From Surviving to Thriving: Building a Successful Business After Almost Losing it All with Matt Miller Founder of School Spirit Vending

May 26, 2016

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Matt Miller is Founder of School Spirit Vending. The combined efforts of his business and his franchisees, allowed them to sell over 5 million stickers last year alone while helping schools raise funds. School Spirit Vending has accumulated over $12 Million in sales over the past few years.

Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:

[0:39] Jeremy's welcome and introduction to this episode with guest Matt Miller, founder of School Spirit Vending.
[0:01:10] Did you ever think you'd sell over $12M in stickers?
[0:01:39] What were you thinking when you first started this?
[0:02:50] Can you share something that was really tough at the time that you can laugh about now?
[0:04:45] How do you handle tough situations like that with your family?
[0:06:41] The transition from job to entrepreneur.
[0:08:30] When did you transition full-time into being an entrepreneur?
[0:09:25] What made things change around 2008-09?
[0:10:35] Matt shares his sales pitch.
[0:11:29] Some obstacles you face when you try to get vending machines into restaurants.
[0:13:16] Matt discusses his decision to enter the Air Force and the experience of being in the military.
[0:20:02] Matt talks about some of the campaigns he saw that worked during his time in the industry.
[0:27:53] The decision to get into vending machines and the success Matt had right away.
[0:32:06] The next major milestone with vending machines.
[0:39:16] The benefits to schools of having one of your machines.
[0:39:53] The transition into franchising.
[0:42:58] Structuring the franchise model.
[0:46:16] One mistake you train franchisees to avoid.
[0:55:55] Matt's favorite success story with franchisees.
[1:00:15] The low point for Matt in his journey.
[1:02:41] The proudest moment for Matt.
[1:05:35] How to connect with Matt.
[1:07:11] Matt's comic book company.

In this episode…

Accumulating over $12M in sticker sales is no small feat - and it wasn't always easy. Matt discusses his road to success and the many obstacles he faced along the way, including going from "hero" to "zero" in his career and having major financial issues as a result. Through his focus on survival, Matt discovered the vending business. Things were tough, and Matt worked hard to turn things around for himself and his family. He shares how he managed to beat the odds and build a hugely successful business.

Matt shares his low point, which came after suffering a career setback that caused him to lose a huge chunk of his annual income. He discusses with great honesty what it was like to be in such dire straits with a family to support and why he chose to be totally honest with his children about their situation. Matt also shares the lowest point - being forced to buy York Peppermint Patties instead of birthday cake, because that was all they could afford. To this day, Matt and his family have Peppermint Patties on birthdays as a reminder of how far they've come.

Matt discusses his experience in the military and the decision to leave the Air Force to give corporate America a shot. He talks about some of the frustrations of his corporate job and what eventually pushed him in the direction of entrepreneurship. Matt shares insight into the 7-year grind of transitioning from his corporate job into being a full time entrepreneur.

As they close out their chat, Jeremy and Matt talk about some of the things that have inspired him along the way and how he's managed to transform his business from 1 used gumball machine in a restaurant to a flourishing million-dollar business. He also discusses the decision to franchise and what it's like to see the success of his franchisees. Matt closes with his proudest moment: being able to pay cash for his kids' college tuition. That's the stuff a success story is made of.

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