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new to vending testing the waters


hulksmashu00

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Hi everyone.

I am new to the vending world. Ive been toying with idea of opening my own business for some time but up until recently I just never was financially stable enough to follow through. I now have a solid base to work with so I started looking into food trucks and in this process found vending. Ive spent the last couple weeks researching and have decided that vending is the way I want to go because I can work my current job well I build and vending is something I can start teaching my son work ethics with.

Anyway I have some start up money nothing to crazy about 10k and I am going to start buying machines this month 1 or 2 at a time and placing them. I also have been researching h4u vending ( now I know people say stay clear of biz opps but out of all of the biz opps they have looked pretty solid and I like that they place the machines in prime spots as well as being able to track sales from home). I think I am going to buy 10 bulk machines to start and then if I like the business maybe buy the 2 package from h4u.

I geuss thats it in a nutshell for me. I look forward to being a contributing member on the forum and learning from everyone here.

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Hi everyone.

I am new to the vending world. Ive been toying with idea of opening my own business for some time but up until recently I just never was financially stable enough to follow through. I now have a solid base to work with so I started looking into food trucks and in this process found vending. Ive spent the last couple weeks researching and have decided that vending is the way I want to go because I can work my current job well I build and vending is something I can start teaching my son work ethics with.

Anyway I have some start up money nothing to crazy about 10k and I am going to start buying machines this month 1 or 2 at a time and placing them. I also have been researching h4u vending ( now I know people say stay clear of biz opps but out of all of the biz opps they have looked pretty solid and I like that they place the machines in prime spots as well as being able to track sales from home). I think I am going to buy 10 bulk machines to start and then if I like the business maybe buy the 2 package from h4u.

I geuss thats it in a nutshell for me. I look forward to being a contributing member on the forum and learning from everyone here.

Before you spend a nickel - take two days and read the Bulk forum all the way back.  I guarantee it will change your mind about a lot of things and you'll be well prepared to make your seed money stretch the farthest.  Welcome to the forum.

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Please, don't

Most of the promises are marketing bullshit

If you want healthy get a good used combo like ams crane or ap for 1200 from a refurbishing company spend 250 on graphics from vendors exchange and 500 for a good location and you've got a healthy machine that is way better for a portion of the cost

Also most vendors don't rccomebd healthy or combos because they don't sell and combos don't hold enough

Actually if you want to get started right get a used can soda machine (<$700) and put it in a tire shop or blue Collar

Than work your way up to better accounts

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Also try reading the food and beverage forum because I think you are confusing the bulk vending(loose candies and toys) with snack and soda

And considering how cheap you can get started 10k is pretty serious startup cash

I recommend saving most of it though

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Welcome to the forums, Hulk!

 

This can be a good business to be in when done correctly.  Be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them.  You can also learn from other's mistakes so you don't make the same ones.  Reading the forums here will help you avoid the pitfalls. 

 

One pitfall is getting caught up in the glitz and glamour of the healthy vending franchises.  They use low quality machines (fancy graphics don't make the machine high quality) with all imported parts.  I have worked on some of these and am constantly amazed at the poor engineering that goes into them.  As to the "prime locations" they will provide you: one man's prime location is another experienced vendor's dog location, especially if you force feed healthy vending to the account.  If you do go this route to start your business that will take all your money and then some and if it fails to produce a viable profit, which is very likely, you will never be able to recoup your investment when you sell the machines. 

 

As orsd said, if you really think there is a niche for healthy vending then buy some used combo machine that are from Automatic Products or Crane Vendors, wrap them in healthy graphics (available from vending parts suppliers) and source the healthy products yourself to put in them.  That will give you a much less expensive Healthy Vending machine.  The remote monitoring is not necessary nor is the credit card acceptance, but you can accept cards, paying those fees, without the expense of the remote software and save again.

 

Your best bet is to start simple with a good bulk vending plan or some single price soda machines so you can learn the business from the ground up.  Nothing beats experience and you can teach your kids how you work your way up to a successful company, not just buy a company.  Your money will go much farther in this way and you will have a good understanding of how your machines work because you will be working on them yourself.

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thank you for all of the great advice. i can see that this forum is going to be a great resource for me. just real fast i want to ask a couple questions regaurding some of the responses i recieved on this thread.

