Shauna

Thanks, dogcow, I'll look into that. And PerformaVending, I appreciate any info you could give.

Good for you. Let us know how it works for you.

Our vending business is going well. We are gradually adding new locations as we find them, but now my dear husband has the desire to open a food truck. He is a great cook, and when he gets together with his friends, they cook for three days straight, and eat all weekend. So, the first weekend in June, we are running an experiment. We've planned a great menu for a cookout at Wind Rock, a four wheeling convention in East Tennessee, that will hopefully make us some money, but more importantly will give him the experience of cooking for customers. If that goes well, we'll start looking at building a food truck. I believe this is a good way to diversify our business, because we can sell drinks out of the truck that we have in the machines around town. We are concentrating on one main dish, to make sure he has the ability and desire to conquer that task, along with chips, candy and drinks that we normally sell in the business. Puerto Rican pork tacos on a flour tortilla, slaw, and a chipotle sour cream sauce that will add a little extra heat. About 3 oz of meat per taco, on 6 inch flour tortillas. We'll be selling the tacos at $3.50 each or 3 for $10. He'll be making about 480 servings, and hopefully he'll be able to move them all during the three day event. Wish us luck!

Bwaaaahaahaaahaaa!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I love to hear stories of how and why others have started in this industry. Thank you for sharing with me your personal stories.

When I lost my job last summer, I knew it was coming. My whole company knew that 90% of us would lose our jobs about 2 years before it actually happened. Such is the life of corporate buyouts. We originally purchased a vending route for me to have something to do while I was looking for a new job. Vending was not what I saw myself doing with my life. I was almost finished with my bachelor's degree in Organizational Management, had experience supervising over 60 people in a call center, and saw myself continuing to climb the corporate ladder. Our plan was for me to find a good new job, and pass the vending over to my husband to work full or part time, depending on what he wanted to do with it. I admit, I was a bit of a snob. I didn't see vending as being able to support us in the lifestyle to which I wanted to become accustomed. As it edged toward winter last year, I was starting to feel discouraged and embarrassed about the job situation. I went on interview after interview, never receiving an offer. Discouraged because it looked like the recession had hit this area hard; embarrassed because I was giving references to several of my former employees, watching them find jobs and not being able to do so myself. I found myself avoiding talking to people about their jobs, because the topic would eventually turn to my job situation. In December, my husband lost his job unexpectedly. Instantly, vending went from being something to do on the side to something that we needed to support ourselves. My husband immediately took over the grunt work of the route, taking care of the manual side of things. Finding this forum has been a lifesaver for us and our business. It has encouraged us to do what needs to be done to make this a profitable venture. It has also been a great place to meet and talk to other vendors. I have learned there is so much more to vending than putting stuff in a machine and pulling money out. Since the start of 2012, we have created a website, added a catalog to our business offerings, and expanded our business with several new locations. We are working on even more, and I am excited to see where this can take us. My feelings on this industry and our business has had a 180 degree turn. I feel that I am not wasting my time on this business, and I am using some of my skills and business knowledge to make our company a success. When someone asks about what I'm doing now, I say with pride that my husband and I own our own business. And now, I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life.

Thanks!

New machines.

This has been a great week for Reed Co Vending. We have picked up 4 confirmed locations this week and hopefully will close a fifth tomorrow. If we were having to purchase these machines, I would be very scared about expanding this fast, but with our third party operator contract we have with Coke, they are providing the machines for us. The catch is we have to purchase our product from Coca Cola, and at a slightly higher price point than being able to purchase them in bulk at Sam's Club. But Coke also provides service if the machine breaks down for any reason. Seems like a great tradeoff to me. I'll keep you posted on how they do.

I have, but right now it is a marketing tool to offer as a bonus for using our company for their vending services. Plus, I would hate to have some random people try to order from the catalog that aren't even our customers. Especially since we market free delivery.

Congrats on the success. I love to hear how businesses are succeeding even in this economy. You have done wonders!

It is a printed catalog that we provide to our current vending customers. Maybe eventually I'll set up a store on my website, but I need to know that it will be a profitable venture before I invest in updating it to purchase catalog items.

Caserri, For what it's worth, if I were you, I would just delete the messages. If they don't receive their messages, then they'll have to work it out between themselves. You're not paid enough to be our personal message machine.