rdendy Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Hey rdendy I've heard that bulk candy really doesn't net much profit at all. That's what that guy in Remington, IN told me who's got that 2,500 honor box business A GB costs .02 and sells for .25, yeah the profit margin is slim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 O.K. but HOW MANY of those things do you sell? If every time you go to service your GB stands and there's only $1.25 in there it ain't worth it. I can look around at the GB stands in Knoxville, TN and see that (I think) of most of the GB stands around town it's just about that way. Plus then you have to pay for the charity stickers you have on there. I think I asked The American Cancer Society once about their stickers and they told me they're like $5 each per month (per machine). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Go with NCCS for charity at 1.50 and my last service only counting GB I sold 504 of them in 6 machines in 4 weeks. I am working on getting more machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 This is for Dperry, I think the fact that there's a whole lot more people in a particular field of business is a FAR BETTER SIGN than having virtually no one in another field. If practically no one else is doing something then that means there has to be a reason for it. Otherwise there would be other people who would immediately step in and fill that void because there would be more money to be made. I think that's what an economist would tell you. Having a lot of people in a particular field just means there's a lot of money in it, otherwise there would be a lot fewer people doing it. I spoke with a lawn care business owner today and she told me there is tons of work to do around Knoxville. Rdendy, I'd be very interested in hearing about what your numbers are with more machines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Rdendy, I'd be very interested in hearing about what your numbers are with more machines Like I said I am still new, coming up on three months but thanks to the great people on here I feel like I have learned a couple of years worth of experience in that short time. I have adjusted my business plan quite a bit from what I have learned as well. I want to grow quickly and with as much profit as I can. Listening to some of the pro's on here has me thinking that my best bet is going to be in GB and toys for the short term. Once I have enough machines with those to support either the GF or an employee for my business, I am going to leverage the added manpower and time to expand those and to introduce new revenue sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Rdendy, what type of GB machines do you use, how much do they cost and do they break down a lot? Also I remember reading in the bulk candy forums on this website people complaining about the near future with the GB business in that inflation may very well kick the price of GB's from .25 Cents to .50 Cents. That's why you see a lot of GB and other bulk candy stands that charge .50 Cents now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donovon Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 There's money in bulk... Plus it under lock and key.... Unless they steal your machine, your quarters will be there.. This has happen once to me.... Most my location avg 30$ net.... Ive only had one location under 5$ in a month.... You should think about it.... I think you would love it....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 They say that's really going to hurt the business because at .50 Cents it's no longer an impulse item O.K. what kind of machines do you all use, how much do they cost and how often do they break down? I'm just looking at the adverstisment above about a "bulk vending rack". So you have to have a rack in order to do this business? That means you're going to have to have a like a Ford Econoline F-150 or 250 to do this job. Those things are absolute gas hogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 I am trying to go to an all A&A fleet eventually. If you talk to most of the guys on here they say the route to go is used machines, if you look hard enough you can find them pretty often for cheap. Most of mine aren't used, I'm not the most handy of people when it comes to power tools, a lot fo the guys on here are like Hill Billy and Dogcow. They can make their ROI even faster, but at my current averages I am still paying the new machines off in 3-4 months so they should quickly start showing profit. None have broke down, but a couple of minor and easy to fix mishaps. You can go ahead and move to .50 or whatever denomination your comfortable with. I am planning on rotating some .50 GB machines in to, run more gourmet and unusual GB's, in my route. Donovan is correct, I like that my products and offerings have some security. I also think you would like it because you have the locating talent and theft would be a much lesser concern for you. They say that's really going to hurt the business because at .50 Cents it's no longer an impulse item O.K. what kind of machines do you all use, how much do they cost and how often do they break down? I'm just looking at the adverstisment above about a "bulk vending rack". So you have to have a rack in order to do this business? That means you're going to have to have a like a Ford Econoline F-150 or 250 to do this job. Those things are absolute gas hogs. Not at all, most of the guys agree the fastest way to build quick is using all single head GB machines and I can get about 8 of them at a time in my Nissan Altima. If your serious about thinking about it, go to the Bulk Vending forum and read...read...and read some more. You will find everything you need to get off on a solid foot and what to expect from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donovon Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Think toys tvb..... 2 head setup.... You can vend at .50.... Focus your locating skills on restaurants... You will come out a winner... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Think toys tvb..... 2 head setup.... You can vend at .50.... Focus your locating skills on restaurants... You will come out a winner... agreed!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 the thing i dont get about bulk vending is it requires such a huge initial upfront investment. to buy the amount of equipment you would need to generate enough cash flow to live off of in any small span of time you would have to sink a huge amount of money into equipment. have u tried putting charity stickers on ur boxes? I know you arent supposed to but i doubt anyone would really care and it may cut ur theft way down, anyway just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donovon Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 have u tried putting charity stickers on ur boxes? I know you arent supposed to but i doubt anyone would really care and it may cut ur theft way down, anyway just a thought. I see so many people having charity on their boxes.. How come your not supposed to?.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 I see so many people having charity on their boxes.. How come your not supposed to?.. the charities say only acrylic bulk candy boxes, no snack boxes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 See that's what I like about lawn care though. Once you make a very modest investment (in say a commercial lawn mower) you're ready to start making money back. I'd bet in just one good days work you'd have that thing paid off anyway. Besides that it just seems so incredibly simpler because you work a day's work and then you're done. It isn't like that at all with vending. because you've got to focus on not only servicing existing accounts but you've also got to restock everything, go to the store and buy everything (or have it delivered to you and then restock everything). With lawn care you can be a one man team and not have to worry at all about having people working for you. It seems like you would make a whole lot more money per your real hours worked. It just seems like with lawn care you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. All you'd have to do is run your routes and do the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 See that's what I like about lawn care though. Once you make a very modest investment (in say a commercial lawn mower) you're ready to start making money back. I'd bet in just one good days work you'd have that thing paid off anyway. Besides that it just seems so incredibly simpler because you work a day's work and then you're done. It isn't like that at all with vending. because you've got to focus on not only servicing existing accounts but you've also got to restock everything, go to the store and buy everything (or have it delivered to you and then restock everything). With lawn care you can be a one man team and not have to worry at all about having people working for you. It seems like you would make a whole lot more money per your real hours worked. It just seems like with lawn care you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. All you'd have to do is run your routes and do the job. i get a solicitation for lawn care about once a month, and ive talked to my guy quite a bit you have to hustle to get accounts because everyone is out there cutting eachothers throats i pay about $40 a month, thats $10 per week and he has 2 guys out here for an hour every week. I have no idea how thgey can make money at that price, i guess because theres so much competition. plus if you want to make real money you have to bid commercial jobs which is a more involved process and requires a lot of time invested into the sales aspect. also you have to deal with billing, and accounting, nonpayment and so on.around here so many people are in foreclosure nonpayment is a big deal, and what are u gonna do ,try to get a collection agency on someone over 40 bucks anyway something to think about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 19, 2012 Author Share Posted May 19, 2012 I think one of the greatest problems most people make when getting into lawn care is to try and be the WalMart of lawn care. Then those guys work themselves to death and get burned out really quick. I know that people will pay much more for someone who is dependable and withstanding over time. There's a woman who cuts grass in my neighborhood and has been doing so for at least 20 years. I don't know what she charges but I bet it's not cheap. I also believe that the people who hire her would never even dream of getting someone else to cut their lawn just because someone else might be less expensive. I think it's a total falsehood to think that people are only looking to find the cheapest person to mow their lawn. If that mentality were true then Wal Mart would have put everybody else out of business by now. The last time I checked Wal Mart's stock on Wall Street certainly isn't the best one to have. I think the new trend is becoming much more for quality over quantity. I think that's especially true when it comes to someone's lawn because that's very personal to them. Only the people who are looking try and nickle and dime you (try and screw you) are going to be looking to find the cheapest labor they can find for their lawn. Those people are never worth working for in the first place. I think most people with intelligence realize that if they don't pay for dependable quality service then who's going to cut the grass for them? How long is the other person who's willing to work for practically nothing and put up with all kinds of S*** going to last? I'll tell you, Knoxville may be bad in other ways but I don't think it's bad in this way at all. One idea I've heard also for taking care of the problem in the first place with bad customers who won't pay is to require them to pay with a credit card and to