An Opportunity

So, if you're a regular on this board, you're probably familiar with my story. No I've never been a journalist. I've worked on Wall Street, in politics, in sports marketing, and now I have my own business selling and servicing commercial coffee & espresso machines.

If you've missed it, I've discussed it here:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/70056/

and here:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/80848/

There's a growing demand for the services I offer. In just the past year, every McDonald's in America has installed an expensive (think around $20,000 per machine for the system they went with) super automatic machine.

So, here's the deal. If someone is interested and thinks they might be able to do this, I am willing to train you.

I will train you -- for free. I will introduce you to the vendors I use and to the customers who provide me with my business.

You cannot live in Chicago.

You must be wiling to come to Chicago and spend about a week with me. As long as I don't think you are crazy, you can stay on my couch. There is plenty of free, street parking in my neighborhood. (But the odds are 50/50 that your car will be vandalized and/or broken into.)

You would spend a week working with me. It will be a long week. We will work in the field all day so that you get practical experience and we will tear down and rebuild machines at my shop/home in the evenings.

If you agree to do this, I will want to trade emails with you ahead of your arrival to try to teach you some of the basics.

Who would be a good fit for this?

You should like coffee. Even if you don't you must be willing to drink it to at least know what's a good cup.

It would help if you have some electrical or plumbing knowledge and/or experience, but it's not necessary. (I had none.)

You must be able to lift heavy objects.

You should be a "people person" and have a little bit of a salesman in you.

If you want to start your own company, you will need your own car. It will be better if it's a piece of shit because it will get beat up. You do not need a van. I don't own or use one.

You will need to purchase tools. Around $500 worth. You will need to invest in spare parts. Not a lot at first, since you won't have any customers. Maybe $1,000 worth. As you acquire customers, you'll have to stock more parts -- maybe as much as $10,000 worth eventually.

You should have a place in your home -- a basement or garage -- where you can work on machines. You will need 220V electricity there. (If you have an electric dryer, you're good.) It would help if you have running water, but that can be worked around.

(This is for a couple of reasons. Manufacturers may ship you equipment that they will want you to bench test prior to installation. You may need to bring a machine back to your shop for repair. -- This is very rare -- and you will want a place to rebuild machines to sell.

Just the other day, one of my customers opted not to repair a machine. They bought a new one. I took away their old one -- for free. I will spend around $1,500 on parts to rebuild the old machine. I will sell it for $6,500.)

It will be better if you live in a cold weather location. People drink more coffee/espresso where its cold. It helps if your area has hard water. Hard water ruins machines. You either make money selling them water filters or you make money repairing their machines.

Here's a hard water map:



A bigger market is better than a small one obviously.

Every Italian or French restaurant has an espresso machine. I tend to focus on chain restaurants because they pay their bills and I can pick up thirty or more stores with one account.

Chains that have espresso machines include: Dunkin' Donuts, Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee, Einstein/Noah Bagels, Corner Bakery, Au Bon Pain, Mimi's Cafe, COSI, Maggiano's, Mortons, Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, P.F. Changs, and many more.

Additionally, every Barnes & Noble, Borders Books, and Target have espresso machines. Lots of supermarkets have licensed Starbucks.

Starbucks also has lots of food service customers that are potential customers. Every major hotel has at least one espresso machine and usually several. They will usually have a cafe/stand where they "Proudly Serve" Starbucks. Hospitals, college campuses, museums, and corporate campuses also have machines and have food service run by companies like Aramark & Sodexo. Airports have tons of machines.

If you're interested in doing this, you'll probably also want to take several one day classes that the different manufacturers offer to become factory trained. This also helps you establish a relationship with that manufacturer.

Depending on where you live, I may even ask you to take a class before you get here.

If you are seriously interested in this & don't have the necessary funds, I would consider funding the right person. We can set you up as a satellite branch of my company.

This offer is good for anyone on here. If you have a child (or spouse) who you think it would be a good fit for, they are also eligible.

You don't have to be a frequent poster or a "friend" of mine. I don't care if you are a liberal. You can hate the Yankees. You can love soccer and you can wear your Pittsburgh Steelers jersey for all I care. (The guy who works for me roots for the Steelers & he's a democrat.)

I'm open to Canadians, but I may not be able to help you as much. I open to a woman, (Illy's local tech is a woman & she's great) as long as you are strong enough to do the work.

Some cities that I think would be good potential markets include Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Washington D.C./Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Miami, and more.

If you are interested or have questions, PM me, email me at the address in my profile, or post here.

This wont be an essay contest. It doesn't matter to me how tough you've had it. I'm looking for someone who can make a go of this.

If it works out with one person, I'd be willing to try it with a second person and a third person too.

 

I'd completely do this but the taste of coffee makes me retch.

I do love the smell, however.

Good luck, YF.

 

That's kind of odd. Smell is a big part of taste. I think you've probably only tried bad coffee.

I think I know where you live, but if you PM me, I'll tell you where you can try some good coffee. Really good coffee isn't bitter. It doesn't even need sugar or milk.

 

I've tried a LOT of coffees. I've had lattes and cappuccinos and mocha crap and plain coffee with sugar and cream. I can't drink tea either. It all just tastes like burnt water, covered with other flavors. Sorry.

 

Mmmm, burnt water.

 

But I want to live in Chicago.

 

Now I will mock you.

 

I would, but I already took up Pickle Juice on the knife-selling gig.

 

Butt-head: A huh huh, huh huh. Florida is extremely hard. A huh huh, huh huh, huh huh, huh huh.
Beavis: Yeah, heh heh, heh heh. bbBBOOOOININININININININININININININING!

 

Maine is only slightly hard. My condolences to an old friend.

 

Should this be on the jobs board?

 

Only if YF was looking for some young fucking stud.