Main Street Business Rescue | The Milk Man in Boston, MA

You.

My name is Mark J. Kohler and this is Main Street Business Rescue. Our goal on this show is to find an entrepreneur, a Main street business owner, if you will, in America that's struggling. Now, as you can see from below, we're going to be talking to a milkman, a real legitimate milkman, in fact, two of them because we're going to be bringing on an expert to help Rick Strong. Here's the facts. Rick Strong is age 62. He's been delivering milk in the greater Boston area for over 40 years. His sales are down 80%. Since the beginning of COVID his business was predominantly delivery of dairy and milk products to commercial buildings for their lunchrooms, their kitchens, if you will. Now with COVID and everybody working from home, that business has fallen through the floor. He bought a brand new truck for his business this year in hopes of really taking his business to the next level. And the pandemic has been devastating. So join me as we jump into this consultation with Rick Strong in Boston. Join with my amazing co host and partner in my law firm, Matt Sorenson, and let's see what we can do to help him and also give you a few tips that might be helpful for you and your business. Well, welcome to Main Street Business Rescue. I'm here with my amazing co host Matt Sorenson Today as you've already gotten the facts of our Main street business owner that we're hoping to help, we're going to do our best in a good example of a consultation that might take 45 minutes to an hour with a good tax legal type business professional. And we're hoping to have any impact we can here on Rick's story. We've got our expert, Alan Reed, who we'll introduce shortly that is going to join us in this short episode of Business Rescue and hopefully add even some better insights into what might be able to help Rick. Matt, thoughts before we bring in our special guest owner.

Yeah, so Alan is a dairy expert, which is good because Mark and I are a little weak in the dairy line of business. So we'll have some great tips from Alan, I'm sure, specific to, as you know, today, the milkman, as I like to call him. But Mark and I too, I just want to say this. Yeah, we're tax lawyers. We're business lawyers. We're also tax and business lawyers, but we're business owners too. We have a law firm, we have other companies that we own and operate and employees and we're in the trenches too. So hopefully some of that business insight that we've gained from being in the trenches, like many of you will be helpful to.

Yeah, we hope that many of you will find a chance to look at or find the opportunity to look at some of our other business rescues that are unique in each one of their ways. And some of them do include IRS problems or some tax savings issues and a big tax bill or some legal exposure and a lawsuit and hiring, firing employees. We have a little of everything. But today is about helping a Main street business owner that really wants to keep that business open and is struggling. So let's bring in Rick Strong. We're excited to have him here with us. All right, well, Rick, thanks for joining us for this consultation. You know, it's just between us three. No one else is watching. Yeah.

Attorney client privilege. This is. Okay.

So anything you say, no one's gonna hear this, so.

No.

Thank you so much.

Okay, well, thank you for having me.

Well, we want to hear your accent. That Bostonian accent we're all envious of. We're just Westerners that we just have bad grammar, that's all. But you've got a great accent.

Some of my accounts are at Harvard, so I do park the car in the Harvard yard. So there you go.

I love it. And I'm a huge fan of legal seafood and a good bowl of clam chowder. So I'm just saying I'm a fan.

Okay.

Yeah, that's Mark's Boston credentials, so. And he's a Yankees fan, too.

All right, well, all kidding aside, the first question we have for you and I know Matt was just going to throw this out. We'll keep this moving. But tell us. Yeah, it's not a fun conversation. We understand business is down by 80%. This COVID pandemic has hit you hard. And the commercial companies you were delivering milk and dairy products to have sent all their employees home. And so you have nothing to. No one to deliver to. Tell us how you got in the dairy business to begin with and how much you love what you're doing and how this is.

