Sweets-N-Treats
In August of ‘93 I began developing Sweets-N-Treats Outreach Vending. By 1996 this small outreach vending business actively represented 9 local charities and multiple commercial accounts covering 5 counties in western Washington State.
Starting
a
small
bootstrap
business
without
sinking
allot
of
money
for
startup
is
a
challenge
to
anyone,
fortunately
I
knew
how
to
make
this
business
work.
I
modified
the
typical
vending
business
operations
to
fit
the
specific
areas
and
benefit
the
local
areas
to
maximize
the
acceptability
of
the
machines.
Relying
on
my
reputation,
sales
and
marketing
skills,
and
determination
I
set
out
to
build
a
business
through
outreach
vending.
I started with the purchase of 10 little vending machines and worked out of a 1980 VW Sirocco.
I was able to build that up to a rotating inventory of 260 mechanisms. Most of these are placed in locations from Burlington to Issaquah and Whidbey Island to Sultan all within Washington State.
I promoted my outreach vending ideas to the local police stations to help benefit their "DARE" campaigns for most of the cities in all 5 counties I also promoted machines benefiting the local Cancer Charity and some specific local "Disaster Relief Funds" in towns that had that sort of program.
I was responsible for all the marketing and development and made a point of doing at least three marketing attempts on each days route.
I negotiated the successful sale of the business in October of '97.
Today the business is still thriving under new ownership.
My father was an entrepreneur who once told me that any business large or small, that someone is willing to buy is a successful enterprise.