(no subject)
So our through-the-end of the month employee trial has ended. End result: nearly 2500 cups of coffee dispensed, and an invoice going out tomorrow that will be a nice offset to me not working for two months. Now the company has to figure out how much to charge the employees - they'll subsidize a portion, but not the whole thing - at least, I don't think they will. When it isn't totally free any more, consumption will go down, for sure. But, still - it's a lot more lucrative than a lot of other business opportunities* for much less headache, particularly now that we have a vendor badge and can access the building on evenings and weekends. Meaning that Catherine no longer needs to come along, and we don't have to rush through mornings or lunchtimes and not maintain the machines properly once I've gone back to work**. God willing, future clients will allow after-hours access as well.
*Our markup is something like 200-400%, depending on the beverage, and will go up as we find less expensive (but still high-quality) sources for product - right now, a black coffee, no sugar costs us 11 cents (if they use their own cup rather than one of ours) and we are charging 46 cents for it at current volumes - but Costco has some good whole bean coffees that would be six cents a cup, and I'm going to be taste-testing them in our home machine this week (yes, one of the best parts of this business is having our own personal machine in the house - but it would be better if it were in a profitable environment and that's something I need to work on). That's the cheapest - other beverages cost us more. A LOT more, actually - up to a quarter. But we charge more for them, too.
**a real concern, since a full cleaning, which needs to be done at least once a week - twice on high-volume machines, takes about half an hour, a simple stocking and stat check takes a minimum of ten minutes per, and there's some driving to do between the two buildings. So the average visit is at least an hour - more if there are any issues. But it's got to be done. Poor maintenance means downtime. Downtime means no money. And without the vendor badge, we could only get in between 7:00 am and about 4:15 pm. Would have meant some seriously hectic mornings.
*Our markup is something like 200-400%, depending on the beverage, and will go up as we find less expensive (but still high-quality) sources for product - right now, a black coffee, no sugar costs us 11 cents (if they use their own cup rather than one of ours) and we are charging 46 cents for it at current volumes - but Costco has some good whole bean coffees that would be six cents a cup, and I'm going to be taste-testing them in our home machine this week (yes, one of the best parts of this business is having our own personal machine in the house - but it would be better if it were in a profitable environment and that's something I need to work on). That's the cheapest - other beverages cost us more. A LOT more, actually - up to a quarter. But we charge more for them, too.
**a real concern, since a full cleaning, which needs to be done at least once a week - twice on high-volume machines, takes about half an hour, a simple stocking and stat check takes a minimum of ten minutes per, and there's some driving to do between the two buildings. So the average visit is at least an hour - more if there are any issues. But it's got to be done. Poor maintenance means downtime. Downtime means no money. And without the vendor badge, we could only get in between 7:00 am and about 4:15 pm. Would have meant some seriously hectic mornings.