It was back in the 80s, early 80s, and I was working construction, and every winter I'd get laid off. And my father had a milk root. And it was back then, it was mostly homes. It was strictly homes, homes, maybe some nursing homes or schools, small schools. And I get laid off every winter. And he was complaining about his vacation driver. And I said, I bet I could do that job. And I was like 22 years old at the time. He said, well, don't say that if you don't mean it. And next thing you know, I was running guys vacations, and I did that for three years. And HB Hood had this franchise where you'd buy the business, you'd buy the territory. And the guy who had the territory, I have got a job at the post office. And he came to me, said, hey, you know, this is a good route. Harvard Square, Cambridge, Somerville, it's all, you know, you know, good business, and I'm getting out if you want to buy the route, you know. So I looked into it and borrowed the money from my folks, you know, the down payment, and they financed me, and the rest is history. I've been doing it since 1984. I was on my. Been on my own since 1984, so. And it's evolved into what started as all homes turned into office buildings, daycares, private schools. I've had a few private schools. Some of the people have been with me forever, and I still have homes. So now the COVID hits, and the governor shuts the state down. Everybody's got to work from home. I still had a few homes left. So I still do get up in the morning and I go and I drop the stuff off at the homes. And some of them have asked me, hey, what else do you sell? So I said, I'll sell whatever you need. You need something, I'll get it for you. So I go out in the morning, and then I go to the grocery store and pick up a bunch of stuff and tack it onto their bill, mock it up a little bit, of course, makes worth my time. And that's how I've managed to keep the wheels rolling on the truck, know, make the. Make the payments. And, you know, my wife still working, thank God, So, you know, she handles the insurance. That's what we. That's. That's basically my story. And when he said you're doing a little. A little podcast on how Covid has affected you, that's how it's affected me. So Instead of working 12 hours a day, I work maybe three, three or four hours.

All right, tell us, like, what's. When your business is doing really well? Like, what are you. What's your make that you're taking home? Like, what are you taking home out of your business when it's doing really well?

Well, 1500 a week is a. 1500 is a good week. If I've had a real good week, get a lot of big orders, and, you know, if it's a Monday holiday or sometimes a little slower, I'll make a thousand bucks.

Is that gross or net? What are we talking?

That's what I take home.

Okay. That's your take home. So that's your net. Okay. After. After you. Because you're paying for the milk, you're buying stuff.

My milk bill was averages 2,500 a week. And then the grocery bill I pay once a month on a credit card which averages around 15,000. And now my milk bills 500 a week and. And the credit card bill is about 4,000. So you can do the math. You guys are pretty smart. You can do the math and figure out how much volume I'm down.

So I think at this point it's best we bring out our expert. Let's get two or three ideas on the table and then we can vet those with Rick and let our dairy owner, Alan Reed, a very busy man on his way. But Alan Reed started this business with his family. I think it was dad. I will let him maybe tell us some of the old, the history here. But it was in 1962. Now they're in four locations in Eastern Idaho doing full service dairy and delivery all over this eastern Idaho state. And when we heard your story, Rick, we immediately thought we've got to reach out to Alan Reed, see if he'll come on the show and talk a little bit about what they have been doing during COVID and maybe share some tips or strategies. So, Alan, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Oh, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Well, maybe talk dairy for two seconds and introduce your dairy to Rick so Rick knows you're legit.

Okay.

I have been in the dairy business for a long time. My dad and his two brothers started actually 1955. And we have milk home delivery as well as delivery into grocery stores and convenience stores and our own ice cream and dairy stores. So we were a producer hand and we milk the cows, we bottle the milk, make ice cream and cheese and then sell that right to the consumer. So that's been our business for years now.

Can I share the secret ingredient? Is that all right?

Yeah, that'd be fine.

Okay.

His milk, I'm not kidding. When you. Every time I go to the grocery store, I'll go, I'm not lying. I don't want to not patent his ego. I'll go to the back when I'm getting other gallons of milk and there'll be chocolate milk and I'll get it and I'll start drinking it before I get to the checkout stand. And they're a little. They're okay around here with that. I'm still paying for it. But this secret ingredient is potato and potato flakes. I don't know. Two seconds, Alan, tell us how that came about. I think it's just an interesting story.

Well, my dad was president of national potato board years ago. And anyway, in the midst of our conversation, one thing led to another and I realized that potato flakes was a lot cheaper than non fat dry milk that we were using in our. Our chocolate milk. And anyway, through some research, I figured out how to put that in the chocolate milk and save us some money and create a great texture and flavor. And it has been a hit ever since. We sell lots of chocolate milk.

Now, I have never heard that that is.

It's a problem.

Only in Idaho, they put potatoes in everything.

