Don’t Overlook This Mini-Mailbox Trend in the UK

Shine Star

Why is everyone in the UK suddenly swapping out their standard mailbox for the tiniest version you’ve ever seen?   Discover the surprising reason behind this mini-mailbox obsession — and why you might want one too before it becomes the norm!   #MiniMailbox  #UKTrend  #HomeDesignUK  #MailInnovation  #MailboxMakeover  #BritishHomes  #TrendAlert  #MiniMailboxTrend  #HomeUpgrade  #USHomeStyle  #MailboxGoals  #UKInspiredDesign  #TinyButMighty  #HomeDecor  #MiniMailboxCanada  #CanadianHomes  #UKTrend  #ExteriorDesign  #MailboxStyle  #HomeInspo  #LittleUpgrade  #MiniMailboxAustralia  #AussieHomes  #UKHomeTrend  #MailboxUpgrade  #ExteriorGoals  #TinyButTrendy  #HomeDesign   Don’t miss the trend — explore now

Transcript

00:00huh she started a business with $22,000 and turned it into a business that will

00:06do hundreds of thousands of dollars a year it's called mini mailboxes how about

00:12investing $22,000 and making somewhere between 120,000 to 260,000 dollars a

00:19year on a mini mailbox store so essentially what this is is it's like you

00:24know UPS where you go to ship your boxes and all of that jazz except this one's

00:28independently owned it's owned by my friend Lisa and she's gonna break down

00:31for us exactly what she did to start one of these to buy one of these to scale

00:36them up and cash flow on a business that somebody else runs for her so let's go

00:40check it out I wanted to cover this story because my friend Lisa basically told me

00:47that she was starting a package ship Center which is what we're in right now

00:50she was doing it with like twenty two thousand five hundred bucks and the way

00:54that she break don't broke down the startup costs I thought were fascinating

00:57so this business isn't one that you had to have millions of dollars to start or

01:01hundreds of thousands of dollars to start you could start delivering in your

01:04community you could provide a service and you could do it with tens of thousands

01:07of dollars so break down like what are your startup costs for this type of

01:10business that's right so when you're thinking about a business model right I

01:13mean restaurants for example hundreds of thousands of dollars of TI is

01:16going to be required even if you go into a second generation space our startup

01:20costs were really really low I spent sixty two thousand dollars on two stores to get

01:26everything open and running and that included buying banks of mailboxes

01:30included all of the material and labor to build out these counters and they

01:34call them custom counters because they were just built to our specs they're not

01:38Gucci or anything and you needed some paint we redid the flooring in this store the

01:44other store we did not redo the flooring and ten thousand dollars of that

01:47start-up number went to me paying somebody so that I could learn this

01:53business

01:57the biggest way that you can screw this up is by not knowing what you're doing

02:02right it's like spending too much money in bad areas it's you know not having

02:06the right location it's not having the the right software all of these little

02:10things can add up to a business failing pretty quickly and you were like hmm I

02:14want to decrease my risk on how this business could actually fail how could I

02:17do it and you came up with a plan that I thought was brilliant the first time I

02:20ever met Lisa she told me this plan and I was like you're a genius so I loved the

02:24idea of the business model these mailboxes being mini storage units being this

02:31study form of recurring revenue that was low maintenance and low overhead but I

02:35don't know anything about running a shipping store I've never worked in a UPS

02:39retail store or anything like that so I went up the street to my local

02:43independent pack and ship mailbox rental store up the street from my house who

02:47where I'd been a patron for years and I went to their owner there and I said hey

02:51I've got a business proposition for you I'm gonna open up one of these down at

02:55215 and Flamingo so it's far enough away that it's not competition for you

02:59location wise but I don't know anything about running one of these stores I will

03:03pay you $10,000 if you let me follow you around for two weeks and I'll capture

03:07all of your processes and make you a nice little handbook and and put it all

03:10together and he was just like are you serious and I was like yes and he

03:15agreed and so the next day I showed up at his store at 8 45 in the morning they