 

1. i understand the reason behind staying away from biz opps and i understand the large mark up on the machines but seeing that i am new to this wouldnt the step by step help that i would recieve from h4u be worth the extra investment in order to learn with out making huge mistakes? also i am worried about placing machines because at this point i dont really know how to go about it. i guess what i am asking is can you really put a price on having people with experience in your corner?

 

with that being said i am in no way going to jump out the window and spend the almost 19000 on only two machines with these guys without doing a ton of research. my only thing is that they project two machines making around 14000 a year so if that is true then the investment would be worth it but its hit or miss.

 

also i have a family to think about and my baby has health issues so i work three jobs right now to provide the best care for my family so lossing that much money would not be good. 

 

basically i want to be able to make this work and fast i want to invest and see a return on my investment right away that way i can drop all but my full time job and have more time with my son. i am not affraid of working hard and i have the drive and intellect to succeed but i just need to knowledge in the field to go with it.

 

i will be active on this forum and will be asking a lot of questions as i go. i look forward to getting to know some of you and i am open to any and all advice. before i buy anything i will have thought the buy through and i will run it by you guys here first to get your advice because first hand real life experience cant be beat. 

 

thank you for your comments

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While there is certainly some value in the biz op helping you find locations, they will be giving you information that leads you to believe that what they tell you is the only way the business works.  They will talk up their machines, talk up the locations and try very hard to convince you that you will make good money with their methods.  This is not true and you will be overpaying for the machines and support you will be getting.  Again, I urge you to not fall in love with what they present to you no matter how good it looks.  Remember, if it's too good to be true, it is.  We know the methods and equipment of these franchisors and they are not looking out for your best interests.  The sales and profit numbers can not at all be approximated because until you are in the account and see for yourself what the sales are, you will not know how any specific location will produce.  Because of this unknown, you are better off finding your own used equipment, your own locations and learn this business from the ground up.

 

Just the description of your life and family leads me to believe that you are looking for the easiest way to start a business without investing the time it normally takes to do that.  Three jobs doesn't leave you any time for building a business and I understand that.  Unfortunately, you will likely not make anywhere what this biz op is telling you and you will be behind the 8 ball from the beginning.  In addition, if you rely on them to do everything for you, you will not have learned how to continue building the business yourself and further growth will be slower than if you had begun and learned on your own. 

 

I'm only looking out for your best interest and having been a newbie myself 29 years ago and seen how many people since then have been taken by biz op schemes in the vending industry I strongly urge you to read further in the Beverage and Food forum so you can gain a better understanding of this business and what it takes to start and run a vending route.

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ok i am going to take your advice and stay away from the biz opp for now. thank you for your comments.

 

i am going to post some questions in other parts of the forum as i read today looking forward to hearing from you guys.

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thank you for all of the great advice. i can see that this forum is going to be a great resource for me. just real fast i want to ask a couple questions regaurding some of the responses i recieved on this thread.

 

1. i understand the reason behind staying away from biz opps and i understand the large mark up on the machines but seeing that i am new to this wouldnt the step by step help that i would recieve from h4u be worth the extra investment in order to learn with out making huge mistakes? also i am worried about placing machines because at this point i dont really know how to go about it. i guess what i am asking is can you really put a price on having people with experience in your corner?

 

with that being said i am in no way going to jump out the window and spend the almost 19000 on only two machines with these guys without doing a ton of research. my only thing is that they project two machines making around 14000 a year so if that is true then the investment would be worth it but its hit or miss.

 

also i have a family to think about and my baby has health issues so i work three jobs right now to provide the best care for my family so lossing that much money would not be good. 

 

basically i want to be able to make this work and fast i want to invest and see a return on my investment right away that way i can drop all but my full time job and have more time with my son. i am not affraid of working hard and i have the drive and intellect to succeed but i just need to knowledge in the field to go with it.

 

i will be active on this forum and will be asking a lot of questions as i go. i look forward to getting to know some of you and i am open to any and all advice. before i buy anything i will have thought the buy through and i will run it by you guys here first to get your advice because first hand real life experience cant be beat. 

 

thank you for your comments

The biggest mistake you could make is to dump all your money into a biz op - any biz op.  If you're looking for an easy entry into the wonderful world of vending, take orsd's advice a put a basic soda machine in a tire shop.  If the location is slow you'll only need to service it once a month. if not every other week works well for better locations.  Either way a soda machine takes less than an hour to service and you'll see a nice ROI.

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