Adventures with Corndog: Corndog's Fish Store

One thing you should do is look into a wrap/vinyl graphic for your car and your wife's car. When I owned the restaurant we had a nice graphic in the rear window of the truck and got quite a few hits from that just running errands and such.

Get an orange VW Bug and put fish fins on it. You could make it look like a chubby gold fish!

In all seriousness congrats Corndog things sound like they're going awesome so far.

Thorne_sl said:

One thing you should do is look into a wrap/vinyl graphic for your car and your wife's car. When I owned the restaurant we had a nice graphic in the rear window of the truck and got quite a few hits from that just running errands and such.

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I pick up $2-3k a week because every vehicle and truck I have is wrapped or painted. In some months, it's close to 20k. We've even had calls that I can tie to my personal driver (when I'm driving to the gym or dropping my daughter off at school). Believe it or not, wrapping generates calls and sales dollars. It's a cheap but effective way to advertise. Most of the time, it will last for years. Don't get car magnets though, those suckers will fall off in less than six months.

Corndog_sl said:

Do you wrap vehicles that are not advertising friendly? Obviously it's more beneficial to wrap say a work van than a sports car. I'm also wondering at the rate of return of say a full vehicle wrap with graphics vs company logo, and website etc on the back window. Obviously you'd think a wrap would give you more referrals, But maybe its like $300 for a back window graphic for 70% of the referrals, vs 3k for a wrap for 30% more referrals.

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Its all going to depend on the exact car that you get really. I cant really think of any sports or sporty type cars (other than a Miata or s2000 or somwething) that at least a vinyl sticker on the top part of the rear window/hatch wouldn't look bad on. Just find a good shop and come up with something cool.

With your level of sales i don't think a full wrap would be worth it at all. They can get pretty expensive.

Corndog_sl said:

Do you wrap vehicles that are not advertising friendly? Obviously it's more beneficial to wrap say a work van than a sports car. I'm also wondering at the rate of return of say a full vehicle wrap with graphics vs company logo, and website etc on the back window. Obviously you'd think a wrap would give you more referrals, But maybe its like $300 for a back window graphic for 70% of the referrals, vs 3k for a wrap for 30% more referrals.

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My trucks are all hand painted, I have vinyl stickers on my estimate car, and I had magnets on my personal driver (until they flew off on the highway).

Corndog_sl said:

Also does anyone go as far as to park their car in strategic locations? Lets say you drop your car off at a busy grocery store for the day to advertise etc. Or park your car in the parking lot of your business at the most strategic place?

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I make sure I drove my car with the magnets to the country club every time we went. One time, I drove it, and a guy parked next to me that owned a large landscaping company (mowed lawns for corporate accounts), but couldn't do what I did. He asks me for a bid, and he's bought $8k of work from me in the last six months. Not bad for a $150 investment.

I'm thinking I might need to buy more magnets, even though they might not last six months.

I know in the pizza business, car toppers have been shown to increase delivery business by as much as 30% (I've personally seen those results). Only thing on my car toppers is my logo. No number, no website, people don't really have the time/ability to write those things down anyways. Thing you do have to remember is that you can't drive like an asshole and/or road rage at people who are driving like assholes.

I'd be careful about parking your car somewhere, especially a competitor. They can have you towed.

Not sure, my brand was recognizable (because we have been in town for so long) but the fact we delivered was not, even though my place started delivering before Pizza Hut, Dominos or anyone else in town at the time. I still get "I didn't know you guys delivered!" all the time. Probably because we are higher end so they don't equate us with your typical pizza delivery place.

The advantage to using a car-topper (or a magnet like Lyrical discussed) is you can choose when to have it on your car and when not to. I think the wraps look better/nicer but become a permanent fixture on your car so you always have to be conscience of the fact you are representing your brand. I sometimes road-rage and/or blast heavy metal music in my car so I like to maintain some anonymity when I'm off the clock (plus my delivery drivers represent for me so I don't need to worry about advertising with my personal vehicles).

More to the point, I don't think you need more than a logo and maybe a "located on X street" on whatever you decide to do. People aren't going to be able to write down an address, phone number or url while driving so you should keep it as simple as possible.

Corndog_sl said:

Thanks for replying. I think this dialogue is helping me quite a bit. I was also considering having car window shades made with my logo. And giving them out to friends/family who I know would be respectful and represent my brand well. For instance having a friend put the shade in the window while they're at a baseball game or grocery shopping etc.

Thoughts on that as well?

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As has been said, pick someone that won't road rage or drive behind the wheel. Trust me on this, you don't want people calling you complaining about anyone's driving habits.

Corndog_sl said:

Got a letter in the mail from the IRS about a tax penalty for filing taxes late. I had this done by a professional for me. I did wait till about a week before they were due to get started. But I had $100 in deductions from receipts was all, and ended up switching to an S corp. Which mean my business partner had to sign it. This meant I got the forms back to the tax accountant the morning of April 15th. From there it's just submitting it correct? Meaning it should have been on time if they submitted it on the 15th?

Next if that is true, I should be able to make the claim that they should pay for it not I correct?

On another note, the local newspaper wants to interview this week coming up... Hopefully turns out to be good free promotion.

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Get used to letters from the IRS and state governments on tax penalties. We border two states, and both states are constantly sending us imaginary bills. They are so hard up for tax money that they'll send you a letter saying you owe them $10k when you don't. So then you have to pay your CPA to get it straightened out. This last go around, we got a bill for $1,600 that we didn't owe. I told them we were paid up, but the state said the CPA needed to refile. I told them to kiss off, I pay my CPA a lot, and then they send me a tax lien notice. So now I have no choice but to pay the CPA for a bill that doesn't exist. It's a joke.

Get all the free press you can. Sometimes, I get calls from people months after I've done an interview. I just ran an estimate where the customer remembered me from an interview. I have no desire to be a local celebrity, but you better remind yourself of one thing. They can interview you, or they'll just pick a competitor.

Did your tax guy tell you he wouldn't be able to submit it in time? Ultimately it is YOUR responsibility to pay your taxes on time, the IRS doesn't give two shits about your tax guy. If he gave no indication there was going to be an issue, the ball would be in his court, and he should take care of it. But who knows what was actually said between you two /shrug Also, for shits and giggles read the work agreement you signed with him.

@Lyrical, makes me wonder if your CPA is fucking shit up and not admitting it? If so (if) it would be on him to fix the errors at no charge.