03:18opened the doors at 9 he unlocked the front door and then he unlocked a

03:22folding gate so I said oh I started writing notes I need a folding gate I

03:25copied everything that he had in the store down to the software on his

03:29computers what type of postal software do they use type of operating system do

03:32they have what type of formatting do they use for their mailbox agreements I

03:36copied everything and then turn that into SOPs and procedures and then

03:41obviously we've modified as we opened our stores and and got going but that was

03:46one of the best things I could have done cuz it was an investment in that

03:49business model for me so I could I interned there literally for two weeks

03:53I was like a new hire I was like working the counter we're working the

03:55register if I didn't like it or if I didn't think it was gonna be a viable

03:59business model for me that $10,000 would have been my investment into that

04:04endeavor and I could have walked after those two weeks of being in the store

04:08and working there and say you know what this isn't what I thought it was gonna

04:11be not gonna be for me and I would have walked I would have been totally happy

04:14with that so that was my way to to learn about the business and what I thought

04:18was a very mitigated fashion and it's turned into a business that we still have

04:23to this day I love it so my favorite story is obviously like I'm dressed like

04:31this Lisa's in 37 inch stilettos always it's like I can't even wear those things

04:36to a party but when she showed me what she started to do to build out this

04:41business she was literally she had like power tools and wood things and she was

04:45like putting this all together and I was like I don't buy it but but one thing

04:49that I thought was really smart is like for some of the startup costs you're like

04:52these are custom counters you know right but you had friend of yours basically

04:55build the counter so like saved yourself I don't know how much were they gonna

04:58charge you for that the contractor was gonna charge me $8,000 for what he called

05:02custom counters and that just means we took the length of the wall and measured

05:06it and I said I want two counters so they're gonna split that distance with

05:10enough room in the middle for us to get packages through and I was at home

05:14complaining about it and my boyfriend at the time that I was with he looked at it

05:19and he was like I could build those and I was like okay

05:22thanks for your support I was like no seriously it's a big problem I'm pissed

05:26you know and and lo and behold he did he went to Lowe's and bought $500 worth of

05:32lumber and built it and literally these are the same counters that we have in the

05:37store and it's the same blueprints that we used for the next store it's the same

05:40blueprints we'll use for the subsequent stores you don't need a fancy

05:43contractor for this stuff these are not attached to the wall so it's like

05:46furniture when you think about putting together some of these sort of boring

05:50businesses that have like a limited upside you know this location probably

05:53cannot be a five million dollar location unless you're selling some other than

05:57mailbox services and so um so I think you know one of the keys is keeping it

06:02tight on your costs I think that's one hack is definitely you know if you think

06:06about your biggest costs try to think about if this were easy and cheaper how

06:10could I do it for the actual mailboxes you did something else because you told me the

06:14cost mailboxes and then you told me how you got them cheaper what was that so you

06:19can buy brand new mailboxes direct from the manufacturer and they cost about

06:23sixty eight hundred dollars brand new we were able to find on Craigslist used

06:28boxes it's the exact same manufacturer few of them were missing the second set of

06:32keys there were a few broken doors that's all easily replaceable you can

06:37actually order replacement doors and replacement locks from Amazon of all places

06:41and it cost me six dollars and fifty cents per lock to order new locks you

06:45basically saved yourself tens of thousands of dollars and you've done that

06:48a few times kind of looking for these just in like I call it our immigrant

06:51hustle things our parents would never pay full price for we don't either what

06:57other hacks did you see to do it a little bit more like you know cost

07:02effectively so you could serve a you know give give a better service at a

07:05cheaper price and also open a few of these at the same time anything else just

07:09keeping our costs low to your point so even if you look at like the materials

07:13that we use for these so it's literally two by four right and then this like tile

07:19part that's on these are sticky like sticky tiles yeah so instead of looking for a

07:23one-piece countertop right that was thousands of dollars we literally buy we did

07:30the whole store with four boxes of these like sticky sticker tiles yeah and they

