Vendifull Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 I have an opportunity to pick up an account (1 snack & drink) that generates approx. $500 per month. The account is about 30 min. from my furthest account, which is 30 min from my home. So the new account would be an hour from my house. Is $500 a month worth it? What are the furthest accounts for some of you? thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvending Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 We currently have an account about 80 minutes from our warehouse. But we have 3 accounts in that area. Snack and can drink at all stops. Once a week service with telemetry and CC readers. They produce about $750/week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendifull Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 5 minutes ago, cvending said: We currently have an account about 80 minutes from our warehouse. But we have 3 accounts in that area. Snack and can drink at all stops. Once a week service with telemetry and CC readers. They produce about $750/week. Thank you. I would look to add accounts in between. What your accounts generate, make it worth it. Good for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 To me, I don't want anything that is more than an hour away simply because, should it be problematic, it can cause a major headache having to travel for service calls. I would pass on an account next door making $1500/year, but I might also pass an account that is 2 hours away doing $20,000/year. There is just that issue with not being able to run the rest of my route AND take care of an account THAT far away. I have four accounts that are all about 5 minutes from each other but, as a group, about 30 minutes away from the next group of accounts.. and for $6,000/year, I would be happy servicing them. There is an account I know of located about 1 hour away from me that probably does $500/week (guessing) and I think there is a chance I could get the account but I honestly don't know if I want to have to add maybe 6 hours/week AND invest into a food machine (and stock it) just because it's a good account. I have gone back and fourth with that account and I just keep telling myself that my service will look bad if I can't service them fast enough BECAUSE I have to service other accounts too. The good thing about doing $500/month (or a little over $100/week) is that you can stock 2 machines completely full and go back every 2 weeks and make a good collection without running the machines completely out and also without having much of an issue with expired products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendifull Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 Thank you Angry Chris. Appreciate your information, very helpful. Going back every 2 weeks would make the account more appealing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 You guys all crack me up. If you're serious about vending in good accounts then drive to them. I ran three routes in the Phoenix metro area and to go from one end of the valley to the other easily takes 1 hour or more without heavy traffic. It's a part of doing business. I placed my warehouse in the center and so no account was further than 45 mins to 1 hour away from the office but that didn't mean I didn't have to cross from far point of the valley to another far point. We did what we had to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendifull Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 I appreciate that information AZ. I asked because I am fairly new to full line and wanted to read opinions of those who have been in business for some time. I wasn't sure if a $500 (gross) account was worth driving 30 minutes to, BUT 1 hr back from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 6 hours ago, AZVendor said: You guys all crack me up. If you're serious about vending in good accounts then drive to them. I ran three routes in the Phoenix metro area and to go from one end of the valley to the other easily takes 1 hour or more without heavy traffic. It's a part of doing business. I placed my warehouse in the center and so no account was further than 45 mins to 1 hour away from the office but that didn't mean I didn't have to cross from far point of the valley to another far point. We did what we had to do. I'll note that when I have 3 routes and a warehouse located in the center of the city lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendcobros Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Our farthest account from the warehouse is about 70 mins away in good traffic (which only happens at 3am). I agree that it can be a hassle to do service calls so far away. For us its more densely populated to head South so we'll take accounts up to 90 min from the warehouse but we will only go 15 min from the warehouse North. This way we can generally avoid driving from one end to the other in a single day. Additionally, the high volume accounts tend to be South for us. I think it depends on your circumstances. If you're a one man show you can't spread yourself too thin. However, turning down large accounts due to distance is typically a bad idea too. You can focus on trying to get smaller accounts around the bigger accounts but beware of losing the big account and being stuck with long drives to small accounts. Each vendor is going to have a different specific reason why they would say yes or no to long drives. You'll really have to review the whole picture to determine your best course of action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendcobros Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 1 hour ago, AngryChris said: I'll note that when I have 3 routes and a warehouse located in the center of the city lol. The devil's advocate in me says you won't get to 3 routes if you're turning down $20,000 accounts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 2 hours ago, vendcobros said: The devil's advocate in me says you won't get to 3 routes if you're turning down $20,000 accounts! You are probably right, but I don't think I want to grow to 3 routes either. I am doing very well as a one-man operation and my decision making in the last 12 months (dropping distant accounts, pulling slow accounts, etc..) has made my bottom line improve drastically. I wouldn't say it's fair to say I'm just turning down $20k accounts though, just this one in particular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlindVending Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 My farthest location is a 1hr40 min drive which sucks. Sucks even more when there is a service call. However it is the backbone of our company and does over 250k annually which doesn't suck lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendifull Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 On 2/10/2018 at 11:03 PM, vendcobros said: Each vendor is going to have a different specific reason why they would say yes or no to long drives. You'll really have to review the whole picture to determine your best course of action. I know it all comes down to me and my willingness to travel. Right now my locations are close and I like that. I was curious to know what the distances are for some on here. I really appreciate your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendifull Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 18 hours ago, BlindVending said: My farthest location is a 1hr40 min drive which sucks. Sucks even more when there is a service call. However it is the backbone of our company and does over 250k annually which doesn't suck lol Very nice! I don't blame you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 I recently had to pass on a large distribution center that wanted a micromarket, but was 2 hours away from me, and over an hour from my next closest account. It was a tough decision, but I knew I could not give it proper attention from so far away. That's a big investment, and poor service could make it all go down the drain. If I were a little bigger operation it would have been more doable, and I would have worked to get more locations around it once it was up and running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitalCityVendingLLC Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 Our best/biggest account is our furthest away from our home base. We didn't go after it but kind of accidentally got it. It is about a 2 hour drive round trip. That is a con but there are a couple of pros. We have 2 brand new snack machines there (about to add a 3rd as they are expanding). We fill them to the max. We have yet to get a service call in almost 2 years because the equipment is brand new so nothing ever gets hung up or jammed. We have CC readers on their so I know exactly when to service them. We wait until each machine hits the $250-300 mark and then we go service them. When I leave our warehouse, I don't get back for 3.5 hours, but I collect close to $600 and the machine is priced right so my margins are good. To us, that is worth it. To other's it might not be. It's different for each vendor. The only advice that I would give is to put nice equipment in your furthest accounts. That's kind of a soft rule that we go by. That will limit/eliminate service calls at those distant accounts. We put or older equipment closer to home so when they act up, we can drive 5 minutes to fix them instead of an hour. If the account isn't big enough to justify nice/new equipment with CC readers, then the account shouldn't be worth your time. $500 a month for your potential account is kind of on the fence for me. I would personally lean towards no. But if you got 3-5 more accounts in that area it would make more sense. Work that area every 2-3 weeks and collect $1000-1500 from all the accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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