At what point do you take on staff?

[Eatsweets]

Hi all

I picked up some another 12 machines today, once sited that gives me a total of 100 sweet towers. I am just wondering at what point some of you larger venders took on extra staff?

Regards
Rob

[glennborthwick]

Towers are generally more high maintenance compared to toys and bulks due to capacity issues. I reckon if you just do towers, you should be able to manage 200 on your own as long as the geography works. 15 visits a day 18 day average visit cycle.

I have a big round 2 hours away but utilise someone self employed locally a bit like this. I have 30 sites in the area. I drive down with a lot of stock. They do 15 , just filling up and I do the other 15 filling and cashing up. When I cash up their is twice as much cash in obviously. Typicall £70 instead of 35. I pay them 10p a tub so they generally earn £35 for 4 hours work. you can potentailly therefore double your number of towers to 400 that way and just lose 10p a double on every machine above 200.

[glennborthwick]

15 sites done by you x £35 x 40p profit per tub = £210 profit
15 sites done by employee x 35 x 30p profit = £184 profit

£390plus for a days work

[Eatsweets]

I like it, does your 10p per tub include their fuel?

[glennborthwick]

I tend to bung them a fiver for petrol as well.

[glennborthwick]

it saves me a 4 hour round trip visit which would cost me £25 in petrol anyway so actually only costs me £10-15 all in

[valiant016]

It's down to the individuals circumstances, but once you take on permanent staff you are eroding your profits.

Also, if you grow your business, and are then dependent on someone else covering a substantial part of your round, you are relying on the integrity of that employee and you could have problems finding a decent replacement if they decide to leave.

Personally, I ask family members to cover if I go on holiday and this has worked fine so far.

But, obviously, each to their own.

Valiant

[glennborthwick]

with sweetfix, ive had to find a way to manage evreything so its time more than anything. Also with scale you can turn it into a saleable business.

My ideal plan, although im not there yet in terms of staffing and planning, is to visit employee A who covers town A, then drive half an hour and meet driver b, and then onto Driver C. Each driver does 15 sites. I do another 15 sites, then 60 sites are done in one day. I can then cover all 300 sites in one week, and then only have to the busy sites in weeks two and three.

[Eatsweets]

I think Glenn has hit the nail on the head, if you can get local guys or girls to do the filling on price work, then from the outset everyone knows where they stand. If the person doing the filling has a bit of savvy then they will realise that some weeks will be good and others not so good. Over the course of the year everyone should do ok.

[glennborthwick]

also in the summer its a two week fill up and in the winter a four week fill up so you can tailor it.