07:36serve its purpose and it's been durable and these are the same ones we've had on for

07:39four years love that story time all right guys this is kind of special because I just

07:47sold a website for 8k that I bought for about a hundred bucks it was called grow

07:53getters a newsletter that talked about marketing growth I did it just for fun

07:56with two friends and it made me realize that I wanted to tell more people that

08:01you could start with small deals you could start with large deals but you can

08:04definitely start with online deals so I partnered with this company Flippa thanks

08:08guys about where to buy online businesses it's my favorite site to buy any sort

08:14of online business period full stop that's why I'm trying to invest in them so

08:19maybe you guys can check this out so that I could get part of this series

08:22that'd be awesome thanks Blake CEO because after all we know that 94% of

08:27startups fail that's why I like to buy them instead of build them and this is

08:31true on Flippa too for online businesses you can get loans or use seller

08:35financing although you got to put down some cash you can have profits on day

08:39one of owning the business you can use the cash flow of the business to fund

08:42your next brilliant idea but instead of paying for an idea you buy it first so

08:48here's the link go check them out there's 500,000 businesses that have been

08:51listed on Flippa they've done billions of dollars in transactions Cody you're

08:56forgetting that Flippa is also the best place to sell an online business they

08:59even have a matching algorithm to get your business in front of the people

09:02most likely to buy so anyone out there looking to sell or even just find out

09:07what their business is worth check out Flippa's free valuation tool here

09:10anyway back to you on stage Cody

09:12so the cool thing about this space is that the postal industry is going by like

09:20five to eight percent per year because Amazon and our online shopping

09:24addiction at the same time if it's a in a recessionary environment like it is

09:28right now or an inflationary environment like it is right now you can raise your

09:32prices to match inflation which helps keep your business in order while the

09:36rest of the world might not have that kind of price and elasticity the other

09:40reason I think mailboxes are really interesting is like the size of the store

09:43how big is this store this is 1400 square feet so I love looking at how much

09:48money can I earn out of a smaller square footage the larger office space that you

09:54had you could technically I guess put more people in there but they were still

09:57like a price per square foot cost it's associated with that right how much

10:01output can you get price per square foot I mean this is 1400 square feet our

10:05store up north is 1200 square feet if you're in that sweet spot of under 2000

10:09square feet your rent is still very reasonable your electricity costs all those

10:13things that come along with being a business owner your costs monthly fixed

10:17costs are going to be relatively low so what are the tricks for like the lease

10:21and this location I mean you're an expert on real estate you own a real estate

10:25company which we'll hit on later how do you make sure that is a good property

10:29before you sign a lease to do a build out cost that's pretty inexpensive I

10:33imagine your highest cost is this so one of the things I like to look for and we

10:38did that with this location is minimal tenant improvements that are going to be

10:42required there's not a lot that goes into the actual store layout itself

10:46anyway so we don't want a lot of obstacles in here had this store been full of

10:50different walls and different rooms and offices and stuff that would have raised

10:54our cost in addition we also asked the landlord to contribute to our TI cost so

11:01that way we decide to sign a longer lease instead of sign a three-year with no

11:05contribution we signed a five-year with a tenant improvement contribution from the

11:10landlord what else do you want in a location like how close should the closest

11:14one be how many cars do you have like a car count that you need to have go back do

11:19what like what kind of demographics do you want how does that shake down so

11:23there's a lot of different aspects depending on the location we're in like

11:26quasi-suburb so but this location in particular this street that we're on is a

11:32very very busy street but we're surrounded by residential so while this

11:36location in particular is not anchored by a grocery store for example there's

11:40still a ton of drive-by traffic and we are literally surrounded 360 degree by

11:45residential and when we moved in the apartments that are just across the

11:49street by the gas station over here we're in the process of being

11:52constructed so we knew that there was going to be a large influx of renters

11:56that were living there who wanted access to a mailbox who wanted access to be able

12:00to pick up their packages if the office isn't open that kind of thing so you know