immediately charge their credit card once you are done cutting their grass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donovon Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 I think one of the greatest problems most people make when getting into lawn care is to try and be the WalMart of lawn care. Then those guys work themselves to death and get burned out really quick. I know that people will pay much more for someone who is dependable and withstanding over time. There's a woman who cuts grass in my neighborhood and has been doing so for at least 20 years. I don't know what she charges but I bet it's not cheap. I also believe that the people who hire her would never even dream of getting someone else to cut their lawn just because someone else might be less expensive. I think it's a total falsehood to think that people are only looking to find the cheapest person to mow their lawn. If that mentality were true then Wal Mart would have put everybody else out of business by now. The last time I checked Wal Mart's stock on Wall Street certainly isn't the best one to have. I think the new trend is becoming much more for quality over quantity. I think that's especially true when it comes to someone's lawn because that's very personal to them. Only the people who are looking try and nickle and dime you (try and screw you) are going to be looking to find the cheapest labor they can find for their lawn. Those people are never worth working for in the first place. I think most people with intelligence realize that if they don't pay for dependable quality service then who's going to cut the grass for them? How long is the other person who's willing to work for practically nothing and put up with all kinds of S*** going to last? I'll tell you, Knoxville may be bad in other ways but I don't think it's bad in this way at all. One idea I've heard also for taking care of the problem in the first place with bad customers who won't pay is to require them to pay with a credit card and to immediately charge their credit card once you are done cutting their grass. looks like you have your mind set....good luck in what sounds like your next adventure. Is there a lawn care forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevendingbutler1 Posted May 19, 2012 Author Share Posted May 19, 2012 I think there are 2 ways to run a lawn care business: The right way and the wrong way and all that is about the mentality you have when doing this. Basically I think it all boils down to whether or not you believe you deserve to get paid well for the quality services that you provide and are you willing to persevere in order to find the right people with common sense enough that they will make you their permanent lawn care specialist. I think the guy who told you about this really didn't have the right approach to the lawn care business at all. Well let's just turn this forum into a lawn care forum. Then we can talk about a business that's going to be far more profitable for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorderJerry Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 "...are you willing to persevere in order to find the right people..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bingo, this is the difficult growing process for all new 'professional services' business owners whether bulk vending, lawn care, insurance, full line vending, doctors or honor boxes. In all these businesses, the owner is providing a professional service to a group of clients. By far the most difficult time for these business owners is the start up period. In our nearly 20 years doing commercial rack bulk vending we have found that placing a rack in a new business (from a cold sales call) only has about a 1 out of 2 or 3 chance of turning into a long term (5+ years) solid account ($15 or more per mech each month). When you are starting out your route is nothing but 'brand new' locations (clients), and within a couple of years (probably sooner) at least half of those locations will be gone. But if you hang in there, by year 5 at least 75% of your locations (clients) will be long term, reliable and nearly problem free. A rookie bulk vendor will end up having to find new loc's for at least half his route over the next year. But each time he does, a few more will become long term solid accounts and the next year won't be as tough. I just checked our loc list, and over 85% of the loc's we have are 5+ years old. We even have a handful of restaurants now being run by the second generation. And I remember very clearly saying to myself many times during the first year... "How the hell can anyone make a living at this???". This is one of the easiest businesses to get started in (buy a used head and stand) but that is a two edged blade, as that makes it also very easy to 'retire' from. Only you can decide if its worth 'hanging in there' for the long run. I have an old grade school buddy who's dad was a State Farm agent and when we were kids he and his brothers were sleeping 3 in a room. But after the old man had been in business for over 20 years, I noticed the family would vacation in Europe each summer. Just like in lawn care, starting out can be very tough until you build your list of reliable clients...and then all of the sudden one realizes this is a pretty good way of making a living. So for those of you still growing the business, the moral of the story is every time you 'settle up' and shoot the bull with one of your long term, solid clients don't forget to ask... "Who do you know that could use a _________(bulk vending rack, lawn care service...)". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 They say that's really going to hurt the business because at .50 Cents it's no longer an impulse item O.K. what kind of machines do you all use, how much do they cost and how often do they break down? I'm just looking at the adverstisment above about a "bulk vending rack". So you have to have a rack in order to do this business? That means you're going to have to have a like a Ford Econoline F-150 or 250 to do this job. Those things are absolute gas hogs. The kinds of answers you are looking for have all been discussed in the bulk vending forum. But very quickly, I started my bulk vending career by using only single head gumball machines with the NCCS charity. If you have more than 25 stickers, it goes down to $1/mo. I had accounts that did $50-$75 a month and some that did $1.50 like you said, with everything else in the middle. My average was $13 a month per location. I had a 8-12 week service cycle. My route were small, and I only worked about 1 day a month. So I did about 15 locations one day a month, and collected about $600 each time. Yes, the vending machines cost MUCH more than an honor box, but you only have to spend about $20 for a case of gumballs for $212 that you collect. I used Oak Vista 300's and the A&A PO89 300's on a pipe stand. That setup cost about $100 each with shipping. I talk about this in the past tense because I've moved up to toy commission vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 See that's what I like about lawn care though. Once you make a very modest investment (in say a commercial lawn mower) you're ready to start making money back. I'd bet in just one good days work you'd have that thing paid off anyway. Besides that it just seems so incredibly simpler because you work a day's work and then you're done. It isn't like that at all with vending. because you've got to focus on not only servicing existing accounts but you've also got to restock everything, go to the store and buy everything (or have it delivered to you and then restock everything). With lawn care you can be a one man team and not have to worry at all about having people working for you. It seems like you would make a whole lot more money per your real hours worked. It just seems like with lawn care you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. All you'd have to do is run your routes and do the job. I imagine Lawn Care has the same hassles as vending when i comes to getting accounts. Sure, you can prolly do a bunch of lawns in one day, ONCE YOU LAND THE ACCOUNT. If you have nobody using your services, then you've wasted all that money on your equipment. It's the equivalent of storing machines in the garage. You will still prolly need a salesman to go and land those accounts. Making flyers, putting them in door jams, etc all costs money and takes time. Time that could be used to cut lawns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metro Coin Machines Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Honor Boxes are tricky. I found that the mini candies that are near the cashier do well. The "full line" vending style, with chips, cookies, etc, are harder. I had a couple of dozen accounts, and I found the same pattern; at first, no loss. Over time, more loss. So, I started out the next round of locations with a notice that all un paid for items would be collected for weekly. I started servcing the accounts weekly, and leaving an invoice due the next week. Counting down each box onsite was time consuming, but it worked better than counting it down offsite, or , not at all. Here is what I learned: people paid at first. Then, they didnt have change, or their kids took their cash,or payday was next week, and they took snacks, and intended to pay for them later, and just forgot Very often, management got tired of the hassle, and I got the boot. Some locations worked: these were the locations where the boxes were placed beside someones deck, and NOT in the break room. I had 12 tire stores, and each box was beside a bookeeper/cashier. These locations had shrinkage of around 6%. Beauty salons worked also, as I allowed the owners to pay for "client comped" snacks at half cost, and they wilingly paid, for all of it. I stopped putting coin boxes in the tray in beauty shops, and put it beside the tray, and let the owner keep all the cash in the box. This worked really well, as basicaly,staff rented their space, and customers paid for servcies, so this was just valet service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southwestvendor Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Honor box business like any other business can make money if worked correctly. Remember one thing you are taking cash to the bank not percentages. In other words at the end of the day ask yourself "Did I make money"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priusjames Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 What Happened?? I just read 5 pages like a serial novel,then it just stopped! A story of a person angry with himself for having failed in a business venture,but not adult enough to hear an entire group of people with experience...ups AND downs...are trying to tell him. Everybody else is wrong, or worse...is *lying* on purpose. It's impossible to make money in vending because I believed the one or two people who told me the truth...it's everybody else, none of whom have any vested interest in your personal problems (other than taking time from their lives to try to offer real-world experiences in hopes of helping others). I give credit to those who tried,again and again, to drive home very obvious points (to those not bitterly lashing out at the world for their own failures)...kudos. The most positive thing I read was the (really obvious) observation that this guy can locate! 200 accounts placed in 6 months? That's what I'm talking about! At $10 a location, that's $2k...and I'd pay more than that. I sure hope you (he?) switched to bulk (although I was shocked to see you poo-poo that as not being profitable enough), or started a locating biz...GO WITH WHAT YOU'RE GOOD AT!! (Lawncare?) Old thread, I know, but still pretty wild to read. I wonder what happened... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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