Let's talk on problems with financing

[Fowk]

Hi to all!

Folks, I am from technological company and we develop financial solutions. I am working on improving the way vending entrepreneurs get funded. My project is profit sharing between entrepreneur and investors in vending business. I need to do some research first to identify the problems with financing. Please, feel free to share your experience on how you raised funds to start vending.

Thanks!)

[AZVendor]

It's usually called savings (available cash that isn't really in a bank) or credit cards.  "Profit sharing between vendors and investors"?  That's called interest.  But in reality, unless some scamming blue sky company trying to sell healthy vending is willing to finance each new sucker there are no investors that fund new vendors.  You need to realize that 99% of new vendors start small (teeny tiny) with no idea of a business plan or even what they are doing.  No investor will touch that.

[VAVending]

I think the idea is that most vending operators that succeed and stick with it aren’t looking for someone to finance them. They start with anywhere from $200-$2000 and grow from there.

They are the kind of person who want to be their own boss and therefore likely wouldn’t want to have an investor looking over their shoulder when they could just start with a small amount of cash and be in the clear.

Those who want to go big right away either fall for the inevitable biz-op (what we call all the people who ask huge sums of money for subpar equipment and service), or wind up finding they don’t have the experience and can’t keep up. They wind up selling their equipment on Craigslist for the small starting guy to pick up.

I’ve been around a very short time and have already seen dozens and dozens of would be vendors fail, give up or just not like the business. If I were an investor, vending is a market I wouldn’t touch.

The exceptions to the rule wouldn’t be worth the risk.

The only circumstance where I could see this working out is if someone with decades of successful vending experience had sold his business, moved across the country and wanted capital to start where he left off in his new location.

Just some things to ponder for your project.

Benjamin