By the book...

[jgoldenmba]

In my first few weeks of attempting to locate my machines I came across something that bothers me.

I'm doing everything 100% legit in this business from my license, my openness with potential customers, and even separating my items at Samsclub taxable and nontaxable when I buy things for the house and inventory at the same time.

I can't even say a lot of the machines I've seen from my competitors either do not have a current tax stamp on them or have never had one on them. Almost ALL of them are lacking a tax stamp. In my state each vending machine must have a tax stamp that costs $2.50 per year. Is this the norm where you all are? Are some of you culprits?

It's only $2.50.

[mission vending]

No tax stamp required in Texas.

The only thing you can control is how you run your business. Being 100% legit and honest is the way to go. A book I read a few years ago called The Millionaire Mind by Thomas Stanley which was quite enlightening. In it he studied self made decamillionaires and tried to find a common element as to why they were so successful. One of the big things he found was an almost fanatical drive to complete integrity in both their personal and professional lives.

So in some sense it reaffirmed, for me at least, that old saying, "Sooner or later you always get exactly what you deserve."

[RJT]

Mission all great points...

If you ever want to retire from vending then you had better do it "by the book". Look at a recent post asking about buying a "vending route". It has NOT by the book written all over it. I would assume most getting into vending do so for two reasons. 1. to have a few extra bucks to spend. 2. They want to grow their operation and eventually sell and retire. Well if you are #2 then you had better do it by the book if you want to have a chance at selling it at what it should be worth. I try and tell people from the first day they want to get into vending start acting like and operating like a professional vending company. First off this is going to be your ONLY chance at landing the good accounts. Does this mean to go rent office and warehouse space, hire a staff, buy route trucks, etc? NO it does not. What I mean is get your self a business plan, a company name, website, business cards, handout material, insurance, bank account, tax ID's, etc.

Lets say you have been operating for a couple years not by the book and built yourself a nice little side business. Then all of the sudden you have a chance to land an account that should do 100k plus a year. However you don’t have the capital to buy the equipment nor do you have equity in your house to borrow against. Guess what? You may could get that loan if you had done it by the book from the start and had documentation of your success and hard work till that point.

Lets say 10 years from now you have operated “under the radar” and got lucky and landed some decent accounts and you would like to sell and retire. Without documentation who could you sell to. Who would give you what its worth without your company being “legit”? You greatly limit who you can sell to unless you are willing to sell it off in small portions.

Could you get your feet wet in vending without these things? Sure you can and most do. However, in a short period of time you need to start acting like a true professional business. Their is nothing wrong with starting in your garage, matter of fact the largest vending company in the world started in their garage. Microsoft ring a bell also? 

In my book I give this example. Would you do business with a bank with no vault, no sign, no business cards for the employees, not FDIC insured, etc? Well why would good vending locations  do business with you? The answer is most want. Sure, you can get the accounts most don’t want but not any decent accounts.

Like Mission says, do it by the book and represent the industry in a positive light. During my consulting I ask peoples goal out of vending and try and put them on a plan to do whatever that plan is. However you have to have a good foundation to build on to make it work. Start off on the right foot and it will build much faster....

[mission vending]

Here is a link to a New Years post about protecting the value of your business.

http://vendiscuss.com/forum/index.php?topic=8011.0

[Boazcat]

Tax stamps here were tripled to $150 this past summer.  I haven't seen a single one on a machine yet.  The big companies must have bought them early because I see lots for the old amount of $50.  Most machines don't have either one.

Michael

[NinnJinn]

Tax stamps here were tripled to $150 this past summer.  I haven't seen a single one on a machine yet.  The big companies must have bought them early because I see lots for the old amount of $50.  Most machines don't have either one.

Michael

So do you pay $150 for the stamp PLUS a percentage? or just $150/yr?

[Boazcat]

Just the one fee.