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Welcome to the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons (BSBP) Business Enterprise Program Quarterly Newsletter - Breaking Barriers! Each quarter this newsletter will include the information you need to be successful in your business.
Breaking Barriers may include recipes, tips and tools, ServSafe information, Operator due dates, articles about your peers and other topics which may be interest to you in your business or as an operator.
Click on a link below to jump down to the article below.
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Monthly Categorized Inventories
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7th of each month
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Annual Itemized Inventory
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January 31
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Annual Sales Tax Payment Verification
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March 1
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Annual Income Verification
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May 15
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Refund Log
*Highway Vendors Only*
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First Quarter: April 25
Second Quarter: July 25
Third Quarter: Oct. 25
Fourth Quarter: Jan. 25
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Vending Facility Monthly Report (VFMR): 15th of each Month
Set-a-Side Fee (SAF): Postmarked by the 25th of each month
Below are lighting standards for facilities. If you have any further questions, please reach out to your promotional agent. We always want you to meet the highest standard to yield the maximum result.
Minimum Lighting Intensity Requirements
50 foot-candles (540 lux)
20 foot-candles (215 lux)
- Handwashing or dishwashing areas
- Buffets and salad bars
- Displays for produce or packaged food
- Utensil-storage areas
- Wait stations
- Restrooms
- Inside some equipment (e.g., reach-in coolers)
10 foot-candles (108 lux)
- Inside walk-in coolers and freezer units
- Dry-storage areas
- Dining rooms (for cleaning purposes)
SOURCE: 2008 National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (Excerpted from ServSafe) PDF4PRO.
Definitions
Lumens
Lumens are the most common measurement you'll see when shopping for LED Lighting. Lumens (lm) measure visible light from a lamp or light source. The higher the lumens the “brighter” the source will look.
Lux
The Lux meter is another unit used to measure the illuminance or amount of light falling on a surface. 1 Lux = 1 lumen per square meter. Lux is measured using the number of lumens in the bulb, taking into account the amount of visible light falling on the surface.
Foot Candles
A single-foot candle is the amount of light that falls on a surface one foot away from the single candle. Simply put, 1 foot candle is equivalent to a lumen / square foot, which means that a foot candle is equivalent to 10 lux.
SOURCE: Electrical Marketplace.
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Ingredients:
1 Box of Gordan’s Food Service (GFS) frozen Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, & a splash of water.
Tools: 1 Oven
1 large cookie sheet
1 roll of parchment paper
1 sink that dispenses water
The Process:
- Purchase one box of GFS frozen Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit
- Splash water onto your cookie sheet.
- Cut one sheet of parchment paper and make sure it’s as long as your cookie sheet.
- Place the parchment paper onto the wet cookie sheet and use your hand to press it onto the cookie sheet. The water helps the parchment paper adhere to the cookie sheet.
- Remove the frozen cookie dough balls from the freezer and place them onto the damp parchment covered cookie sheet. Place the dough balls about 3” apart.
- Place the cookies in your 350° preheated oven and bake for about 12-14 minutes.
- Remove them from the oven and let them rest until they can be removed from the parchment paper without sticking to the paper.
Pro tip: They’ll cool faster if you place the tray outside. Unless it’s hotter outside than it is inside but, you already know that.
- Eat the cookies with a cold glass of milk or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Pro tip: Chill your glass in the freezer for 20 minutes before filling it with fresh milk.
- Call or text Zach and tell him how good his cookies are!
Enjoy!
**Double extra pro tip: Find your favorite chocolate bar and cut squares using a sharp knife and place one square on top of each cookie prior to placing in the 350° over.
***Triple pro tip: Run your sharp knife under hot water prior to cutting the chocolate squares.
****Quadruple pro tip: Share your cookies, they taste better that way.
By Chris Elliott, Promotional Agent; courtesy of Zach Eagle
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My fellow operators, my name is Greg Butler. I trained at the BSBP Training Center in 2019 with a delay of assignment due to the pandemic. A delay out of my control but I remained patient. I’ve been a licensed operator since August 2021. I don’t appear to have vision impairment when out in public, and at times I am judged as having 20/20 vision. I have a diagnosis called RP.