12:04it would be good when you're you know putting this all together and you're

12:07talking to realtors like how do you know what questions to ask your realtor because

12:13like for a person who's maybe never gotten a lease before I imagine it's

12:16actually really important that they find the right you the right realtor that

12:19could actually run this search for them or do most or do you recommend that they

12:23do it by themselves work with a professional commercial real estate agent if

12:29you are in business and you're looking for a location for your business you need

12:32to be working with a commercial realtor not a residential realtor who can also

12:36sell you a home to live in two totally different animals even though they're both

12:40real estate number two the other thing to remember when you're working with

12:43a commercial real estate advisor it doesn't cost you anything as the

12:48business owner as the tenant they get paid by the landlord they get paid by the

12:52building owner so it doesn't cost you anything and yet they have a fiduciary

12:57duty to look out for your best interest and protect you

12:59like you got a lot of stuff back here how like what stuff does a business person

13:07need to buy when they first start this out and also we have a whole blog post on

13:11this if you want to see it because she's gonna pop these up all over the place I

13:14keep telling her that I want to invest in one with her but you know she's a little

13:17minx and she doesn't want my twelve dollars she needs to open the next one

13:20so like what's this what's happening here what's in here how do you know how much

13:25to buy through yes so when you're first starting out just literally think of the

13:30store right you're opening a mailbox rental pack and ship store so guess what you

13:34need mailboxes and you need stuff for pack and ship right you can start with one computer

13:39I was like your point of sale system right you need some counters you need a scale you

13:43need the mailboxes of course you need boxes and even this like again a custom box holder

13:51right all we did was I took the box sizes that Andrew uses the most that was the guy

13:57that I paid the ten thousand dollars for the just consulting basically and I ordered bundles

14:02of those bundles come in ten I ordered a couple bundles of those and then I had this built again

14:08using really cheap wood right this is not like fancy schmancy stuff you don't have to have this

14:12you could do this on a storage rack and like ladies flat and and that would work too I just like to have

14:16things a little more organized you know what else you need that's really important you need a mascot

14:21you do a lot of stuff for the community and so one of the reasons you do stuff for the community

14:38is because you're a good human you know you were Miss Nevada you also ran for Congress you care a lot

14:43about your community but also because you know it brings in awareness and people what else do you do

14:49besides have an adorably you know hot dog like dog in the uh in the the company well you know

14:56one of the main reasons why people come to our store instead of going to a UPS retail store or a FedEx

15:00franchise store is because we're a mom and pop we're part of the community we're a small business

15:05right we're a local small business that's independently owned by your neighbor and people like that

15:11and so we tried our best to do everything we can within the community so we have a book exchange

15:15table that we utilize um especially up at our other location there's actually um no nearby public

15:21library at that location and so our book exchange table up there is actually quite popular and I

15:26really appreciate that that's something that we can provide to the community that costs us nothing

15:31right and yet it's a value add we utilize a software called postal mate and it's part of our POS

15:43system but it's also part of the shipping system as well this is that we found the easiest most

15:49distinct way um and what the company with the company that we use the software from they actually

15:54have a customer service number as well that we can always call if any issues pop up this keeps track

15:59of all of our mailbox holders so if you want to open a new one if you want to renew an existing one

16:04if you need to find one let's say someone comes in and they forgot their key um and their mailbox

16:0988 right so we can just type that in pull their information up right away um and be able to

16:15service them when it comes to the shipping side you click shipping you know and we type in Cody Sanchez

16:20right and we add her into the system and then we start clicking through to ask the next set of

16:27questions of where is she shipping um how far does it need to go where does it need to get there that

16:31kind of thing it's all housed into one system on our computers so that way um it's very easy to track

16:37and then you also have all of your reports embedded within this system as well so at any time we can

16:46look up register activity we can look up sales volume we can find packages for customers if they've

16:52lost their receipt that had the tracking number on it we can look up all of that within the system

16:57it's all housed in one so you can buy the mailboxes in different size combinations what we went with

17:07this was small medium and large so these are the smalls these are the mediums and these are the