Yeah, yeah. So you have a COVID 19 right here on your waist. Right.

Let's ask. Let me ask this, Alan. What have you done as Covid hit? What changes have you had to make? Do you think would be helpful for Rick and his business as you've had to deal with COVID in your own.

Well, what we found with COVID is our dairy stores really slowed down, but our milk home delivery really picked up, I mean, even into the grocery stores. But the home delivery to consumers direct to their homes, it just exploded. And one of the things that we did is that we made sure that we had a variety of grocery items. So not just only milk and a few dairy products, but we offered the customers pretty much everything that they would need in order to prepare meals and have food for their family for the week. And so we looked at everything local, any kind of local businesses that we could find, that we could sell their products would accompany our dairy products. And it just really grew our business in that short little time. When Covid first hit.

What are the top products that you're adding on with the milk? What are the top sellers that people buy that you add on with the milk?

What we added on was. Was produce. Produce is a big one. As well as cheese. We were already selling cheese, but we added a variety of other cheeses, more artisan type cheeses, as well as different types of breads. We sold regular loaf bread, but we expanded that into a lot of other varieties, flavors, and artisan type breads. Those were the really big sellers.

Now, before we get to your tips for Rick and Rick, you might have a question or two for Alan. And you're being so kind to just sit there and soak it up.

I'm identifying with him as he's saying he added that on where I've reached out to people and said, I'll do your grocery shopping. That's what they want the most. They want to be able to get. And most of the people that want produce, they want organic. So, you know, I'll stop the truck and I'll run into Whole Foods and I'll get it and deliver it to them. And here you go. And just add it onto their bill and it's marked. Instead of leaving four half gallons of milk, you're leaving four half gallons of milk and another whole box of all kinds of stuff, and you're able to charge them. You know, just. I mean, we are in the business of making money, and we're in the business of helping them. You know, they never forget that, you know, so that's good.

Thank you, Rick. And you might have some. A question or two here for Alan. I have one more then Alan, I think, prepared two or three tips based on the facts that he's been able to garner here. We'd like to hear the one thing I noticed, and this may be one of the tips, if I'm not mistaken, your website looks very different today than it did six months ago. I just went to your website today and it was like, boom, we want to do home delivery for you. I don't remember that being front and center, but maybe I missed that. Was that. Has that been a modification website?

It has been, yeah. We made it. Like you say, front and center.

I love it. Okay, so the time is yours, Alan. Tell us what you think. What would you have Rick maybe consider doing right away?

Is it okay? I'd like to ask him a couple questions, if I may.

I can see you. I can hear you.

So you deliver HP Hood milk. What has been your biggest challenge of picking up home delivery customers?

I don't think the biggest challenge is I don't know how to reach out to people. I had a friend who belongs to the Newton mothers website page, and she sent out an email blast or a Facebook blast. And I got a ton of calls when this first happened. They wanted questions. They wanted to know how this worked. And I just put myself out there. I said, whatever you need, I'll get it for you. And I probably had in the first week, 25 new customers. But after one or two deliveries, they decided, well, they forget to call you, or you're only in there one day away. And I'm only one guy. I don't have a whole fleet of trucks or anything, so. But that was one thing that worked. But it started to slack off as they started opening up. People want to go and do their own shopping. I have maintained probably 12 to 15 customers. Out of those 25 or 30 that first inquired.

Okay. I think that one of the things that I would recommend is that you have a specific list of products that you have a good feel for that people want. And so you have those. You have your product list. So it's more than just saying, what do you want? And I'll go get it for you. Here's what we can provide for you, and here's why, and here's the benefit for you by having us bring these things. And then also every week, have special on one of these items. And not only just have it for, you know, tell the customer, okay, this week we're having this special, but list the specials out for the next month and a half. And so customers are looking forward, think, oh, well, in three weeks I can get a dozen eggs for this special price. And that's going to help them stay with you as they look ahead at what your specials are. But I think that that will help also if you can develop some type of referral program to where they get some money, as well as having a great starter package for those that start. So we give a commission if someone refers a new customer to us. We pay that customer X amount of dollars every time the customer, they refer to us has a delivery for a month. And so they have an interest in keeping that customer having delivery. And they've got a.