My journey began with vending on the I-94 and Port Huron Route; it was a long, 80-mile round trip. I didn’t care about the distance; I was simply grateful to have sites to manage. Then when Greyhound was available. I bid and was awarded the Detroit location with other vending sites. Currently, I’m still at Greyhound, IRS, MDOT, passenger Ambassador Bridge, and Walter Ruether Hospital. My temporary sites include Dundee RA and Gordie Howe Bridge. “Big Up’s” to my leadership team to offer me the opportunity to temp sites. Thank you for this responsibility based on my reliability and accountability. I consider this an honor and one of my greatest accomplishments in the program.
My greatest challenges thus far have been to hire consistent drivers. But with trial and error, I have finally partnered with strong individuals who fulfill my business needs. They take ownership in the business and I can trust them. I’m not planning to move from this location nor exit the BEP program, unless the All-Mighty High decides I need to come home. The strong, diverse community of operators is the best part of being in this club. I have deepened friendships with fellow entrepreneurs statewide that I would not have met otherwise. As all business owners know, the earning potential makes it all the better too!
If you know my character, I’m a “people-person.” I love helping others. This shows up in my role as an active site trainer for potential visually impaired individuals and I’m a self-appointed mentor for anyone who wants to talk business. If my workstyle came with a warning label it would be my ethics are always at 100%, no compromising in a smile, joking with customers, keeping machines full, timely refunds and fixing equipment quickly. I follow food and beverage trends; each week I try to place a few new items, either requested by customers or what I have researched. I hope that this keeps me relevant, and unique to my customers. My peace and joy originate from the Most-High; His teachings are how I operate in life, taking care of customers and my family.
Outside of working with BEP, I am working on a passion project to become a property flipper. With my financial gains in BEP, I’m able to explore options to improve my communities’ access to living options. I call Detroit home and offer improvements to increase safe and equitable spaces for families to lay down roots. If I could specialize in building and remodeling for the visually impaired, my designs would consider the needs of our community missed by many sighted flippers.
If I could suggest one aspect of improvement for the current program would be to broadcast the program to all of Michigan. I’d start with highway billboards, TV commercials, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and audio files for examples. The program starts with high caliber training, “Mr. Curriculum Expert” Nick Rose, excellent support staffers, top notch Promotional Agents and many Michiganders don’t know it is an opportunity out there for visually impaired or blind individuals. It is a community of peers who enrich each other, provide jobs and spur on economic growth. Ellen Kent, I’m here to spearhead the new BEP promotional commercial ... Take One, Quiet On the Set, 3, 2, 1, Rolling.
“The smarter you work at your site, the more you get in return.
Not a secret, if you hustle hard and pivot yourself to meet customer needs;
the rewards will appear.”
I’m eager to expand my business into brokered catering with the help of my new PA, Erin Koch. Additionally, a tip for anyone reading this, be a part of the Elected Operator Committee. It helps new operators gain better concepts in the program, deeper discussion on topics surrounding our operations. BEP is my guiding principle; it has offered me a second chance to contribute to the workforce. I’m evermore grateful. Thank you to everyone within BSBP support staff and top leadership.
By Erin Koch, Promotional Agent
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To be successful, the right equipment is essential. The machines that drive our businesses need to be cleaned, inspected and maintained to offer customers the best goods and services we can provide.
Helpful Tips and Tricks
Vending machine maintenance is a vital part of an operator’s responsibilities. Keeping your machines clean and in good working order greatly increases the longevity and functionality of the equipment. Here are some basic tips to help with your vending machines:
- If you have one of the newer EVOKE snack machine models, follow these steps for homing the motors: Push the MODE button on the control board, use the number pad to scroll over to the DIAGNOSTIC tab, arrow down to MOTOR COUNT, press the # button, then press the # button again. This will re-home all motors that are not homed.
- Reboot your vending machines once a week. Turn them off with the power button, wait 20 seconds, then turn them back on. This will ensure all software updates are received by the machine.
- On the frozen and cold food machines, clean the grill UNDER the machine at least once a month. VendTek recommends using a tire brush as it has a long handle and can reach all the way to the back of the grill. This removes all debris and prevents the compressor from overworking itself.
- Replace the snack machine filters inside the machine once a month. Replace the frozen machine filters inside the machine once every two weeks.
- Replace the coffee machine water filters at least once a year. Use a sharpie marker to write the date of replacement on the filter itself. This will allow you to know when to replace the filter the following year.
- When you empty the slop bucket in your coffee machines, put a squirt of dish soap in the bottom of the empty bucket. As the bucket fills, the dish soap will keep the smell down and prevents gnats.
