ASVG Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 How many people do vending full time and how much gross annual sales would justify going full time into the business. I am only doing this part time but would like to push and expand to do this full time as a job. Just don't know what a good reference is to goal sales to where it would be worthwhile. As of right now I bring 30k manual sales which after expenses is 15k take home. My full time job I only make 30k manual before taxes. What I'm thinking at 60k gross sales I should be fine. Just wondering what others are doing. Thanks all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I wish I took home 15k :-O. Currently, I am grossing 25k. If I were to pay myself, it would probably be around $8,000/year... but I don't want to tax my business and reduce the expansion process. My numbers will improve over time but I have expanded in many directions and plan on reaching 50k gross income by the end of this year. On top of that, i try to keep a full-time job + go to school full/part-time. It's funny but when I tell people I'm a student (returning student mind you) and I hold a full-time job most times of the year AND I operate the business... they tell me I'm crazy... but I really don't feel like I am working that hard.... Sometimes though... I almost wish I had waited another year to start my business or had finished college a few years prior or had started the vending business earlier.... it's just difficult to find stuff to do when I have free time and it's difficult to find free time when I have stuff to do... it just never seems to work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASVG Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Yeah I hear you there. Im in the same situation basically. Hold a full time job, run the vending business (and really pushing to expand), and I am in school to get my real estate license and I manage some rental properties that are both mine and for other people. So I hear ya on that part. Can be a love hate thing. As far as the vending, I realize it probably depends on your mark up on the product and type of machines and locations. I guess I have been pretty lucky with my machines and locations. Or maybe its just the Chicago market that really hits big. Not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I have to say it is amazing how the business can support you when you need it to. And I mean, really, really need it to. Last year, my husband and I were bringing home about 65k between both our jobs. I was laid off in June and we started the business. He was laid off in December, and even though we are living on less (much less!) we are happier because our success or failure depends solely on ourselves. I totally get the school/work/business thing. I just finished school in December, my husband has taken over the day to day tending of the accounts, and I am in the background, handling the paperwork, identifying new sources of income and generally having a good time running our business from my couch. I guess it all depends on the lifestyle you want to maintain. If you can get by on less, and be happier, I say go for it. But it can be kind of scary too, not having a steady, traditional paycheck pretty much guaranteed every other week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coinvestor Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I have found that I can pay myself about 20-25%. That is about the max if you want to keep up with maintenance and continue to grow. You can go higher for short periods of time but your growth and cashflow will suffer. Of course this will vary depending on your pricing, margins, and what kind (cost) of equipment you use. So to answer your question, pay yourself as much as you want as long as its less than a quarter of your gross sales. Jd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I have found that I can pay myself about 20-25%. That is about the max if you want to keep up with maintenance and continue to grow. You can go higher for short periods of time but your growth and cashflow will suffer. Of course this will vary depending on your pricing, margins, and what kind (cost) of equipment you use. So to answer your question, pay yourself as much as you want as long as its less than a quarter of your gross sales. Jd Been doing this full time since 1997 and JD's 20-25% number is dead on. Any more than that you will canabilaize the ability to grow the business. Even if you have great pricing structure I'd be hard pressed to buy that you can take 15K home out of 30K revenue. If you are going to take the leap into self-employment here are a few things I'd recommend you do. 1. Pay off your debt first. 2. Put 6 months of personal living expenses in the bank as a reserve. 3. Put 3 months business expenses and your projected costs for equipment to expand when you quit. 4. Get a health insurance quote and make sure it fits your budget. 5. Have a business plan so you know what you are going to do with all the extra time you will have to grow the business. Finally, do a trial run for a couple of months put all of you J O B money aside and live off the vending and compare your bank balances from the beginning and end of the trial period, if it goes down then you are not ready to quit your job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I have to say it is amazing how the business can support you when you need it to. And I mean, really, really need it to. Last year, my husband and I were bringing home about 65k between both our jobs. I was laid off in June and we started the business. He was laid off in December, and even though we are living on less (much less!) we are happier because our success or failure depends solely on ourselves. I totally get the school/work/business thing. I just finished school in December, my husband has taken over the day to day tending of the accounts, and I am in the background, handling the paperwork, identifying new sources of income and generally