Coming Soon

Getting Started

Starting a new business venture can sometimes be a little overwhelming.  While you’re waiting for your equipment and tokens to arrive, there’s a lot you can do.  Below is a suggested “to do” list to help you get your business up and running.

1. Meet with your accountant and/or attorney and get advice about your city, state, municipality and government agencies and their tax rules, regulations, laws, etc.  There are many tax advantages to having your own business and you want to know what they are and use as many of them as you can.  You want to run your business properly and not break any laws or regulations.
 
2.

Think up a company name, get it approved by your state and start whatever paper work is required to obtain a business license.  Because of our trademark, you can say you represent the Treasure Tower but you cannot use “Treasure Tower” in your company name. You’ll also want to get a sales tax number.  If you already have a business, you may be able to set this up as a DBA (Doing Business As) under your current company.  Again, check with your accountant.

The fact you are not a “vending” business is an important concept to make clear when you are obtaining your business license. In most cases, you should only need a business license for the city in which your home or place of business is located. Whether a location chooses to offer their rewards from a cardboard treasure chest or from a Treasure Tower, it is their choice. You provide the Treasure Tower and the toys for free. Your location purchases tokens from you and they determine who they give the tokens to. Aside from some quarters placed in your Treasure Towers in dental and medical offices by siblings, for the most part, your income is a result of the tokens purchased by your locations. Your business involves selling tokens to use with a reward/incentive program.  You do not sell toys for a quarter as is done in supermarkets – that is vending.  

3. While we provide you with an excellent theft and vandalism warranty, you may want to consider obtaining liability insurance. You are welcome to use an insurance company of your choice; however, Grant-Hatch & Associates has helped many of our business owners across the country obtain liability coverage for the past eight years and they can write a policy in any state.  The agent we work with is Brittney Dawson at 801-308-1450.  If Brittney is not available, please contact Valerie Oliviero at 801-308-1413. 
4. Research the wide selection of toys offered by the various suppliers and decide on about 16 to 20 to start with. (See the links Toy Suppliers and Best Selling Toys and compare with the samples in your Start-Up Kit once it arrives.) 
5. Order enough toys to fill your Treasure Tower the first time around and preferrably have enough inventory left over to last a month or two. (See Filling the Canisters for how much product is needed per canister.)  Order your toys as soon as possible since they can take up to 2 weeks to arrive.  We also recommend ordering Spry gum and mints from Xlear, Inc. to expand the options of the Adult Reward Program.  If you are ordering any bulk items that will need to be capsuled, be sure to order empty 1.1 acorn capsules from A & A Global in which to capsule these products (or 1.3″ acorn capsules from Actionmatic for larger items.)

Set up a system to keep your toy inventory organized. We suggest storing toys in gallon zip lock bags. Transfer the capsuled toys from 1 bag of 250 to 2 bags of 125 (estimate). A shelving unit along a wall works nicely to organize storage bins – each containing a separate toy. Separate boxes behind each bin can hold inventory making it easy to know when product needs to be ordered.

 

6. Your Owner’s Start-up Package is mailed out to you via Priority Mail within 24 hours of when your payment has cleared or been authorized.  It will contain the following: one sample box of toys, enough token wrappers to roll your 1st order of tokens, 25 color brochures, 10 of each of the three tokens, a hard copy of our Owner’s Manual, and over 50 sets of sample toys (more than enough to fill your sample boxes).  We recommend downloading the promotional literature pages from the  Downloadable Pages link.  These pages can be printed on your own letterhead and customized with your company name, contact info and signature.  This will save you from having to spend hours retyping them.  Be sure to get approval from our home office for any additional alterations or personally designed literature you create to promote the Treasure Tower.  If additional promotional color brochures are needed you can order them for 25 cents each.
7. If desired, purchase your sample boxes (sold as fly boxes in sporting goods stores) similar to the one in your Start-Up kit.  Our box is made by Flambeau (800-232-3475), model # 3003.  Five boxes should be sufficient depending on the technique you choose to use for locating. We suggest ordering 3 additional dividers per box since each box only includes 12 dividers instead of the 15 needed to creat 18 compartments. Download and print the “sample box inserts” (see Downloadable Pages or Owner’s Manual pages 138-139) and adhere them to the inside cover of each sample box and fill with the sample toys you would like to offer.  Our sample box may contain a larger selection of toys than what you will want to offer. We suggest a box with a minimum of 12 compartments (preferably 18) so you can display at least 11-17 selections of toys as well as 2 location related tokens.  
8. Go to the Header Cards link and download and print onto cardstock the header cards of the toys you will be offering. Cut them out and have them ready to insert in your canisters once they arrive.  If you have chosen different toys than what we have listed, you will have to create your own product header cards or contact us to create them for you.  It is important to include a choking hazard warning on each card.
9. Once you have your promotional literature and sample boxes prepared, you may want to secure some coupons using the “Free Marketing” page (see Downloadable Pages or Owner’s Manual, page 96) – this only applies if you have chosen to offer the Adult Reward Program (see Downloadable Pages or Owner’s Manual, page 95). By obtaining these coupons ahead of time, as well as having the option of offering the Xylitol gum and mints, you will be able to offer a reward program for “all ages” and your potential locations won’t be dependent upon the number of children treated. (See Locating)   Also consider obtaining some coupons to use as free “Surprise Rewards” for children (See Downloadable Pages or Owner’s Manual, page 100).   By placing 2 “surprise reward” capsules in each of the 8 canisters, a child will periodically receive both a “surprise reward” coupon along with a token so they can still obtain the toy they originally wanted.
10.

When your Treasure Towers arrive, get them assembled so they will be ready to get on location and making money for you ASAP.  Purchase a package of the Avery 8293 1-1/2″ white labels (available at most office supply stores) and apply them to the back of the “Insert Token or Quarter Here” labels.  Apply the labels to the inside of each canister centered just above each coin mechanism.  Schools will not want these labels placed in their canisters since they will have token only mechanisms. 

Please e-mail any questions, concerns, or suggestions for improvement to us at: [email protected]