- Every time you open your coffee machine hit the FLUSH button and FLUSH BREWER buttons. This helps prevent any sort of build-up.
- Drain the water tank on your coffee machine once a month. The tank drain hose is located on the bottom left inside the machine. First, turn off the machine. Then pull the plug off the end of the hose and let it drain into your slop bucket. Once it is completely drained, replace the plug and turn the machine back on. Allow the tank to refill itself. Then turn the machine back off and drain the tank a second time. This helps prevent any build-up.
- Keep the delivery chute on your coffee machine clean. Wipe down the delivery door tracks once a week as this will prevent the delivery door from sticking.
- Use a FOOD GRADE silicone spray on the soda machine shelf slides. This helps with the functionality of the slide and prevents sticking.
Do you know what you’re worth? There’s more treasure than what the X has marked. Don’t be scared to add up the numbers and rise to the challenge.
Cash Flu
There is no question that the Corona Virus was deadly, but there is another virus that has ruined more lives than all the global pandemics put together, which I refer to as the Cash Flu. While the popular perception of success is that it requires years of intense toil, financial risk and luck, you can rise above all this noise and start feeling successful today, just by knowing one number - Net Worth.
Net Worth is the amount of what you own after subtracting what you owe.
The most common reason most people don’t like to look at this number is the fear it might be negative. And often it is, especially if you’ve just invested in a business and/or are just starting a family. In fact, when I first learned of this in 1978, I was worth minus $3,000 and yet I had a house, two cars and a boat, so everyone (including me) thought I was doing just fine. But after listing my monthly expenses, I was spending more than I was making and going further into debt, until I embraced this concept.
The best part was that I felt accomplished as soon as I knew I was moving this number forward and no longer had to wait for “someday” to feel good about myself financially. As an added bonus I stopped expecting my job to be the perfect profession and buying decisions were easier because it eliminated many emotional purchases that can cause regret.
The reason this works regardless of your starting number is because we thrive on the feeling of growing despite what we have and as a negative number gets smaller, that is progress (growth). It is also one of the main reasons why billionaires keep working regardless of their wealth, contrary to the entertaining misperceptions of greed and shrewdness.
Society trains us to focus on income, titles and appearances. But those things can fool you. Someone can earn a lot of money and still be going backwards financially if their spending grows just as fast.
- Real success usually comes from something much simpler
- Keep doing the little things
- Build good habits
- Improve your business a little each year
It is important to know this does not require any special ambition, because just awareness is enough to stay on the right path. Although, it is very helpful that your spouse or partner share the same goals. Unified goals are important because the other key component of this concept is setting one- and ten-year goals which can be adjusted as time passes.
Now as a business owner you might be thinking, “This is a cute way of talking about 'cash flow,' but what if I don’t have enough cash to buy enough products to make a profit?"
The good news is that if you know your net worth and goals, the amount of income/profit you truly need to keep growing each month is usually far less than if you have no clear idea of what you are working for.
When I ask people what income they want to make, the answers are usually “I don’t know” or “as much as possible” and in either case there is never enough, which causes unrealistic pressure. Most importantly, lenders are far more helpful with people who live by the concept of knowing their Net Worth and will loan more money than to those who don’t, resulting in you feeling more confident applying for loans.
So, ignore all the noise, work to make more than you spend monthly, keep some of it and you will be able to enjoy the feeling of financial success far sooner than you imagined, which in most cases is immediately after knowing your number.
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The purpose of the Business Enterprise Program (BEP) of the (Michigan) Bureau of Services for Blind Persons is to provide individuals who are blind and visually impaired with opportunities for employment, to increase the economic opportunities available to people who are blind and visually impaired, and to increase awareness and encourage
the pursuit of these opportunities.
These opportunities are provided through the establishment of businesses managed by
a person who is blind. The role of the BEP is to guide and assist the operator in
achieving upward mobility.
LEO is an equal opportunity employer/program.
Auxiliary aids, services and other reasonable accommodations are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.
Bureau of Services for Blind Persons
Business Enterprise Program
Labor and Economic Opportunity
702 West Kalamazoo Street
P.O. Box 30652
Lansing, MI 48909
Voice (toll-free) 1-800-292-4200
www.michigan.gov/bsbp | www.michigan.gov/leo
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