North Texas is expecting more cold weather. This winter has been much colder than the last several winters. That means that the soda vending business is down. I was hoping to spruce up my machines and cages soon, but I guess that will have to wait a little while longer. Since I have several machines located outside, I spend as little time at them as possible when it is cold. I need to touch up the paint on the cages and on the machines before the spring and warm weather gets here. I also need to replace light bulbs in most of my machines. That requires a trip to the other side of town. One of my machines needs a ballast replaced. I will have to do a little research before I can tackle that project. There still is another month or two for me to get some of the maintenance done.
I need to teach the kids how to clean the machine while I am filling it. That would be really helpful. Trevor loves spraying the cleaner on the machine, but he isn't real good about wiping it off. The kids do help me clean up the trash. Slowly I am trying to teach them more things that they can do to help. It is great to have the ability to take them with me.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Progress
I have made progress on the records for my soda business. I now have recorded all of my sales and expenses for 2009. That is a huge relief. It was a daunting task to catch up on two months worth of records. The good news is that I did make money this year, the bad news is my husband was hoping that we would pay ourselves back for the first 4 machines that we purchased. The business is self-supporting. I even have enough in the account for the purchase of my next machine as soon as the location becomes available. I have set up an automatic transfer from our business account to our savings account to pay us back. If everything works properly, we should have our savings account paid back by the end of the year.
I need to get my 2010 records started. I also have some ideas about different year over year comparisons that I would like to do that will let me see more how each machine is performing over the long term. Right now, I just have everything based over the life of the machine. There is still a lot of work to do, but I have made progress.
I need to get my 2010 records started. I also have some ideas about different year over year comparisons that I would like to do that will let me see more how each machine is performing over the long term. Right now, I just have everything based over the life of the machine. There is still a lot of work to do, but I have made progress.
Monday, January 4, 2010
New Year's Resolutions
The New Year is here. Can you believe that it is 2010 already? I remember when I was in grade school thinking that it would be forever before the year 2000 arrived. We are in a new decade. That is just unbelievable. I guess that time stops for no one.
It has been a long time since I updated my blog. I did not realize how hard it would be to get all four children to sleep and me awake. I am so far behind on many things. I have not kept up my books for about as long as I haven't updated my blog. I dread trying to get everything recorded. I keep meticulous records about what sold in which machine, how much I loaded, where I bought soda, how many miles I have put on my van related to my business, and so forth. I have a large stack of log papers for each of my machines that I need to input into my excel file. I know that the business is doing fine because my bank account is growing, but I hate not knowing exactly what is going on. I miss my charts that tell me how the sales are going. I haven't done my monthly household budget for 3 months either. That is also bothering me.
The good news is that Dustin is 10 weeks old. He is starting to sleep reasonably at night and take predictable naps during the day. I am getting more energy and don't need my afternoon nap as much. Dustin is becoming a little chunky guy. When I wear him and lift soda cases my back gets a workout. I will find out exactly how much he weighs next week, but according to my mother's scale, he is pushing 14 pounds. He eats all of the time. I usually have to feed him in the van when we are running our soda route. Right now I have to wear him on the front. It will get easier when I can wear him in the back. I will try to get a picture of us so that you can see it is possible to wear a baby and fill soda machines.
With the new year comes new year's resolutions. I thought this would be a good time to make plans for my business. It is wise to plan and have goals. I have several ideas that I want to try this year, including a give-away game. I am trying to work out the details and get it implemented. I will post the results and details. I would like to expand my operations by 2-4 machines. I have a new machine that is supposed to go into a location in the next few weeks. I am reading more books on guerrilla marketing. I am looking forward to this year in the soda business. I want to be able to keep my plans on track, so I won't call them resolutions. I always seem to break my resolutions. One resolution that I hope I don't break is updating my blog more often. I can't believe that it has been a month and a half.
It has been a long time since I updated my blog. I did not realize how hard it would be to get all four children to sleep and me awake. I am so far behind on many things. I have not kept up my books for about as long as I haven't updated my blog. I dread trying to get everything recorded. I keep meticulous records about what sold in which machine, how much I loaded, where I bought soda, how many miles I have put on my van related to my business, and so forth. I have a large stack of log papers for each of my machines that I need to input into my excel file. I know that the business is doing fine because my bank account is growing, but I hate not knowing exactly what is going on. I miss my charts that tell me how the sales are going. I haven't done my monthly household budget for 3 months either. That is also bothering me.
The good news is that Dustin is 10 weeks old. He is starting to sleep reasonably at night and take predictable naps during the day. I am getting more energy and don't need my afternoon nap as much. Dustin is becoming a little chunky guy. When I wear him and lift soda cases my back gets a workout. I will find out exactly how much he weighs next week, but according to my mother's scale, he is pushing 14 pounds. He eats all of the time. I usually have to feed him in the van when we are running our soda route. Right now I have to wear him on the front. It will get easier when I can wear him in the back. I will try to get a picture of us so that you can see it is possible to wear a baby and fill soda machines.
With the new year comes new year's resolutions. I thought this would be a good time to make plans for my business. It is wise to plan and have goals. I have several ideas that I want to try this year, including a give-away game. I am trying to work out the details and get it implemented. I will post the results and details. I would like to expand my operations by 2-4 machines. I have a new machine that is supposed to go into a location in the next few weeks. I am reading more books on guerrilla marketing. I am looking forward to this year in the soda business. I want to be able to keep my plans on track, so I won't call them resolutions. I always seem to break my resolutions. One resolution that I hope I don't break is updating my blog more often. I can't believe that it has been a month and a half.
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