Jump to content

Recommended Posts

ONLY those with knowledge and experience please respond with your best answers...everyone else learn

 

I make $1500-$1700 monthly. I have bootstrapped my life style and I am completely financially free. All I hear now is I should get a job or go back to school, I get it. (I have 50 donation boxes and 40 more gumball machines to put out and those will be total profit)

 

I work 2 days a month, all my bills are paid and I LOVE IT, people don't like that, but in all my other spare time (instead of building my business) I learn other businesses that interest me. And start them up. I have a marathon mentality am I going about this all wrong?

 

Isn't this the point being a salesman whose commissions continue to pay him? Or an entrepreneur/business owner? 2 days a month! I told that to my baller uncle in law and said he would take my life any day over his high paying full time job. 

 

All my bills are paid and I have little to spare but can afford to take my wife out to dinner every now and then. But I totally survive off my own kills. However I am not stacking and saving until I place those 90 units. 

 

This is not the ideal marriage for any newlywed I understand, but I DO NOT KNOW MY FUTURE WITH VENDING.

 

It really seems like there is no cap to put on it!!! That drives me crazy to dominate my territory. But then I think I can put the same amount of energy and build something that can effect millions. But I wont be making as much in that time. I will still be in my bootstrap low income zone. Which equals another year of nagging about the things we don't do or have. 

 

I wrote this to ask where is it leading sticking and growing a bulk candy/donation box/vending machine route.

 

Do I spend my life trying to get into hospitals and Home Depot break rooms? 

 

I know I can take my business to a DOMINATION level with all the spare time I have, but is it smarter to begin something that will earn more or keep building and building a business that has been so generous? I have learned wither I pick up a phone to call a millionaire or my mom it all takes the same amount of energy. 

 

Do any of you readers have a 401k? Is this really long term wealth? How do you look at your numbers? What inspires you? Do you have a second job and this is all savings? Vacation money? How much are you earning? What is ideal? What were some of your vending dreams/goals?  How far have you gone? Did you veer off into other businesses? Are you the guy at the malls or in the Walmart? 

 

If there is any information you need from me to help you better understand something please respond. Again total transparency, it can only help. Thanks for reading and replying. I think just writing this kind of gave me some insight as well.  All reading, hope this helps! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New dude, I too am a total entrepreneur. Owned and sold several small companies. Been full time in vending for over a decade. All I can tell you like all businesses the guys that make a true living work their butts off. Your uncle is envious of your time. Which is extremely valuable in any start up company. So my question to you is are you using it correctly? If you are not willing to give 100% to this time, money, effort ect. trust me move on, but you will find is that is true for any business. For me working 2 days a month would not make me happy. I actually enjoy working and doing vending stuff all the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I truly love doing vending stuff too. But when you compare making change to making thousands it makes it hard to understand the big picture. The way I use my time to explore other businesses so that way all my eggs are not in one basket I know at the end of the day I will grow my vending business to where all machines average amount I have to choose to be happy with. But my time is my most valuable that's why it's like going to a direction now it will be another business that can self run itself to a certain extent. So I'm lost as to where I should focus on building another stream or focus on Booming what I have. I can see the vending business taking me places. But I can also see that other opportunities out there. It's just a matter of my ego making coin money as opposed to large sums of dollar bill money. If I am using the same amount of time. That is why I am asking about vending from a wealth standpoint. As in do you have a 401k? Is this your only business? Why did you leave your business does for vending? I'm not trying to be, I should say please do not read as if I am writing aggressively I am at a point in my life where I want to make the right direction count. I love my time, but do not mind using it into building other things that I love. Based on your response I'm not seeing the answers to the questions I ponder. Do you have a 401k? Is this your only means of income? Are you leaving a legacy? Help...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me, I'm about to turn 42 years old, have a good but not great paying full time job that I really enjoy and a 401(k) that's conservatively on pace to sustain my wife and I into our golden years IF I stay at my job and keep contributing until I retire at age 65.  I started vending a little over 2 years ago with the goal being to earn some extra cash to the point that my family was no longer living paycheck to paycheck like so many Americans.  It was a perfect venue to dabble in the idea of a 3rd income without much financial or time commitment and it's served it's purpose.  As things stand today, vending has increased our family income 10% accounting for 10 hours of work/month.  My goals have expanded now to the point that within the next 5-8 years, I'd like vending to match our family income 100%.  That'll be a great day.  The day when I'm working four ten's at my full time job, two tens at vending and have one day off every week.  That's the day I wake up and go to "work" at my full time job for no other reason than I want to.  I suspect it won't last long because the $/hr vending (so far) crushes the "job" income.  