They're getting the benefit of like a notice, tell all your friends type of thing.

If you get a. Yeah, so, yeah, so you email out to your customers, put it on. I don't know if you have a Facebook page. We find Facebook really successful. But a flyer out to all your customers and say, here's the program and here's what you'll get if you bring people to us.

Now, Rick, can I interject and ask a question, too? And Alan, if I may, I've been searching here for a little bit. I can't find a website for you. Does that exist? Do you have something.

And I apologize, no, not for me. No. No. Do you have a. I don't even. I didn't. I didn't even know how to use a computer. My brother had to bring it over. So that's. That's my disadvantage.

Okay. All right. Do you have a list of all your customers with their first name, last name, phone, and email if you wanted to do email?

Well, I have the name and address and Phone number. I don't know about emails because I don't use email. I've never had to. Once I've gotten a customer and I've maintained, made them happy, they've stayed with me almost like I said, been in business 30 something years. I've had some of these customers. Now they're old, but I've had them for 30 plus years. And when you get a new one, if you just take care of them, they seem to stay with you. Until this hit, I didn't care if I got any new customers. I was quite happy doing the same customers I had. And all of a sudden the legs got chopped out from under me. Now I wish I knew how to use a computer. Now I wish I had a Facebook page or a website or a product list. Things that new people would ask. You have a product list? No, but I was trying to be nice about it to each customer. Whatever you, whatever you, whatever you need, I'll get it for you. You know, so they'll make grocery list, text message it to me, and I'll just write it down and get it for them. But I like that suggestion about having the product list.

You know, Let me ask this. How do you communicate with your customers then? By text message?

Sometimes text message. Most of them text message in. So a lot of them are standard orders. They have the same standard order every week. And if you go there and they say, hey, do you have a loaf of bread? Yeah, sure. Let me run out to the truck.

Do you have. Got it. How do you invoice them? Like, how do they pay?

There's three, three methods. They can pay me cod. They can Venmo. I opened up a Venmo account. They can Venmo the money or I bill them once a month. I have a whole list. This is sort of a carbon copy of an invoice.

Okay.

I give them a bill once a month and they mail me a check to the house or.

Okay.

All right, Alan, back to you. Thanks.

Hey, I appreciate those questions. So, Rick, I. I'm just gonna be really straightforward. If you don't have a website and. And if you don't have a Facebook page, and if you don't have a way for those customers electronically communicate with you and change your orders, the people today, they want to sign up online, they want to change your order online. They don't want to talk to you.

You know, I'm glad you said that because. Excuse me, most people, they don't even. Years ago, I'd knock on the door and walk in and put it in the fridge, put it on the kitchen table. Hey, how you doing? Now you get to the porch, you leave the milk and you send them a text message. Milk is here. Thanks, see you next week. And off I go because of this Covid, they don't want to even you walk on the porch, they back up. You're right. They don't want anything to do with you. I don't mind paying.

We get 99% of our customers that just sign up online. Until we. We used to have make they had to call in to start, we didn't have it able to sign up electronically. When we provided that electronically to them a couple years ago, our new starts went way up. It just made a whole big difference. And we get more orders if we allow them to change your orders online, do it all at 10 o' clock at night when they're thinking about it. I. You really have got to get electronically

put together, grow or go. But like I said, I'm an old school and I. And I've just. My brother who's a computer whiz has been after me for years. What are you handwriting your bills for? Why don't you go online and just print them out? But you know, you work all the time and you just. I never learned to use a computer. So.

Now, Rick, one thing I know before Alan gives you maybe another couple insights, I want to put you at ease in one suggestion. And we've helped a lot of clients in this way. There are probably within your area, certainly in Boston, there are so many colleges and community colleges. There are college students that need intern hours that are in marketing and film and social media degrees where they're almost required a lot of times before graduating to go out and do an internship and help a small business and go through this practice and with a couple phone calls and maybe your brother helping you out, we don't want you to think you've got to spend a ton of money or go to become a tech specialist yourself. The trick is to get one or two college students right away. And I think you could do it within days. Have a couple college students sitting in your front room going, guys, help me. And the right college students would rub their hands together and be ecstatic to help set you up a website and start trying to get at least some of your business electronically out there, doing a Facebook page immediately and then reaching out to the friends and family to have them start posting. And I think you could see a quick response to that type of effort and it wouldn't have to be that expensive. Anyway, back to Alan.

