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I want to start this off by saying I would much prefer no sugarcoating. Please. I don't want to be given a way to do things and then have it turn out to be damn near impossible. If you do not think I can do it based off of the info I give you below then please let me know and why. I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this. Thanks. Specs: California, Richmond. Currently 16 turning 17 August. Can drive but not legally lol.... I have the tools and a close friend with a truck to move the machines Ten thousand dollars to start with five thousand dollars as an *EMERGENCY* backup in case i get into trouble somehow (emphasis on emergency) Im confident in my social skills An actual functioning brain Im good with computers. Down to the last detail. Met my benefactor who is a couple years older than me through a close friend (same close friend with the truck) because he needed a computer built. I said sure. I sent him the parts to get, built it in an hour and made 50 bucks. He then asked me if I think I could start a vending machine business with 10k. I said probably if i did my research. You'll never guess what he asked next. He asked me If I was interested in starting a vending machine company for him..... Anyway I said yeah sure I'll look into it. Got home and panicked realizing I knew absolutely nothing about vending machines or businesses. Binge watched the golpher out of Hill Vending on youtube. Watched a few other vendors, read a lot of forums, and cross referenced the info then put it on a spreadsheet. What I'm trying to say is I learned a loooooooooot. But not nearly enough. So i kept learning. At one point I had 57 tabs open just for vending machines. I almost completely stopped playing games and just read about vending machines for hours on end. I have already selected the machines I plan on buying after finding and securing an account. A refurbished AMS 39-640 with refrigeration and no card reader for $2,350 and a Refurbished Vendo V-721 with the waterfall graphic also no card reader for $1,500 (I plan on installing card readers myself after I decide Nayax or Cantaloupe). Im completely fine with hard work and plan on learning the complete internals of vending machines and how it works in order to do repairs myself. My situations is that I've been learning for about a week and a half now and have gotten the basics of how profitable this business is and how hard it is to start. As for how the moneys being split... we haven't discussed it yet due to how sensitive of a topic it is. Going off of what I've seen, 50% is going back to product. Up to 20% is used for whatever else the business needs and the rest is profit. Im planning on doing 70% of the profit back to my benefactor and 30% to me until he makes his money back then we flip it to 70% in my favor but I haven't told him yet. Is this a good way to split the money or am I stupid lol. By the way I will be doing most if not all the work. He is simply supplying the money and providing assistance if I ask. Crazy right? He just threw 10k at someone he met for a few hours. THE POINT IS: I need help. Where do I go from here? Also I would like an answer to each of these questions: Do I NEED to register my business before even getting my location? What certifications do I need to get and how do I go about doing it? Are there any differences between the Vendo V-721 and the regular 721? What about the AMS 39-640 and the regular AMS 39? The last two would take a million pound weight off my heart as I cant find anything that says the differences and the thought of spending thousands of someone else's money without knowing if what Im getting is what I want eats away at me. ANY INFO HELPS!! Genuinely, I mean it. Seeing all the terminated vending LLC's on the Califonia Secretary of State Business Search worries me to the point where I might not get involved or might suggest a different business path to my benefactor. All that aside, I am determined to make this work. Obviously I'm financially motivated but at the same time I really do want to see if I can pull this off. Im hoping I can find someone whos been in a similar situation as me and can navigate me through the vending business the same way they did. If you read the whole thing I really do appreciate it and look forward to discussing this. (mods if you're reading this I spent some time writing this so approve pretty please 🙏) P.S. Lemme know if I forgot to include any important info

I've ordered double bars, triple bars, 20 stands and 20 machines thus far. I was mistaken and did not ask any of y'all for advice on bulk vending machine stands. They all look pretty much the same. However that was not a good idea with a resource like this.