2320dillon Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Wow, this forum may have (did) save me tens of thousands of dollars!!! I am being pursued by 3 different vending biz-ops and I was getting close to pulling the trigger. I would so appreciate anyone's guidance on starting a vending business in these areas: 1. population size of town or city? (minimun) 2. number of machines to make a $50k/yr income (net) 3. Bulk, combo, bev, or coffee to get started. 4. To look for an established route or to create new locations. 5. Besides reading every post on VD, get training on maintaance of machines? 6. Attend vending conventions. (Chicago) 7. Best types of locations: schools, gyms, offices, malls, etc... 8. The best quality newer looking machines. (make/model) 9. Any other advise to a 54 yr young, unemployed, family supporting guy in North Idaho with some money to invest. ($50k) Thank you in advance and I plan to give back to this froum every chance I get, Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Welcome! to get started, you can either purchase some bulk machines that are quality brands such as eagle, oak, aa global industires, northwestern, or beaver, or you can get some cheap used single price can machines under 400 from craigslist, fill with cans, and stick in a tire shop or something to get started, then expand into smack, coffee, etc if you find that its your calling. if you find some good deals, post it here and we can tell you if its any good or not, and it the price is good or not. If you want to buy can machines, get Vendo, Royal, Dixie Narco, or even USI oh, and yeah save that 50K for your retirement or a car or something, because if you invest right, 10-20K will get you a VERY VERY good business. Heck, I can probably say that some of the full timers here started with investing less than 1k and grew into a large operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2320dillon Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Thanks, That sounds great! ($10-$20k) I have recently become unemployed so my need for income is great and all of my time is free. Do you think the healthy food direction will take off? I see three different peolpe selling their "Grow" ' "Yonaturals" and "Fresh" machines. They run about $4k on average. They seem to only making $10k per year with 7 machines. Thats terrible! How can they be doing so poorly? One CL ad Another CL ad and yet another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 1 and 3 are probably the same the machines are great, ams, but are new pricing, better off getting similar used from cl or a refubisher under 1000 3 is the micro max bizop rebranded, stay away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Welcome to the forum, Dillon. The first ad you linked to is showing an AMS machine which is a good machine. However, the healthy vending business plan is still not profitable. There are many companies presenting this business plan as a money maker and very profitable, offering sales support and "discounted" machines, but they are only interested in selling machines so you must expect them to upsell this proposition to make it sound like it's better than traditional vending. Healthy vending is simply not a viable option yet. Human nature dictates that people will buy what they want to buy, whether it's good for them or not, and healthy products are not what 95% of your customers truly want to buy. For someone like you to get into a business that will support you with an income right off the bat will require that you purchase an existing vending route that can provide you with instant cash flow. On average, a healthy vending machine will not produce the same sales or profit margin that a traditional snack will in a comparable location. Therefore, were you to invest your money in a healthy vending route, you will not recoup your investment nor have the profit margin and free cash flow that you desire. There is a reason you are seeing those ads and not finding nearly as many normal vending ads and that is that the healthy vending operators can't make a go of it. Additionally, the second link is of a Chinese import that is junk, and the third ad is a repeat of the first ad, I believe. Another way to look at the 7 machine ad is that they paid $58k for 7 machines which averages to $8285 per machine. You can buy a brand new AMS machine like that one for about $3200-3500 and you could probably get AMS to put healthy graphics on it too at that price. If you wanted to start your own healthy favored operation you could do it yourself. I would, however, not tell you to purchase new machines like that as there are plenty of used machine options for you to get at a fraction of the new price and you could cover them with graphics yourself. Well, that's enough with the healthy vending soapbox speech. I think you get the gist of what I'm saying, now on to how you could start. You can start slow with can vendors as orsd recommended above, placing used machines as you find accounts and learning the business from the ground up. You don't want to do snacks unless you can place a minimum of 5 machines which will allow you to control your stales due to the case lots you have to buy snacks in. Once you determine that vending is truly for you, then you can begin to expand into other products such as bottle soda and snack machines. The other way to get started, as I mentioned above, is to purchase an existing route that will give you instant cash flow and some profit from the beginning. This forces you into vending in a way that means you better learn the ropes quickly so you don't run it into the ground. If you're successful with a route then you can begin expanding it to grow your cash flow and profits, but remember this one caveat: It takes money to make money, so your growth will come at a cost. Don't expect to purchase a route for $50K that will replace whatever salary you had before. Vending generally doesn't have anything close to a 50% profit. Rather your profit margin will be determined by a combination of factors: product costs, selling prices, commission rates you pay locations, your operating expenses such as fuel, insurance and repairs to machines, taxes, etc. You might achieve anywhere from a 5% profit to 40% profit depending on how well you manage your business. If you do end up purchasing some number of accounts, don't spend more that half of your money. You will need to have free cash for any unexpected expenses, personal or business. You will also need free cash for future growth because if you expect to live off the profits there will be no profits left for growth. Also, if this money is in a retirement fund, you would be crazy to invest it in a business and take the withdrawal tax hit and loss of future compounded earnings. Feel free to post any other opportunities that you come across and we can evaluate them for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2320dillon Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Thank you AZ! Great answer. The money is exclusivly for a new buiness and not a retiment fund. So I think I may post some notes on some machines around town. And maybe find a route for sale. I got scared off by the hard sell of the Biz-op guys right away and you confirmed my fears. I was trying to find a new or different angle in vending like coffee or energy drinks. Glad to know the healthy thing isn't here yet. Some one should tell Sean Kelly that. Never, mind I don't think he cares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserri Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 AZ is racking up the "likes" today. Great post! Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Wow, this forum may have (did) save me tens of thousands of dollars!!! I am being pursued by 3 different vending biz-ops and I was getting close to pulling the trigger. I would so appreciate anyone's guidance on starting a vending business in these areas: 1. population size of town or city? (minimun) 2. number of machines to make a $50k/yr income (net) 3. Bulk, combo, bev, or coffee to get started. 4. To look for an established route or to create new locations. 5. Besides reading every post on VD, get training on maintaance of machines? 6. Attend vending conventions. (Chicago) 7. Best types of locations: schools, gyms, offices, malls, etc... 8. The best quality newer looking machines. (make/model) 9. Any other advise to a 54 yr young, unemployed, family supporting guy in North Idaho with some money to invest. ($50k) Thank you in advance and I plan to give back to this froum every chance I get, Tim I started my business with 10K to invest and grew it to about a million in revenue in 6 years, but it took me about 5 years to draw a decent salary, fortunately my wife made enough for us to survive so that I could reinvest every nickel I made the first few years. About the only way I see you making a decent living short term is to buy a existing route that is doing at least 120K PROVABLE gross receipts to net like AZ mentioned 25-45K after all expenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2320dillon Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 Thank you Miison, are there places on the web where routes can be found for sale? I have been looking on CL, nothing in my area latley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Thank you Miison, are there places on the web where routes can be found for sale? I have been looking on CL, nothing in my area latley. CL is not the only place to look. Do some searching, phrases like "vending business for sale" things like that. I'd even call any local operators and ask them if they know of any routes for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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