Alan, one last tip. We talked about electronically. It's not that hard to do because there are several subscription type services for home delivery businesses and you could hire one of those on a subscription service and they would have you all set up in a matter of hours with your product list, billing and all those sort of things. And so it's really not. You don't have to start from the beginning. You just need to get them on board and have them help you.

What's the name of some of those software companies off the top of your head? Do you know any?

Yeah, one of them is called dms. That's. They're based out of Ogden, Utah. There's another one called Delivery Biz Pro and I, you know, I would suggest you give DMS a call. They could have you set up in no time.

Thank you.

Good.

Okay.

Can help you more with that. But, but if you don't get electronically in place so people can order, sign up, do everything online, it'll just be a struggle for you.

It sounds like too you love what you do. Being able to walk into.

It's only because I don't work for anybody. I don't take orders from anyone. I get up when I want, I drive around. I like getting up in the morning. I, I drive around, I see people. I love it. I do, I've done it and you know, I'm on the back nine. Of course I'm 61 and you know, a few more years, but I like what I do and I'm not ready to retire. I'm not ready to give up.

I got one more comment, Matt. Is it okay if I ask, I want to ask Alan this. Alan, if you've got one more tip, fine, but I certainly take that opportunity. But something interesting to me is I think you're missing an opportunity too, Rick, that if you say I'm going to give this five more years, I'm going to get in, I'm going to get up to speed electronically. I'm going to really stretch myself. I'm going to network with some young people that can help my business grow, maybe give them some commissions, a piece of the action as they help you build that. Alan, what do you think? Five years from now with this delivery list, he could have something worth selling?

Oh yeah, no question about it. In today's world, with what's going on, you could build a home delivery service fairly quickly if you have it in place electronically for people to use. Just the other quick tip, stop billing, monthly bill Weekly and don't have them send you a check automatically run their credit card. And to do that you need that software that I just told you about. The other thing is charge a delivery charge. So you have your product price, but also charge a delivery charge for stopping at their home. That will pay for your truck. Once you get your customer base up, that covers a lot of the overhead, capital expense stuff. But you really have to be successful today in the delivery business. You have to charge a delivery charge as well as billing for your other products that weekly. Billy, run their credit card. Don't, don't mess around with checks.

And I'm going to say this. If you don't have their credit card on file that's valid, you don't deliver. Yeah, you deliver that week, you hit their card if there's a problem with that card.

Even though I've known most of these people for 30 years and they, they just write a check once a month like. Well, I'm talking about your new customers. Oh, new customers. Oh, new customers. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, now I know you wanted to say something too.

Yeah, I was gonna ask what's the. And I think we may have put this in the informational section at the beginning of the show. But what is the profit margin difference on the commercial delivery you were doing pre Covid versus home delivery?

Would you charge the same

retail price?

Now, is your commercial order larger?

I suppose commercial could in some cases 10 times larger. I use a two wheeler in the commercial stops. You went to an office building with 12 fridges. You fill that, you will a stack of five cases of milk and cream. You go into a guy, you know, a family of four, deliver four half gallons of milk twice a week, or know, six or eight half gallons of milk, that's it. And you try to get them to buy something else. You go into an office building with. You only need one office building. That's an hour of delivering the homes in my eyes.

Okay, Alan, any final words of wisdom?

Well, I think that. I think you need to get digitally on board, get a website some, so everything can be done electronically. You're ordering everything so you don't need to deal with it and you can automatically bill. I would work on those customers that you've had for 30 years and just try to get them to understand you're changing your program. And get your money every week. Don't wait for a month, do your delivery charge and then work your specials, your product list and that sort of thing. The biggest thing is you have to get this software to Become electronic and virtual.

Got to get the volume up. That's the big deal, is to get.

Well, you won't get the volume unless you're online.

Right? I know. I know what you're saying. Yeah.

