Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
I'm a statistic fanatic.
I still have all our stats from both of our last two businesses starting from day one on each of them.
Maybe these stats will make you feel a little better when you look at your own:
Vegas Valley Valet Cleaners
1998-2006 (RIP- not really it's still going strong under another name)
Our average customer charge (Gross) was $39.20/month.
We serviced each customer 96 times per year/8x per month or to put it into perspective we GROSSED $4.90 per customer visit.
Thankfully we concentrated on clusters so our average "service" or stop included 6 customers or $29.40. (some had 1 - some had 15-20)
The average driver hit 24 stops per day. (the top driver hit 32 - there were some that were huge and filled the whole van - i.e. police departments, airlines, etc)
We had a 2.4% writeoff rate. (once we went to credit cards only - before that the rate was 8.1%)
At any given time 8% was 60 days past due on average.
When we printed monthly bills it took three people almost 12 hours to print, check, fold and stuff bills.
Once we went to credit card only it was reduced to one person about 3 hrs.
Industries, races, and employee vs management classes were logged.
The highest rates of complaints came from those in the auto industry
Lower level employees paid slower than management.
Doctors had a high level of slow pay
One race consisted of only 5% of the customer base but represented more than 50% of the 90 day past due accounts.
One of our employees worked for over 4 years without missing a day. (Rest in Peace Albert - He was severely overweight and died in his sleep at 23)
I loved Albert like a son. I will miss him till we meet again.
Employees were paid by the piece. Albert was slow and methodical. At first he made $4.00 per hour. When we sold the business he was making $23.00 hr and was only 21.
Used Geo Trackers cost 4% more to run over a three year period than Used Chevy 1500 vans. (even when you include the $600 fuel pump jobs and tow that comes like clockwork almost every year on the chevys!) The Trackers get 16-18mpg vs 12.5 on the chevys, but the chevys hold more product. The company that bought ours purchased a fleet of vans AND Scion Xb's which get a lot better gas mileage at my suggestion. I think they are happy with their decision. They made it through this recession.
If you buy used vehicles that are reliable you can write off more then they cost to operate each year due to the massive miles you put on them. One route was over 50k miles per year!
Grand Caravans and Plymouth Voyagers were money pits.
E350 Fords were overkill and the AC's kept going out in them. (Hey, it's the desert - I wouldn't make my guys ride around without AC!) (no, Lockyear, that's not you my friend, so please don't use that as an endorsement! - But you can use our friendship as an endorsement if you dare!)
Anyway there's tons more. I was just looking through a backup CD and found a spreadsheet of all this stuff and a lot more.
This EXACT info may not help you a bit. But the data on the Trackers helped me switch the majority over to Chevy vans.
It may not be politically correct (and politically correct doesn't pay my bills) but the data on who pays their bills gave me marketing direction. (just like with Sonitx when we started losing our A$$ on shopping centers and we had to direct our emphasis on more stable income sources)
The writeoff data on the mileage on the vehicles provided a formula for me that caused me to buy the used Chevy Express Vans. I took the writeoff, the life expectancy and the annual cost of operation into account and determined exactly how much I could spend on each unit. Then I went shopping and sometimes I even went in with a signed check for XXXX amount and walked out with a van 2 hrs later regardless of their asking price.
I guess this is all grade school stuff to some of the more "sophisticated" business owners. But for me it was a learning experience and keeping up with details like this allowed me to duck and weave as needed to survive.
I've done the same thing with Sonitx. With what I've learned over the past 7 years I don't think there is anyone who can compete with me. They may think they can, but they haven't compiled the data that I have and they might very well go bankrupt trying.
Are you keeping statistics?
I still have all our stats from both of our last two businesses starting from day one on each of them.
Maybe these stats will make you feel a little better when you look at your own:
Vegas Valley Valet Cleaners
1998-2006 (RIP- not really it's still going strong under another name)
Our average customer charge (Gross) was $39.20/month.
We serviced each customer 96 times per year/8x per month or to put it into perspective we GROSSED $4.90 per customer visit.
Thankfully we concentrated on clusters so our average "service" or stop included 6 customers or $29.40. (some had 1 - some had 15-20)
The average driver hit 24 stops per day. (the top driver hit 32 - there were some that were huge and filled the whole van - i.e. police departments, airlines, etc)
We had a 2.4% writeoff rate. (once we went to credit cards only - before that the rate was 8.1%)
At any given time 8% was 60 days past due on average.
When we printed monthly bills it took three people almost 12 hours to print, check, fold and stuff bills.
Once we went to credit card only it was reduced to one person about 3 hrs.
Industries, races, and employee vs management classes were logged.
The highest rates of complaints came from those in the auto industry
Lower level employees paid slower than management.
Doctors had a high level of slow pay
One race consisted of only 5% of the customer base but represented more than 50% of the 90 day past due accounts.
One of our employees worked for over 4 years without missing a day. (Rest in Peace Albert - He was severely overweight and died in his sleep at 23)
I loved Albert like a son. I will miss him till we meet again.
Employees were paid by the piece. Albert was slow and methodical. At first he made $4.00 per hour. When we sold the business he was making $23.00 hr and was only 21.
Used Geo Trackers cost 4% more to run over a three year period than Used Chevy 1500 vans. (even when you include the $600 fuel pump jobs and tow that comes like clockwork almost every year on the chevys!) The Trackers get 16-18mpg vs 12.5 on the chevys, but the chevys hold more product. The company that bought ours purchased a fleet of vans AND Scion Xb's which get a lot better gas mileage at my suggestion. I think they are happy with their decision. They made it through this recession.
If you buy used vehicles that are reliable you can write off more then they cost to operate each year due to the massive miles you put on them. One route was over 50k miles per year!
Grand Caravans and Plymouth Voyagers were money pits.
E350 Fords were overkill and the AC's kept going out in them. (Hey, it's the desert - I wouldn't make my guys ride around without AC!) (no, Lockyear, that's not you my friend, so please don't use that as an endorsement! - But you can use our friendship as an endorsement if you dare!)
Anyway there's tons more. I was just looking through a backup CD and found a spreadsheet of all this stuff and a lot more.
This EXACT info may not help you a bit. But the data on the Trackers helped me switch the majority over to Chevy vans.
It may not be politically correct (and politically correct doesn't pay my bills) but the data on who pays their bills gave me marketing direction. (just like with Sonitx when we started losing our A$$ on shopping centers and we had to direct our emphasis on more stable income sources)
The writeoff data on the mileage on the vehicles provided a formula for me that caused me to buy the used Chevy Express Vans. I took the writeoff, the life expectancy and the annual cost of operation into account and determined exactly how much I could spend on each unit. Then I went shopping and sometimes I even went in with a signed check for XXXX amount and walked out with a van 2 hrs later regardless of their asking price.
I guess this is all grade school stuff to some of the more "sophisticated" business owners. But for me it was a learning experience and keeping up with details like this allowed me to duck and weave as needed to survive.
I've done the same thing with Sonitx. With what I've learned over the past 7 years I don't think there is anyone who can compete with me. They may think they can, but they haven't compiled the data that I have and they might very well go bankrupt trying.
Are you keeping statistics?
