You know that you’ve got trouble when the best news you’ve heard in a while is that the IRS wants to audit your business.
However, that is the news that Andy MacPhail faced right after having his concession truck stolen reports StarTribune.com.
But let’s focus on the brighter side, starting with the IRS audit, which showed the feds actually owed MacPhail about $250. The news has been generally upbeat ever since.
The big reason: In 2007 MacPhail wangled a contract as a popcorn concessionaire at University of Minnesota sporting events, a move that hoisted his annual revenues from a previous peak of $38,000 in 2006 to $124,000 in 2009.
Not only did that allow him to begin reducing the mountain of debt he’d acquired over the years, but he was able to quit the part-time job he held until last year at a coffee shop in Richfield that provided health-care insurance for him and his wife, Lesley, an independent stylist at a St. Paul hair salon.
He started with one concession stand at Mariucci Arena for the 2007-08 hockey season, added locations at Williams Arena for men’s and women’s basketball in 2008 and now has two spots at TCF Bank Stadium for Gophers football.
As a result, sales are on track to top $130,000 this year, revenue growth that has been augmented by a popcorn product MacPhail actually knew something about.
Photo by Joelle Nebbe-Mornod