As far as my internal motivations behind that plan, I have a great marriage and love spending time with my wife.  We've often talked about how nice it would be to spend time traveling and working a full-time route together.  That appeals to me, working for myself.  Others might read that and think that's their definition of hell on earth!  It's a personal decision and everybody has what works for them.  Other factors are that my kids are now 18 and 16 years old.  The hour is fast approaching that the kids are doing their own thing and we have that free time.  Another factor is I think the American economy is in real trouble.  I mean apocalypse trouble and I have NO faith that my job, 401(k), Social Security or Medicare will be there to support me 15-30 years from now.  So my wife and I feel like we need to take it upon ourselves to build a revenue stream on our own steam.  One that replaces or current income and makes the 401(k) and other revenue sources a bonus.  To get the answers you're looking for, you need to first answer what your priorities are.  No doubt SOMETHING has to be sacrificed somewhere.  Maybe it only has to be sacrificed for 20 years while you raise a family.  Or maybe you can do it now and sacrifice your relationship with your family, but you have to give from one area to get the other.  As long as you're living by your values, you'll be happy.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a matter of simple math, if you are working two days a month and making $1500 to $1700 working all month doing the same thing would make $15000 to $17000. There are some very lucky people on the world that have made a lot of money because they were in the right place with the right idea at the right time, the key for the average luckless person is to find something really simple that makes some money and then find away to do it a lot

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a matter of simple math, if you are working two days a month and making $1500 to $1700 working all month doing the same thing would make $15000 to $17000. There are some very lucky people on the world that have made a lot of money because they were in the right place with the right idea at the right time, the key for the average luckless person is to find something really simple that makes some money and then find away to do it a lot

 

Newdude, this is some of the best free advice you'll ever get from anybody.  What's easier, finding that next million dollar idea or finding a $100 idea and doing it 10,000 times.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started in the vending business with one arcade game that was over thrity years ago. For twenty of those years I worked a high level good paying stressful job and bulit a nice size route one stop at a time. For over the last five years I have been in vending full time and do everything there is to do in vending. Vending has given me my life back and the one thing that I never take for granted  is the FREEDOM to do what I want to do on my own terms. I always tell my friends once you cross over to the other side there is no going back. The reason is after you get a taste of the FREEDOM you will do whatever it takes to never have to cross back over. Life is too short doing things that don't make you truely happy. I got into a place in my life where I got burned out on the day to day job with everybody else controling my life and my own destiney. Vending was my yellow brick road to the path of true FREEDOM. It has been a long and tuff road to get there and I still work hard everyday but the diffrence now is that I love what I do and have the FREEDOM to do it.  Do what you love and don't let anyone stop you from doing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the best advice in this thread is what do YOU want to do?

 

And in regards to saving for retirement...yes I save for retirement.  The odds of either myself or my wife (or both) making it to an age where we can no longer work/want to work anymore is pretty high.  So not saving is pretty stupid in my opinion.

 

(saving for retirement is SUPER easy nowadays...just head over to the bogleheads forum and they can help you out real quick...things like asset allocation etc. sound complicated, but really aren't...it's quite easy in fact)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The one thing that caught my attention is you don't know your future with vending........ Ok, so if you have that many single heads sitting there collecting dust, why NOT put them out?

 

#1 If you decide that vending isn't for you, then you can sell the route for more than stagnate  machines in the garage or worse yet a storage unit! If your paying rent or if you are paying for your house, EVERY square inch has a dollar value attached to it.

 

#2 Your equipment is depreciating every day! So, if it's not making money, then it's COSTING YOU MONEY!

 

Running that many gumball machines might add another 1-4 hours a month to service depending on how far apart they are and how fast or hard you want to work.