17:13largest down here and from pricing we do 20 a month on the smalls 30 a month for the medium 35 a month for

17:21the largest and we do different tiered pricing so we require a three month minimum on any size but

17:28then after that you can go month to month if you'd like if you sign up and prepay for six months we

17:34give you one month free if you sign up and prepay for 12 months we give you two months free so on a

17:39small that brings the cost down to about 17.44 a month I believe if you did either the six months

17:45or 12 months with those additional free months we don't charge anything extra to hold packages in the

17:50back obviously there's not all mail or packages that can fit in a small for example and we'll hold

17:55it in the back for no charge which is different than the big franchise guys who will charge sometimes

17:59after seven days or they have different models for that we don't nickel and dime our customers and

18:05again that's part of the appeal of being an independent mom-and-pop shop you originally were

18:10looking at UPS franchises and why you chose this one because basically half the game is these things

18:17it's not always the pack and ship the real idea is something about these is that true yes so with

18:23the UPS franchise stores I looked into just purchasing into a franchise and I spoke to a

18:28friend who has several UPS franchise stores he has three of them and I asked him I said if you could go

18:33back in time would you have gone franchise or independent and he said well there are perks with

18:39with franchise and he said in my contract I'm contractually limited in the amount of mailboxes I can

18:44have in my store because per franchise it has to be configured in a certain way the store layout has

18:48to be configured in a certain way so he said if I were you I would go independent and I would slam in

18:53a thousand mailboxes into the store and configure it in such a way that the emphasis is on mailboxes

18:58and then you have shipping in the back that's ancillary and seasonal the thing about these small

19:03businesses is I think you start to get these rhythms or like repetition that you start to recognize

19:08oh wait that's an opportunity this isn't really a pack and ship business this is a miniature

19:12real estate business and if I can get you know people in here to do pack and ship but they leave

19:18also with a mailbox then I have reoccurring monthly revenue with basically zero marginal cost because

19:24have you seen the size of these things yeah and it's like a self-storage business but with mailbox money

19:29that part I think is fascinating with even less risk than the self-storage right with the self-storage

19:34even if you have you know it's not that people can really ruin them but if they leave all their stuff in there right

19:38and then you wait for 30 days for the sheriff to come and and do whatever you know procedures are

19:43required nothing happens with these right if your credit card goes bad or you ghost us on your monthly

19:48$20 a month we give we give you 30 days the other big guys don't again they think they'd be seven

19:53we give you 30 days to come clean and like pay for your month and you get your mail otherwise we return

19:59everything to sender after that and then we change the lock and we slam in a new mailbox customer

20:04it's so low maintenance and so low overhead and yet it is kind of like a miniature real estate play

20:10you run like 37 businesses I doubt you have time to be here every single day so you need an operator

20:21to run the business for you how did you find this person the story is pretty wild so Sarah is my partner

20:27and our general manager in this endeavor and she actually has a teaching background you know she

20:33didn't work in a pack and ship she didn't work for UPS or anything like that prior but I approached

20:37her about it we're just friends good friends and I approached her with this idea that I wanted to

20:41start these stores and at the time she was actually working as a cocktail waitress on the strip because you

20:49make more money working as a cocktail waitress than as a teacher that's the reality of the world these

20:53days and I said I want to start these stores I'd love to partner with you on this as an operator

20:58it I know it doesn't sound sexy you know mailboxes and pack and ship and stuff but I promise there's a

21:03larger vision behind this and it's going to be one of those endeavors where we're open Monday through

21:08Saturday 9 to 6 and there's not work to take home right your phone's not going to be ringing after 6

21:14o'clock because someone didn't get something or whatever it is this is a kind of a lower maintenance

21:18endeavor yeah what I love about this is she's got this process where basically she hires a bunch of

21:23friends to be her operators and businesses like Sin City Cupcakes which there's some over there

21:28in businesses like your partner that is in Engel Volkers and the thing I like about that is it's

21:35sort of like the devil you know versus the one you don't we all have our things I come with plenty of

