2010 Business Plans / Goals

[West Coast Vend LLC]

It's time again to think about your 2010 business plans.

Start thinking about how you will grow your business. Have an outline to follow throughout 2010. You can always modify these plans, (nothing is in stone), but you can't, (shouldn't) move forward without one.

I'll start this off with my plans for 2010.

1. I don't think the economy will adjust for another year so I will continue to work closely with my accounts. I want them to know, without a doubt, that they are getting the best service from me. ( I want to be their vendor of choice).

2.  I plan on opening 10-12 quality accounts this year.

3. My plan is to eliminate slower volume accounts and use that equipment in new accounts.

4. I will continue to focus my attention on buying top selling products for my route.

5. I will focus on corporate/chain accounts.

Gary

[The Mage]

2010, oh boy.  Just a couple of years till 2012.

Before I started, I wrote down a goal of simply $50 a month by December, and I beat that.

I was going to be a little patient before posting this, but oh well.  I have decided to go for broke, and make a big goal.

$1000 a month by July.

Will I make it or won't I?  Follow my progress live as I succeed or fail... oh wait.  Never mind.

Right now it looks like I will be picking up five 4-column Brand sticker machines.  It is looking like I may be placing one of my candy machines in a good location, and due to some networking, may result in me placing the rest of my triples in other locations.  (Same chain.)  And I am hoping to add in 2 of those sticker machines that will work well for 2 of the locations.

Next I am planning on buying a 9 sticker machine route related to my first route purchase.  But I will be pulling out 2 of those sticker machines right after the purchase, and relocating them, and possibly some of my slower locations.

I will probably have Rob locate the remaining sticker machines, and the pulled ones too.  Beyond that it is a little hazy.  Keep eyes open, buy machines, and have them located.

[proshine43]

My plan is to place the ones I have and buy 3 - 5 machines a month if I can find some deals, and have them placed. My goal is by the end of next year to have at least 70 machines placed.

[Faith Vending]

My goal is to get in the black!! Finally!! Then its off to the races.

[zanygames]

I am just starting out.  So my 2010 goals are really to just see how my locator placed machines do, and relocate as needed. 

I have about fifteen on location and seven more I need to put out this coming weekend.

Then it's the long 30 day wait and see period.

Steve

[jb5580]

I am brand new so 2010 will be a building year for me. I just placed a order with kickstart for a single restaurant and bar location for my new NW60, I will vend polarmint gum from it. I plan to buy and locate one of these every month in 2010. I also hope to purchase some established routes in my area as well in the future. I am a full-time firefighter in my city and have plenty of days off to build and work a sizable route. I've been doing painting and construction on the side for the last 10 years and  hope this will work out to be a profittable new business for me and my family for years to come.

[sterling]

Gary is right hope or no plan is a plan to fail.

Here is my goal for 2010. $1200/month profit.

How to get there?

Get 100 machines on location up from 80.

All new machines will be toys or flat vending and possibly a full line machine.

Move lowest 20% locations

Land 1-3 corporate accounts. A supermarket or chain will produce much better numbers than a little mom and pop.

2009 the goals were to get into the black. That will happen next month.

To get to $1000/month profit by increasing to 100 machines. I'm approaching that number and have 89 machines. Moving along on these goals, but didn't quite get there in this calendar year.

P.S My main business is advertising to small and medium businesses. This year has been probably the hardest year to sell advertising to them. The percentage of sales they are down is about 33%. This is what they tell me. 33% less sales is probably about 33% less foot traffic. So how excited are us bulk vendors going to be when the locations we already have go up 33% due to the rebounded economy. The problem is no one is sure how long that will take, but it will.

[Paraflier]

My plan.....

Dust off those triple heads in my garage and get them on location.

Thin the heard with the locations that are underperformers. And get them onto better ones... Not the garage.

[BluePlate]

Ahh.....2010. Only good stuff will happen.

I will countinue to get rid of stupid locations.  My time has been seriously streched lately and I can not justify servicing any accounts under $20 a month.  I will continue to sell off machines in my storage shed and basement and "simplify" my stock.  I have had a few good things lately happen on the ATM side of things, and will be focusing on that business.  My magic word for 2010 is "racks"

[havending]

If you guys want to increase sales for 2010 i would urge you to move to more racks and toy vending.  Much more profitable than tripples with candy and gum.

Just a thought

[The Mage]

I will be moving into flat soon enough, and will venture into toys sometime next year.

[antoniocinisi]

my goals for 2010:

1)finaly operate in the black

2)locate the machines in storage

3)upgrade/fine tune/expand/pull existing locations

4)switch all .50 toys to .75 & .25 to .50,this is the current trend here minus 1inchgum & bounce balls

5)try really hard not to buy anymore machines (unless its a big buck safari for  3k or less shipped) until in the black

[T BIRD]

If you guys want to increase sales for 2010 i would urge you to move to more racks and toy vending.  Much more profitable than tripples with candy and gum.

Just a thought

I totally agree.  Toys don't go bad and are alot cheaper than the 2 M&M candies and Reeses.  Kelly.....gumballs are a huge profit maker buddy.  The thing is if you put gumballs on a rack with toys?  Holy macrel!  They disappear by the time you service the rack.  Last week, I serviced a five rack with GBs included.  I could not believe that there was not one gumball left in the cannister.  When I lifted the machine of the NW60 to remove the money?  Quarters spilled out everywhere!

[kai1836]

  I think some people actually get addicted to gumballs........