 

Currently I work a full time job as a manager, own and manage a locating company, AND operate a smaller route of 60+ locations. At one time I had 200 locations, worked ONLY with my bulk route, had a 401k and saved. Though life, divorce and other things happened, I am on my way back to as many locations as I can manage in 3-4 days a week leaving the rest of the time to volunteer and help people. 

 

With that being said, I put almost every extra dollar into good equipment and will be at my goal and hopefully debt free minus a mortgage in 5 years or less (5 years for other reasons than affordability).

 

If your young (under 30), anything you put in a Roth or 401 will be exponentially higher when you need it! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I truly love doing vending stuff too. But when you compare making change to making thousands it makes it hard to understand the big picture. The way I use my time to explore other businesses so that way all my eggs are not in one basket I know at the end of the day I will grow my vending business to where all machines average amount I have to choose to be happy with. But my time is my most valuable that's why it's like going to a direction now it will be another business that can self run itself to a certain extent. So I'm lost as to where I should focus on building another stream or focus on Booming what I have. I can see the vending business taking me places. But I can also see that other opportunities out there. It's just a matter of my ego making coin money as opposed to large sums of dollar bill money. If I am using the same amount of time. That is why I am asking about vending from a wealth standpoint. As in do you have a 401k? Is this your only business? Why did you leave your business does for vending? I'm not trying to be, I should say please do not read as if I am writing aggressively I am at a point in my life where I want to make the right direction count. I love my time, but do not mind using it into building other things that I love. Based on your response I'm not seeing the answers to the questions I ponder. Do you have a 401k? Is this your only means of income? Are you leaving a legacy? Help...

Yes this is my only steady income, but I've bought several investment properties with my vending business. Yes I have Roth IRAs money market accounts ect. I sold other businesses because everything is for sale, and I got out while it was hot. I'm not talking million dollar businesses here but mere catalyst to afford me to invest in what I have now. You do know that a handful of guys on here can pull 1500 a day. ..I don't really get the whole making change vs making thousands.... money is all relative. I'm 36 and I started out young doing this. I will say that vending is a marathon rather than a sprint. Correct me if im wrong but you appear to be more of the sprinter type. Which is nothing wrong with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently quit my full time job. I was a corporate territory sales representative. Great money and great benefits. Too many people sticking their corporate noses into my business telling me how I should sell and who I should be selling. It was never good enough, I reached a point where I could not grow the business any more.  Something had to change in the equation in order to increase the sales.  New people needed to be hired, new products, route changes, new sales tactics, etc. The year I did 2.3 million in sales and the greedy corporate managers wanted more is when it finally sank in. I would never make them happy. That's when I changed my plan and started focusing on what I wanted. I wanted the freedom to make my own decisions and determine my own destiny.

 

I am so glad I made the decision to do it for myself.  There is more satisfaction for me because it is all my doing.  Have I made some bad decisions?  Sure I have, but the decision was mine to make. I am happier now than I ever have been with my career. The money has been the hardest obstacle to overcome.  Replacing a paycheck is the one thing I was afraid to do because of my family. I made some serious changes to our finances using my 401K, and now am living almost debt free on a lot less money. The income is now rising, and in the future it will not be an issue. I will never work for the "man" again. I absolutely love what I do.

 

I also go to auctions for storage units and have made good money doing that. Its not a business per se but it makes me money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't focus on the dollars and cents so much but instead what makes you happy.  What gives you that inner peace?  I've made more than my fair share of mistakes in this business also and have contemplated on getting out more then once but always decided to continue on.  Thankful I did cause I really enjoy the business and will be doing it full time in a couple more months.  The thought of giving up the security of a full time job seems a little daunting some times but being my own boss has been a goal of mine for as long as i can remember and in about 60 days I'm hoping to make this a reality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't focus on the dollars and cents so much but instead what makes you happy. What gives you that inner peace? I've made more than my fair share of mistakes in this business also and have contemplated on getting out more then once but always decided to continue on. Thankful I did cause I really enjoy the business and will be doing it full time in a couple more months. The thought of giving up the security of a full time job seems a little daunting some times but being my own boss has been a goal of mine for as long as i can remember and in about 60 days I'm hoping to make this a reality.

Excellent bud! Glad that you are going full time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...