21:39them as a partner to people but you have you kind of have insight into your friends and so as long as

21:45you structure this stuff right it works out now one of the reasons I think it works for you is because

21:49you used to be an attorney and so you understand a lot about structures and terms and how to put

21:54stuff together how do you put together contracts with operators where it's a win-win for both of

21:58you but you protect yourself as the you know money guy who would have a lot more to lose up front sure

22:03so first things first you have your operating agreement and that's basically just a fancy

22:07word for the rule book of the company it says who's in charge it says how you get paid it says what

22:12happens if you don't want to work together anymore it lays out roles responsibilities it's a really

22:16really important document and surprisingly there's a lot of small business owners that don't have an

22:21operating agreement for their entity or they have some generic ones they downloaded online and they

22:25never customized it or they just don't have one at all and the only time it comes up is when all of a

22:30sudden there's an issue a conflict and an attorney is asking where's your operating agreement so have

22:35one up front and have that conversation with your operator right away right and know also as well that

22:40your operating agreement can change over time it can be modified if parties agree that's no problem so it's not

22:45totally set in stone from day one because the business is going to flex and change as your

22:49partnership flexes and changes in relation to getting your partner incentivized right when you

22:55have an operating partner that is a different set of rules and responsibilities than you do you want to

23:00make sure that they're incentivized to grow with the company and so what we did was a tiered model for

23:05me I came in and I footed the bill on the financial needs of the company and I committed to continuing to

23:12provide the financial needs of the company for a set period of time because we have to test test

23:16it and see how it goes right but when it comes to the operating side I built in tiers of length of

23:23time as well as revenue that's hit so that her equity could grow as the company grew as well yeah it's

23:29so smart it's all about an incentive alignment you don't realize that humans are like Pavlov's dogs we

23:35basically you know we do the things that we have been taught and that are aligned with our best

23:41interest our self-interest and it's not like a negative thing it's just the way the world works

23:45and so if you realize that and put it into documents you can start with the the divorce in mind and it

23:51not be emotional whereas if you do that later on it always gets emotional I dig that so you can open a

23:59pack and ship but then how do you get people in here you've had some fun ways that you guys went about

24:04the community letting people know some of it has to do with this sign but what are the ways that

24:09you get people to come in to ship yeah so when we first opened up our doors we basically um welcomed

24:14ourselves to the neighborhood and um we put together cake bites from my other business from bakery

24:20business and we put together little cellophane bags of cake bites and we printed out these little

24:25stickers that said hi we're ship Las Vegas you know we'd love for you to pop in and say hi to us

24:30and we went around to all the businesses that are around here and we just walked in with flyers

24:35business cards and little treats for them and then you put a bunch of these in smart places too you put

24:40waving sort of I don't know what you call giant flags giant flags out front you obviously have branding

24:48on this you have signage like this that goes sort of at the corners or whatever sometimes I think people

24:53overestimate how much hardcore online marketing you have to do for boring businesses and they don't realize

24:59a lot of it is just getting the signs right and it's just people driving by right or walking by

25:05this nail salon that we're right next door to gets a ton of foot traffic they all park over here and

25:10they have to walk past our sign every day and so we've had so many people come in to say oh I didn't

25:14know you guys were here and they come drop off their ups package or whatever it is especially in the

25:19beginning we didn't spend any money on like ads um now we run google ads for mailboxes and for

25:27notary but in the beginning when there's no budget because you've spent all your money on your tenant

25:31improvements um we literally just took flight like four by six versions of this we made little flyers

25:37and there's a walmart across the street and we were the annoying people that put the flyers in your car

25:43window we went and did that and then again we took cake bites and flyers and went around to all there's so

25:50many businesses that are right by here and we went in and literally welcomed ourselves to the neighborhood

25:54i love that did you do it in seven inch heels yes and a dress i wanted to make as many friends as

26:02possible so good we're here to get ship done

26:08and make some money doing it all right and that's a wrap

26:15you

26:25you

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended