide their soda service. It looks like 6 months of good service by me and substandard Pepsi service are going to be rewarded! They asked for a proposal today and sounded like myself and Coke were the only vendors being considered. I offered to put a Coke, Pepsi and Snapple machine on site with appropriate product and pay them a good commission. I am hoping the variety of products offered and the history of good service will win out. The school would be a significant addition of at least $300/ week for 40 weeks of the year. (Judging by how the three current Pepsi machines were usually empty every other week I was at the location and they told me Pepsi 'tried' to service them every two weeks! Tune back in soon to see how it comes out.

The vendor in my new hotel (referenced back a couple posts.) has been told to move his machines and that should be happening soon as well.

Lastly, I picked up a new office account with snack and soda. A fellow vendor wanted to sell it since it was too far from his other stops. He sold it for $.30 on the dollar of gross revenue. Not a big stop, but all these little guys add up to route number two eventually!

Back to my original thought, my main repair guys says I am the only vendor he knows that is not complaining and continuing to expand in the last two years. Ditto for my Snapple and Coke rep. They both say that a few folks are expanding, but none as much as I am and most everyone is complaining about the economy. Maybe I don't have enough experience to 'know' better but this economy is treating me fine and if it ever gets better, so will my business just like everyone else!

[BorderJerry]

I wonder if folks get tired of reading about the good luck that I feel I have had...

-----------------------------------

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Congratulations!!

[mission vending]

Willis,

I don't see how anyone can get tired reading about the success you are seeing. It's all about working hard, treating people and customers right. If anyone is getting tired of it they are probably just jealous

[WillisNYC]

The school agreed to hire Waverly's as the new soda vendor for a 10% of gross commission! I also got a two year contract that automatically renews every year for another year! Pepsi had 'donated'a $10,000 scoreboard to the school 5 years ago to get the account, but then serviced it horribly! The school got tired of calling them when the machines were empty to get them to refill them. With competitors like that, I can be successful a long time in this business! I am at the location weekly to fill the snack machine and now I will be there filling the sodas as well. The school is private and so it sets its own rules and I am placing a Coke, Pepsi and Snapple machine there. 20 oz sodas in Coke and Pepsi, 12 oz cans in the Snapple. It will be interesting to see how Snapple does when matched against sodas. My Snapple machine averages $200/week in my high school during the school year, but has no soda competition. This school is about the same size, so I wonder if Snapple still rocks when matched against soda machines? I suspect the soda machines will do better...

[mission vending]

The school agreed to hire Waverly's as the new soda vendor for a 10% of gross commission! I also got a two year contract that automatically renews every year for another year! Pepsi had 'donated'a $10,000 scoreboard to the school 5 years ago to get the account, but then serviced it horribly! The school got tired of calling them when the machines were empty to get them to refill them. With competitors like that, I can be successful a long time in this business! I am at the location weekly to fill the snack machine and now I will be there filling the sodas as well. The school is private and so it sets its own rules and I am placing a Coke, Pepsi and Snapple machine there. 20 oz sodas in Coke and Pepsi, 12 oz cans in the Snapple. It will be interesting to see how Snapple does when matched against sodas. My Snapple machine averages $200/week in my high school during the school year, but has no soda competition. This school is about the same size, so I wonder if Snapple still rocks when matched against soda machines? I suspect the soda machines will do better...

My money is on the soda machines.

Something else to try, if you can get them, is the 23oz Arizona Teas. Might possibly be available through the Snapple distributor. Around here they come premarked at .99 for the convenience stores. My cost on them is .67 and I'm selling them like crazy at 1.50. Have only been asked a couple of times about the .99 mark and I tell them that I don't get the rebate the convenience stores do and have had no problem. The traditional sweet tea, mango and watermelon do the best for me.

[spdydre]

good job!

[WillisNYC]

It has been quite a while since my last post! Life has been very busy for the past six months. I am still trucking on and expanding the business bit by bit though. I fired my first driver for theft back in January and it took me til April to hire a good new one full time. He has worked out well over the past few months and I think I will be keeping him. I have finalized a deal for another route with 30 stops on it and another with 20 stops. That should fill my schedule back up to 3 days a week or so and of course the driver has a full 5 day schedule. My vending 'buddy' and I rented a warehouse together back in March or so. We are paying a sickly cheap rate there. Our rent is identical to what we paid at a storage place, but we now have 4 times as much space! The warehouse is part of one of my buddy's accounts, thus we got the great deal! We now have a truck loading bay that is very handy for our twice a month soda runs when we rent a large truck and fill it with soda to save a couple bucks a case on our product! It is also handy for loading the vehicles and for moving machines. Each of us has our own enclosed area inside where we store our stuff and it keeps our employees 'honest'.

The new deal for the routes is similar to the ones I did a year ago where I picked up a lot of 'hamburger' accounts for a cheap price! Hamburger may take more work than filet mignon accounts, but the price for hamburger is too cheap to pass up while I have passed on MANY deals with good accounts because no one wants to sell those for cheap. When I get a few more accounts to fill up the second route, I will be ready for my 2nd driver to get started. Once this deal gets completed I will update my profile with my new numbers of machines and maybe some revenue figures.

[mission vending]

It has been quite a while since my last post! Life has been very busy for the past six months. I am still trucking on and expanding the business bit by bit though. I fired my first driver for theft back in January and it took me til April to hire a good new one full time. He has worked out well over the past few months and I think I will be keeping him. I have finalized a deal for another route with 30 stops on it and another with 20 stops. That should fill my schedule back up to 3 days a week or so and of course the driver has a full 5 day schedule. My vending 'buddy' and I rented a warehouse together back in March or so. We are paying a sickly cheap rate there. Our rent is identical to what we paid at a storage place, but we now have 4 times as much space! The warehouse is part of one of my buddy's accounts, thus we got the great deal! We now have a truck loading bay that is very handy for our twice a month soda runs when we rent a large truck and fill it with soda to save a couple bucks a case on our product! It is also handy for loading the vehicles and for moving machines. Each of us has our own enclosed area inside where we store our stuff and it keeps our employees 'honest'.

The new deal for the routes is similar to the ones I did a year ago where I picked up a lot of 'hamburger' accounts for a cheap price! Hamburger may take more work than filet mignon accounts, but the price for hamburger is too cheap to pass up while I have passed on MANY deals with good accounts because no one wants to sell those for cheap. When I get a few more accounts to fill up the second route, I will be ready for my 2nd driver to get started. Once this deal gets completed I will update my profile with my new numbers of machines and maybe some revenue figures.

Awesome. looking forward to the updates.

[Greatdane]

I gave the attendant more of my cards. I also gave them to the guys in the garage and I reposted my card on the machine. Note to self: You really need to get those laminated stickers that you were looking at to post on your machines.

I got a stack of 100 magnetic business cards from Vista print really cheap. I put them on the machines front, back and sides. If people grab them, hey, free advertising refrigerator magnets that are almost as cheap as their regular business cards. I had this link and if it still works, you save an extra $5.00 and should make them almost free. They fit perectly on the lunch room refrigerator close to the coffee machine.

http://www.vistaprin...1&GNF=0&GPLSID=

[WillisNYC]

Spent this week conducting inventory on the new route. 26 locations completed so far. Mostly 'hamburger' service every two weeks or so accounts, but I have been making a living out of these accounts for the last three years! 3 of them have some real promise to be at least pork chop, service once a week accounts. Considering the source, it is highly unlikely that any will become filet mignon, service twice a week or more accounts, but time will tell. One of my oldest accounts that I have discussed dropping many times in previous posts finally became a 'real' service every week acount this summer. The warehouse has continued growing just like my business! Waverly's will pick up some more accounts at the end of this month or so and complete this 'acquisition'. Enough work to keep me busy, but not enough to need a 2nd driver. Really need some bigger 'anchor' accounts before I hire another driver.

I am working on another, far bigger deal that could add 2 drivers worth of business if I can make it happen! That will take several months to complete if the pieces come together. I really hope that this deal can be completed since it will mean that I will be finally making some real cheddar! I had to sign a nondisclose agreement just to see the deal, so all the details will have to wait until I complete or give up on the deal. Regardless, if I can continue growing like this in the crappy Obamaconomy, imagine how much growth I can hit in a 'real' economy like we had in the 80s or 90s! Vote GOP in the fall and hope for the best!

[TKK]

Jesus Christ. That's a yon of machines. U do it on ur own? Locating servicing buying product etc? What is ur average? Worst and best location? Monthly gross?