Mr. Allen Reed, thank you. You're awesome. And I thought one of the tips was going to be get a case of chocolate milk and have it shipped out from Idaho and you're gonna blow up. So that's what I'd recommend, that you get your customers addicted to that chocolate milk. It's like crack. I mean, it's just so it's like

illegal to go drive around and sell it. It's that good?

Yeah, it's that good, you know. But Alan, thank you so much for being with us.

You're welcome. Thank you. Good luck, Rick.

Yeah, thank you, sir.

Rick, why don't you tell us how your business was going before COVID hit how 2019 was ending and how you're coming into 2020. Tell us about what your business was doing and what plans you were making.

Well, I was going along and everything was great. You know, I had a ton of business and I was working all kinds of hours. And the problem was, was I had a truck that kept breaking down and then they. It was a diesel and they couldn't find anybody to fix it. And my wife says, stop renting a truck. Just, they can't fix it. Just go order a new truck. So I went to the place and he said, yeah, it should be a couple of weeks. But I said, I'd like to get it before the new year so I can use it as a tax write off. At least get something out of it.

You love that New Year's Eve.

He called me, he said, your truck's ready. I got it just under the wire. And I brought him the plates and I drove home New Year's Eve with a brand new Isuzu milk truck and was able to write it off on my taxes for 2019.

So excellent tax strategy.

I'm glad. Two and a half months went by and COVID 19 hit. I made two payments on the brand new truck and there I was with a brand new truck, thousand dollars on it, and said, now what do I do? So. Well, one day I came home on a Friday and all the calls came. Every office bill I probably got, 70 office buildings. One by one they called. We got a shut down, Rick. The governor shut the state down, Rick. Sorry. We'll call you. It's only going to be two or three weeks. Here we are five months later with no End in sight in Massachusetts anyway.

Yeah, it's tough, you know, and I just a note on that tax strategy because some of our small business rescues are deep in the tax restructuring situation. But obviously we're going to be talking about getting your revenue back up here shortly. But I think the tax strategy of buying equipment or a truck at the end of the year is a fine strategy. It's excellent. In fact. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Donald Trump, gop, love him or hate them, threw gas on the fire. The auto truck delivery truck deduction is phenomenal. The only recommendation that we make is make sure it has an. It makes sense economically. And it sound like it did for Rick here because he was renting a truck, he had breakdowns, it was affecting the business negatively. He didn't need to go out and buy a sexy truck to look cool. I think the big takeaway here and this is the real coup in his tax strategy. How did you get your wife to recommend this? There's every guy out there in the world that wants to know, how can I get my wife to recommend buying a truck?

Because my wife, she watched me for five long weeks every time they wouldn't fix. She's watched me for 22 years, but watched me struggle. She goes away on vacation, I continue to go to work, but she has watched me struggle over this truck. She said, just go out and buy a new truck. You're gonna stay in the business for a few more years. It's a brand new truck. And when you decide you want to retire, you can sell the truck. You'll have something sellable. This piece of junk you have now, you're never going to be able to sell. And she was right. I didn't want to take on the burden of a truck payment or whatever. But whenever she said that, I was with her son and he said, my mother said, go buy the new truck. We went in and I gave him a deposit, wrote him a check for a thousand bucks and, and, and said order it. So it took a few, you know, few weeks after that before they took delivery. But she's, she like, I got a great wife. I, what else can I say? Well, my partner with this. So, you know.

All right, Rick. Well, I think one of your best strategies, and this is, you know, Alan's the genius behind some of this stuff. I'm going to be leaning on some of his stuff.

But I just want to put it

in context after hearing your story. Remember when you were the 22 year old kid picking up the vacation shifts of other milk Routes. That's the kid you want to find right now. Okay, go find that kid. That kid knows Facebook. That kid knows how to get on the Internet, that kid knows email and he can really help your business because you might want to go on vacation. But right now you need someone to help you get on Facebook. Think of the Newton mothers you talked about that did a post on Facebook. They had to probably call your phone number. There was no website for them to go to, no Facebook, no subscription that Alan talked about. He said 99% of their, their signups are online. You're not even there. So if the ones that called you that took the time to make a phone call, how many of them more would have signed up if they just clicked to your website or your Facebook page and were able to register there? So I think if you can find that 22 year old kid that was you back in the day, that's going to have the skills of kids today, I think that would be great. And I think also, and this was something that Mark mentioned, and Alan too is if you want to be out of this business in a few years, three, five years, whatever it is, you want to be able to exit and make some money, you bought this route from someone else, maybe that 22 year old kid buys it from you. May, you know, that's the, and some of these small businesses like this, it's not going to be a big company that's going to come buy you out. It's usually someone else who wants to take over your route, who wants to be an entrepreneur, take control of their life like you have. Don't answer to anybody, but they're going to have to buy in. And if you've got a valuable route, that's like the perfect person that you could trust is that person helping you. Then come in and take it over. That's what I'd be angling for in the long run.