[G-Vending]

My plans are to place machines i already have and buy any route that I can goal 100 bulk machines

also place more full line machines would like to net $2000 month by

end of year 2010

[sbishop]

2010 Goals

-complete take over of the 44 apartment complexes managed by the company I work for.

-bring my brother on full time.

-buy min of 2 bulk locations per month to place machines removed form locs and one that should be removed.

-build a reserve fund for van maintenence and repairs

-build a reserve fund for local expancion opportunities

[Jax Snacks]

My plan is to sell both bouncy balls and GB's. But when you are talking "profit"..I havent found nothing that beats GB's.

Very True!  But it's not always just the profit margin, but also consider the volume as well.  Toys usually outsell gumballs 2 or 3 to 1.

Jax

[amc-vending]

Seeing how I am just starting out my goal is to get at least 75 machines placed.

I do plan on taking any revenue from the machines and reinvesting into more machines.

[lurtsman]

What will you do to make this year better than previous years?

At this time last year I was just getting my feet wet. We were deciding how much we could risk to see if I could handle a vending business. Now I have the business well under way and am working on a large expansion. (Doubling my business over the next two months. So much for not growing during the cold winter... It just seemed like spring would be so much better if my locations were already getting paid off)

Here are my goals:

Inventory management. In my first year I was struggling to learn this and screwed up in almost every possible aspect of it. However I've recognized the mistakes and have the experience to avoid the mistakes this time. I will keep less product in machines, and less on shelves. I'll switch to freight shipping to reduce costs.

Triple business. I want at LEAST 150 charity locations at the end of 2010, and I want to be in the switch over to commission vending as the future of my expansion. I'd like at least 5 commission accounts, these will be more of a focus towards the end of the summer. I had expected I would go for cranes much quicker, but I've found my niche.  I know this part, I will expand on it and once I have a strong base I will expand my knowledge further. I do love the simplicity of bulk. I'm at my best when I'm working with something that starts simple and then theorycrafting (It'll be in the dictionary in a few years) how to improve the system and capture better economies of scale.

Sticker machines. I want to make better use of sticker machines. The margins are good, the machines are generally reliable and built strong. I don't know when I'll see the next good opportunity to buy sticker machines, but I'm sure it will come. I had to pass up one great opportunity because I did not have the vehicle to do it.

What are your plans? Hopefully seeing our fellow vendors making plans will inspire people, and even give them ideas for things to add.

[amc-vending]

My goal for 2010 is to be up to 100 locations by the end of the year on my triple heads

and to add soda / snack machines to my route.

Would like to net 1000 a week by years end.

[The Mage]

Well I have stated my goals before, at least partially, but here it comes again.

I am shooting for $1,000 a month, after the cost of product, by July.  I believe this is an ambitious goal, but why not?  I have my free location with KickStart, which I decided I would use for a triple, while I decided to buy 2 more locations for my sticker machines.

So I have 3 that Kickstart will be working on, and like Kelly as they come in, I will be placing more orders.

After I have a few locally, I will start relocating some of my Omaha ones.

There is a person locally who is selling some machines at $30 each, but I need to keep in mind that I have 6 triples, and 5 sticker machines already.  So I will keep an eye on this, and if my machines start moving out, I may take a serious look at buying some/all of them.  Unfortunately they look like the ones I already have.  At least the crappy photo I saw.

I still have the ability to purchase a 9 machine sticker route in Omaha, which would put that route up to 22.  But I am thinking of relocating 2 of them once I purchase the route, if I do.  (Hoping for a KickStart quick turnaround on these.)

I have seen enough machines for sale that I do not think I will have any trouble finding machines.

The first 2 months of the year, we will by paying down personal debt, but starting in March, we will drop those payments to minimums, and stockpile cash.  This will be used to help purchase the Omaha route, and just in case cover taxes.  The cash will also be used to help us move sometime around June or July.

By July, if I hit my goal, I am going to dramatically slow down my vending growth, and use the funds to pay down personal debt.  If I haven't made the goal, I will still slow down, but not as dramatically.  My goal for the second half of the year is to wipe out personal debt, excluding a student loan.

Once that goal is accomplished, with all the freed up resources, I will be moving to double if not triple my revenue from vending.  But this is getting into my 2011 goals.

Everything I mentioned is flexible.

[Quarter Master]

Lurts,

              When you speak of" freight shipping", I'm guessing you mean ordering by the pallet and have it shipped by truck. I just wanted to tell you to allow "lag time" for the shipment to be shipped and arrive. This can mess up your whole inventory scheme if it's not built in.

[havending]

I have a few machines on the route I purchased with toys. I will  be able to experience toy sales so we will see what happens. I like to keep things as simple as I can with very few different products to vend, but who knows.

I can see how one would want to keep it simple.  But the reality is that this is not a simple business.  True gumballs have the best GM (gross margin) but with a single head gumball machines you may do 60 a month in a desent location,  Add a 5 way rack and have sales of 150 or so.  In the rack and your 60 in gum. you just added 80 or so profit from the rack after comm and product.  Not to mention if you go to a major account talking just gumballs you wont make it past hello. 

My advice is move to more racks stickers and if you have the investment do some cranes.  you will have a lot better chance at increased sales and new locations.  I have many locations from a vending managment company and they are always asking me to move into cranes because they have locations wanting them.  I really cant go into them because my route is too large and cranes need to be serviced weekly.

Also some of you guys that are picking up 10.00 a location need to raise your standards.  Get those machines into 80.00 locations.

And never use a locating company they will never care about the quality of a location as you do.

[amc-vending]

havending - would you mind sharing who you use as your locator

[havending]

I use universal vending managment.