How many machines?

[vendtex]

If your ultimate goal is to have a net income of about $3000 per month, how many machines is it likely that I would need?  What mix of machines would be recommended in terms of singles, doubles triples etc.?  Thanks

[bhfisher]

Well, I guess 225 locations. 

 

Assuming $20 a month gross average and 30% product cost might net $3150 (without commissions)

Of course your numbers will be different depending on product, product cost, commissions and average collections per machine,

[zjtaylor]

I'm up to 10 locations now and per month I'm averaging about 10$ per machine. So for me I would need about 300-350. I haven't found that a particular combination of singles, doubles, triples, etc work better. No matter how many heads I still get around 10$ per machine. The location depends on the type of candy and how many heads. I try to at least do gumball and one type of candy. Gumballs and then skittles are my biggest sellers. Sometimes I'm in a location with one or more other vendors and I like to offer a different selection.

[vendtex]

I'm up to 10 locations now and per month I'm averaging about 10$ per machine. So for me I would need about 300-350. I haven't found that a particular combination of singles, doubles, triples, etc work better. No matter how many heads I still get around 10$ per machine. The location depends on the type of candy and how many heads. I try to at least do gumball and one type of candy. Gumballs and then skittles are my biggest sellers. Sometimes I'm in a location with one or more other vendors and I like to offer a different selection.

What is your location?

[zjtaylor]

What is your location?

 

We are about 30 mins south of Charlotte, NC

[The Mage]

Averages are fluid, and part of building your route is improving those numbers.

 

Obviously the first step is to get locations, but then you need to review those locations. Can you upgrade a location? Can you add a machine?

 

As an example I took a poor location, and added a bouncy ball machine. Sales and profits jumped. Then I changed the candy out for a Shootn' Hoops, (gumballs) and again sales and profits jumped.

 

Some machines you can decide to hit every other service cycle. As long as you make sure any candy you might be selling isn't getting stale, by extending out how often you hit that machine, you might not be making any more money, but you are cutting your time servicing that machine in half.

 

But sometimes you just need to pull a machine. An under-performing location is a waste of time. But what you define as under-performing will be fluid. As your locations get better, your averages get better, and the locations that were average may now be holding you back.

 

Paraphrasing another Vendor's post years ago, about 20% of your machines under-perform. Take a look at all your locations, and the worst performing 20% are candidates for dumping.

 

Following a grow, upgrade, grow, dump system will make it easier to hit goal numbers without filling up your time on low performing locations. It also makes room for new locations that have the potential to up your average.

 

Sometimes it helps to figure out how much all your locations make in a given time, say a month, and see how much of that the bottom 5%, 10%, and 20% make up, and then how much time you spend on those locations compared to the whole route. Usually that time is 5%, 10%, and 20%, but there are locations that are extremely convenient, and others that are out of the way.

 

If 10% of your route takes up 10% of your servicing time, but only produces 1% of your income, why wouldn't you dump that bottom 10%?