Now in a couple again, seemingly overwhelming tasks is hiring an employee. It can be dangerous, it can be scary and it can be dangerous. If you try to hire this kid under the table or whoever it is. And I have a twofold recommendation. The first one is I want you to remain the face of this business. This is awesome. These people that have been a customer of yours for 30 years, I still want them to see you walking up to their door saying hello. When you hire this 22 year old kid, it's not to make the delivery, it's to make the deliveries happen. And then you're out there shaking hands, kissing babies. When Covid is over with, and you're out there making sure these people get to know you. And they're like, oh, my gosh, I've got the. And I'll be a little direct. The cutest little old man comes by and delivers milk. And this guy's been doing it his whole life. They will eat you up. They will love you. So don't replace yourself out on the street. Replace that part of you that doesn't understand computers and get them in your office doing this crap, and you're going to. This is going to explode again. You're going to be the happiest man on earth. And so the second part of that is it can seem daunting. So make sure you're using an accounting or law firm to help you get legit. It's time to get a real entity set up with a real name that you can brand.

And.

And maybe it's Rick Strong Milk Delivery or Rick Strong Delivery, but you've got a powerful last name there. You could play off the word strong in a lot of ways, get that brand figured out and get an entity set up, get the tax ID number, tie it all to the Venmo and all the things that you're doing to get payment quickly, have that coming out of the gate. Because if you're going to create something you're going to sell five years from now, you want to build the foundation now that it's solid. And then when you have that entity in the next week or two, this doesn't take a lot of money, time, or effort. You're going to get those kids involved. You're going to get your entity set up, and you're going to start that brand. And then when it's time to set up payroll, you call a national payroll company like ADP or whoever, they'll cut the kid a check. They're 20 hours a week, whatever it is. And so again, some of these college students need an internship for free. So I think if you really buckle down in the next month, that you're building an empire here, that's pretty exciting, and you can do it.

All right.

Okay.

I got.

I got one other that I want to throw out to you, and I think this is important. There's different strategies you might want to do now while we're still in Covid and how you're going to market. And again, this. You know, your marketing has been word of mouth, really. It sounds like. So once you get the website up or you get the Facebook page, what's going to. Cause The Newton mothers to share your Facebook page or to share your website link where people can go and immediately subscribe. It's the things that you mentioned. People want the organic, right? Talk about how you can do you have a box, an organic box that comes with the milk, it's box of produce and the most popular things people buy. Talk about that, how you have that on your order that they can pick up as you're delivering them their milk. Talk about how you aware a mask when you come up to their door, you know, and so you're there, they're feeling that you're being Covid friendly, of course. But then I think when you've built this base, right now during COVID for getting the subscription service on your website, you're focusing on home delivery because that's what people need right now. Then when commercial opens back up, you've got your commercial base. I mean, you're going to be able to. The commercial customers are the same. They want to find you on the web, they want to get referred to you on the web, they want to sign up and subscribe on the web. And so that commercial business can come back and blossom even more. Now your routes, the route that the guy who's got the route next to you and the other franchise wants to buy you out when you retire because you've got the most valuable route now that has the great locations that you mentioned, but also has a ton of commercial stops in it now. And it could be again another thing to build value while increasing your earning power and also finding a way to exit so you can enjoy retirement.