having a good time running our business from my couch. I guess it all depends on the lifestyle you want to maintain. If you can get by on less, and be happier, I say go for it. But it can be kind of scary too, not having a steady, traditional paycheck pretty much guaranteed every other week. It looks like you learned the lesson that there is no security in working a J O B. IMO the only security you have is in your ability to get up, leave the cave, go out and kill something and drag it home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 It looks like you learned the lesson that there is no security in working a J O B. IMO the only security you have is in your ability to get up, leave the cave, go out and kill something and drag it home. Very true. Security is an illusion when you are dependent upon someone else to provide it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Job's are great if you are comfortable in your life. Being an entrepreneur is great if you want to be risky.... that's about the only way to sum it up. It's like comparing the profit yield of a savings account to an aggressive mutual fund. How much do you care about growing and how much are you willing to lose if you fail! On a side not... does anyone ever feel kind of weirded out by talking about vending to the vast majority of people who know nothing about vending? It's just odd to have a site like this... I pretty much can't have fun talking about the vending business locally unless I call my competitors... and some things you just don't want to tell your competitors! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I once read "Do what you love and the money will come". I have supported myself for almost 30 years now and I don't regret "much" of it. Building and growing a business is hard work but if you are happy, paying your bills and able to put a little money aside, you have made your own luck. Sometimes I wonder about people that have lost their jobs and can't find another job, why don't they take that moment to strike out on their own. But not everyone can do it. I am trying to come up with a number to answer the question "how much gross sales do you need" and the only number that comes to mind is the number that you individually feel comfortable in running your household. You will be surprised at how well you can do on less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snack dude Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Been doing this full time since 1997 and JD's 20-25% number is dead on. Any more than that you will canabilaize the ability to grow the business. Even if you have great pricing structure I'd be hard pressed to buy that you can take 15K home out of 30K revenue. If you are going to take the leap into self-employment here are a few things I'd recommend you do. 1. Pay off your debt first. 2. Put 6 months of personal living expenses in the bank as a reserve. 3. Put 3 months business expenses and your projected costs for equipment to expand when you quit. 4. Get a health insurance quote and make sure it fits your budget. 5. Have a business plan so you know what you are going to do with all the extra time you will have to grow the business. Finally, do a trial run for a couple of months put all of you J O B money aside and live off the vending and compare your bank balances from the beginning and end of the trial period, if it goes down then you are not ready to quit your job. Dont forget about taxes, Sales Taxes, Taxes and licenses on your business, workers comp, etc. and taxes on your income. My wife is a CPA and she says thats the number one thing that trips people up. They have money in the bank they are flying along with more money than they thought they would have and suddenly the tax man shows up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Dont forget about taxes, Sales Taxes, Taxes and licenses on your business, workers comp, etc. and taxes on your income. My wife is a CPA and she says thats the number one thing that trips people up. They have money in the bank they are flying along with more money than they thought they would have and suddenly the tax man shows up. Very convenient to have a CPA in the family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I once read "Do what you love and the money will come". I have supported myself for almost 30 years now and I don't regret "much" of it. Building and growing a business is hard work but if you are happy, paying your bills and able to put a little money aside, you have made your own luck. Sometimes I wonder about people that have lost their jobs and can't find another job, why don't they take that moment to strike out on their own. But not everyone can do it. I am trying to come up with a number to answer the question "how much gross sales do you need" and the only number that comes to mind is the number that you individually feel comfortable in running your household. You will be surprised at how well you can do on less. To give you some kind of estimated number, one of my vending buddies here locally lived off of his route for 5-6 years doing about 100K gross before he sold out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 I once read "Do what you love and the money will come". ive tried really hard but nobody has yet payed me for watching reruns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 To give you some kind of estimated number, one of my vending buddies here locally lived off of his route for 5-6 years doing about 100K gross before he sold out. I want to actually work for a living, not work 3 days a week . In all honesty though, my long-term goal is to be sitting at 250k-300k/year and hire a FT employee to take care of that route while I take care of the paperwork/repairs. This would enable me to be a mostly stay-at-home boss. I am just terrified of dishonest employees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I want to actually work for a living, not work 3 days a week . I would agree with the