[maxryde]

Good thread Squirrel,

For me a location that has a high rent is out of the question also. I live in a relatively rural area. Three small towns in a 30 mile radius. Total population is like 50,000 including the farm areas. I do the tent thing on the weekends and during the summer 1 or 2 days a week depending on my schedule. The rent varies from 20 bucks a day down to providing donuts at another location that I have had for coming into my 5th year. I originally payed 10 bucks a day there, (hardware store). Paying a lot for a location is not something I would do anywhere. I do however take care of the shops vehicles as a perk also. That being said in the little town this hardware location usually does about 300$ in a 4 to 5 hour period consistently. Ive done over twice that on a few occasions. I've had $0 days also but very few. I should say too that my commute including tear town time is like 10 minutes. The other locations are a mall parking lot, and a auto parts chain, they let me rotate thru their 4 locations. Only 2 produce the desired results though. I don't do the vacant lot thing or car washes. Fund raisers might be good but I wouldn't want to detract from a good cause, also I find the numbers drop when the prospects have other things going on. (An agenda) Holidays and the like are slow as people are going to and from and tend to put off something like a windshield repair.

I have had people waiting to phone in claims but many will just do it them selves on their own phone rather than wait for one of ours to free up. I should say I do use ACT during the bury times and when it slows down I call the insureds tpa direct. My help does this on the side of their regular job's for extra $ and they will usually clear around $150. in a 5 to six hour period. I take 30 to 50% depending on how it goes. They enjoy being there and I supervise the work so... When I have a guy manning the post alone they get 50%of the insurance, they do their own cash sales and pay according to use for supplies and rent. I am at another location at the same time so if they run across something they have a problem with I can usually be there in under 10 minutes to help out. I man the post with another tech so I am free to run if I'm not under the gun with my own situation. These guys are well trained so it rarely becomes an issue.

Locally all that is required is a business licence, temporary signage is supposed to be an issue but I haven't had any problems as I keep it neat and am a member of the local chamber as well as a city employee so.

I hope I answered your questions and will respond to any I may have missed.

One other thought the tent thing is appropriate when handled correctly, but it's certainly not the, end all be all, way of doing business. JMO, Scott