Okay, Rick, again, you've been so patient. I want to see if your bro, your brother will stick his face in the camera here. Can we get. I got an assignment for Mike. Is that all right? Can we get Mike in the camera here? Okay, both you guys squeeze in there, man. Look at it. You guys like twins? I love it. One has a little more hair, but okay. Now, Mike, I got a job for you too. Thanks so much for nominating your brother to be here too. Mike. We've got to know the story of Rick Strong. And I think if you can get your camera, borrow your wife's camera, your kid's camera, get the best phone camera you can find. Follow Rick around when he does a delivery and just get him walking up to the doorstep and saying hi to people while he's driving down the road. You're sitting over there saying, how's your day today? Oh, I've been up since 5am I picked up my Milk and just shoot a little video on your phone even. And then you're going to let that 22 year old kid or kids that you're going to get at the local college to make a little video about Rick Strong and milk delivery. I mean this will choke people up. And you then put that on that website and the website can be so simple. So I don't know, I don't know. Mike, can you be a camera guy? Can you get that done?

I think it'll help all day long.

And I want to see that 20, 20 new milk truck.

Yeah.

Oh, 19. Okay.

So. Well, Mike, thanks for your brother here.

Yeah, well, thanks for all you do. I'm a big fan. Watch you guys all the time. Did your self directed IRA summit there last year.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, I love it. You guys are great. Yeah.

Well, Rick, we appreciate you. Any final thoughts or questions for us as well?

No, I appreciate the, all the, you know, I take criticism well. I know the things I probably should have done years ago and probably now that know some things that I do have to do and, and I appreciate you taking the time to put me in your, in your group of friends, you know, millions of followers. Millions of followers. Yeah. Yeah. I might even have customers watching, who knows.

There we go. Well, pretty soon folks, you're going to be able to google Rick Strong milk delivery in the Boston area and his website is going to come up. Let's Summarize our top 10 strategies here for today. Number one, get a printed product list. Not only the one on your website, but that you can hand to your customers a little index card or a piece of paper that has this month's specials and what you can deliver and the prices. Number two, you're going to get up electronically website, taking credit cards, able to do all the little things that come with a website and a shopping cart. Number three, reach out to DMS or Delivery Biz Pro or one of these software companies that will help you get that delivery system online. You don't have to go out and spend $50,000 on website programmers. There's people that are out there trying to deliver other stuff to homes and there's businesses that will support you and get you set up quickly. Number four, bill weekly and collect money weekly. Don't wait a whole month to get that money. Have people's credit cards on file and have their orders subscribed well in advance. Their orders the same every week. You hit their card every week. Number five, implement a delivery charge. When you're providing products over and above maybe their subscription and keep it nominal, but it's going to add up quickly and help pay for other overhead costs. Number six, enlist the help. And I like how Matt called it, that 22 year old Rick Strong that's out there that wants to have a small business and learn from you, but get two or three college students that have social media marketing experience and help them just blow up your business in a good way. Number seven, have an exit strategy. Make a five year commitment. I'm going to have 100 or 200 delivery, something I can handle and that delivery route is going to be worth a value in a dollar amount that you'll be able to sell to an employee or another competing business. Number eight, remain the face of the business. Get out there, shake hands, get a little video of you out there saying hi and make sure people understand who Rick Strong is. Number nine, get legit. Let's get an entity, let's get a tax ID number. You're going to have to implement some payroll for some employees in the office and that's okay. If you say five deliveries pays for an employee, that's okay. Those first five deliveries are to pay for that person in the office and do it legitimately. And then number 10, build. Like Matt said, those marketing strategies that are kind of COVID centric are going to create a base that you're going to be able to take but take with you to the bank when Covid the pandemic's over with. It'll be over. The lights are going to become at the end of the tunnel. And so if you're implementing strategies now, it's only going to blossom more and add to that base when Covid's over with. We appreciate you, man. Thanks for sharing your time with us. Matt, take us out.

Thanks very much.

Yeah, thanks, Rick. Yeah, I want to see that. And hopefully we've said a few things here, Alan too, especially that'll help you keep the wheels Moving on that 2019 Isuzu milk delivery truck. So thanks for being here. Of course, everybody can go to mainstreetbusiness.com to learn more about our podcast and other episodes and information resources we have for small business owners. And thanks Rick. Thanks Alan, who came on earlier and thanks Mike for getting Rick on.

We appreciate that Mike put it all together.

Thank you.

It happened. Take care, guys.