comment. However the original question was what kind of gross revenue was needed to quit the job and go full time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I would agree with the comment. However the original question was what kind of gross revenue was needed to quit the job and go full time. Fair point, and he did imply that he wanted to know how much he would need to live off of the gross revenue, but his precise question was "how much gross annual sales would justify going full time into the business" and, although my long-term goal did not really relate to the question, my point was that I believe that 250k-300k is a real full-time amount. However, this really depends on so many factors. I just feel like, although 100k/week could pay the bills pretty easily, it still wouldn't be a "full-time job" to me... I feel pretty safe to say that we are in agreement over each others points but we are just referring to the fact that he asked one question and implied something else (asked how much would be needed to go full-time and implied how much would be needed to allow him to quit his job). However, to generalize, 100k-300k would be able to pay the bills and be near, at, or exceeding full-time work. This, ofcourse, depends on how much income you feel you need to survive and how efficient your business is as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Fair point, and he did imply that he wanted to know how much he would need to live off of the gross revenue, but his precise question was "how much gross annual sales would justify going full time into the business" and, although my long-term goal did not really relate to the question, my point was that I believe that 250k-300k is a real full-time amount. However, this really depends on so many factors. I just feel like, although 100k/week could pay the bills pretty easily, it still wouldn't be a "full-time job" to me... I feel pretty safe to say that we are in agreement over each others points but we are just referring to the fact that he asked one question and implied something else (asked how much would be needed to go full-time and implied how much would be needed to allow him to quit his job). However, to generalize, 100k-300k would be able to pay the bills and be near, at, or exceeding full-time work. This, ofcourse, depends on how much income you feel you need to survive and how efficient your business is as well. 100k a week wouldn't be full time? I'm thinking it would be so full time you would need to hire a lot of employees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 100k a week wouldn't be full time? I'm thinking it would be so full time you would need to hire a lot of employees. 100k/year... which is about 2k/week. That's not full-time to me!!! I miswrote 100k/week earlier when I meant 100k/year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 100k/year... which is about 2k/week. That's not full-time to me!!! Certainly agree with that. Did not feel like it was full time until I was consistently north of 6K a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 100k/year... which is about 2k/week. That's not full-time to me!!! I miswrote 100k/week earlier when I meant 100k/year. I know. I was just messing with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I know. I was just messing with you. I don't like it when I screw up that bad . It's like the difference between "I want to eat Grandma!" and "I want to eat, Grandma!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I don't like it when I screw up that bad . It's like the difference between "I want to eat Grandma!" and "I want to eat, Grandma!" Ha! You're talking to a reformed grammar nazi here so I get what you're saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASVG Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 that is a good point. I should aim for say around $100k a year and basically hold my full time job at the same time if possible and seperate my accounts and just live off my vending profits. That way I will know its time before I run myself into the ground. Thats a great note of actually paying a quarter percent or less because I do plan on expanding and want to make sure I put away for new machines and locations. I guess it is to soon to really push for full time in vending but I am going to definitely try my hardest at boosting up my gross sales. What is the average I should push for on weekly sales of a machine on location? I have a couple smaller accounts that make only about $60 a week which I feel is loosing me money (most of my accounts bring $100-$200 a week), but at the same time I feel like I am not providing a good service pulling a machine or machines from a company that really wanted vending. How do most handle this or does anyone charge any sort of fees if the sales are low and they really want machines in their location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Unfortunately for myself, I have some low-end accounts as well. The equipment I have for them was rather cheap (good equipment but purchased at a good price) but it would be a MUCH better investment to put these machines where they can make more money. From a purely business standpoint, if they don't make enough money, find a better location for them. From an ethical standpoint, if you want to keep your reputation, keep the accounts. From a entrepreneurial (sp?) standpoint, you may want to check to see if these accounts can lead you to bigger and better accounts. It may be worth something to talk to them, tell them what's going on, and ask them if they know of a larger account. I mean... don't threaten to pull the machines but let them know that the machines aren't making much money. $60/week isn't bad if the prices are good and there's little to no commission. That's my personal opinion. Plus, these accounts are easier to keep IMO (due to people not fighting over them so badly). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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