jessica Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 (edited) Hi. I know it's a long shot, but I'm putting it out there... I am a single parent trying to give my young son the safest and best life I can. It's 2022 and the cost of living in Miami, like many places, is out of control. I am looking for a seasoned and successful business owner in the Miami beverage and snack machine industry to help me get started. I do not want money or physical help, just your shared wisdom and insight. I will not need a lot of your time. Perhaps 30 minutes or so a few times a month. I have taught myself a lot over the last few months by reading and watching everything I can online, but there is nothing like hands-on experience. Please let me know if you are interested and willing. I am looking to get started asap. Thank you. Edited December 18, 2022 by jessica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCandyMaN Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 9 hours ago, jessica said: Hi. I know it's a long shot, but I'm putting it out there... I am a single parent trying to give my young son the safest and best life I can. It's 2022 and the cost of living in Miami, like many places, is out of control. I am looking for a seasoned and successful business owner in the Miami beverage and snack machine industry to help me get started. I do not want money or physical help, just your shared wisdom and insight. I will not need a lot of your time. Perhaps 30 minutes or so a few times a month. I have taught myself a lot over the last few months by reading and watching everything I can online, but there is nothing like hands-on experience. Please let me know if you are interested and willing. I am looking to get started asap. Thank you. You cannot learn everything online and not in 30 minutes, here's an example... You get to your machine, it's not cooling, what do you do, what do you check for? Now explain to me the owner of the shop why your machine is not working... This goes out to everyone... And begin.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Vending Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 While I can commend you for wanting to start a vending business, it will take years to start turning a profit and start paying yourself. You will start by buying expensive pieces of equipment, parts for each equipment, 60-150 in coins for each machine and inventory for each piece of equipment. Only to make a few bucks a week per machine. Every stop will be different. 20 bucks here, 78 there, negative 50 bucks over there(kidding). Meanwhile your asking yourself how this is going to pay for equipment. That won’t be how you supplement your income. I would recommend learning general business principals first, come up with a business plan, read it to yourself everyday until you can recite it from memory and stick to it. You’ll need clear and precise goals and aim for those. Get your credit above 750, start an LLC and you’ll be able to get 0% credit cards. No one will lend with favorable conditions to your company until you’ve been in business for at least 2 years. And when I say lend to your company I mean LLC, C or S corp. and not a dba. You can get equipment loans but no real money until you are doing 10k a month in sales…. Now you start putting vending machines out there and like the candy man said, what do you do when something happens to a machine? You had better be a problem solver. Read and learn as much as you can first, I would recommend Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Forget the facetube and tiktak videos of people making fortunes with vending, while it’s possible, without huge sums of money behind you, it will be a slow process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessica Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 2 hours ago, Gizmo Vending said: While I can commend you for wanting to start a vending business, it will take years to start turning a profit and start paying yourself. You will start by buying expensive pieces of equipment, parts for each equipment, 60-150 in coins for each machine and inventory for each piece of equipment. Only to make a few bucks a week per machine. Every stop will be different. 20 bucks here, 78 there, negative 50 bucks over there(kidding). Meanwhile your asking yourself how this is going to pay for equipment. That won’t be how you supplement your income. I would recommend learning general business principals first, come up with a business plan, read it to yourself everyday until you can recite it from memory and stick to it. You’ll need clear and precise goals and aim for those. Get your credit above 750, start an LLC and you’ll be able to get 0% credit cards. No one will lend with favorable conditions to your company until you’ve been in business for at least 2 years. And when I say lend to your company I mean LLC, C or S corp. and not a dba. You can get equipment loans but no real money until you are doing 10k a month in sales…. Now you start putting vending machines out there and like the candy man said, what do you do when something happens to a machine? You had better be a problem solver. Read and learn as much as you can first, I would recommend Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Forget the facetube and tiktak videos of people making fortunes with vending, while it’s possible, without huge sums of money behind you, it will be a slow process. Thank you for your suggestions and shared support. I've already read the book twice, created an LLC, learned basic business principals when I earned an mba 20 yrs ago and have a small amount of $ set aside. I don't want or need a business loan, but have opened a business bank account. I have been in a trouble-shooting position at my job for the last 18 years. It's a stable job that I will keep. I'm looking for vending as a 2nd income source, though if you all say don't bother, I am definitely listening to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Vending Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 No one has yet to say don’t bother…we’re just giving some what ifs. Most people will never see their dreams or goals come to pass because they simply did not try and take the 1st step. This is America and you have every right to start whatever business you want. Your job, is it during the day or at night? If it is in the day when will you be able to service machines? What is the purpose of starting an LLC if you are going to use your own money? Commingling is a term authorities and the IRS uses to describe a business that is mixing business and personal funds. Use your personal credit cards to buy equipment or inventory then run over Mrs. Jones in her smart car with your giant warehouse on wheels box truck, guess what, LLC can be revoked and your and all your stuff is fair game. Back to your original question of finding a mentor, I hope you can find someone but honestly who does anything for free? Perhaps offer a couple hours a week doing some accounting stuff for a company mentoring you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 9 minutes ago, Gizmo Vending said: No one has yet to say don’t bother…we’re just giving some what ifs. Most people will never see their dreams or goals come to pass because they simply did not try and take the 1st step. This is America and you have every right to start whatever business you want. Your job, is it during the day or at night? If it is in the day when will you be able to service machines? What is the purpose of starting an LLC if you are going to use your own money? Commingling is a term authorities and the IRS uses to describe a business that is mixing business and personal funds. Use your personal credit cards to buy equipment or inventory then run over Mrs. Jones in her smart car with your giant warehouse on wheels box truck, guess what, LLC can be revoked and your and all your stuff is fair game. Back to your original question of finding a mentor, I hope you can find someone but honestly who does anything for free? Perhaps offer a couple hours a week doing some accounting stuff for a company mentoring you. Gizmo, I have to say that you sound a bit doom and gloom on the LLC but. You simply setup an agreement between you and your LLC. The agreement states that you (investor) is loaning money to the LLC. Setup an interest rate and viola, no more commingling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessica Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 1 hour ago, AngryChris said: Gizmo, I have to say that you sound a bit doom and gloom on the LLC but. You simply setup an agreement between you and your LLC. The agreement states that you (investor) is loaning money to the LLC. Setup an interest rate and viola, no more commingling. Thank you very much! I appreciate the helpful advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 A vending business won't be a side income for many months or years, depending on how fast you grow the business. It takes 20 paid-for machines or more to truly get to a point where you might be able to say you are making money. This is totally dependent on how good your locations are. The problem is that unless you are investing a lot of cash that you don't wish to be paid back for then you will be investing every dollar of profit in your next machine all the way down the line. While you add machines you also add expenses and that is why it takes a looooong time to get to a profitable position. People think that because this is a cash business that they will be pocketing cash to spend as they wish. The opposite is true. This is an investment heavy business and very labor intensive. There is no free lunch and the rule of "you have to spend money to make money" was never more true than in vending. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessica Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 13 minutes ago, AZVendor said: A vending business won't be a side income for many months or years, depending on how fast you grow the business. It takes 20 paid-for machines or more to truly get to a point where you might be able to say you are making money. This is totally dependent on how good your locations are. The problem is that unless you are investing a lot of cash that you don't wish to be paid back for then you will be investing every dollar of profit in your next machine all the way down the line. While you add machines you also add expenses and that is why it takes a looooong time to get to a profitable position. People think that because this is a cash business that they will be pocketing cash to spend as they wish. The opposite is true. This is an investment heavy business and very labor intensive. There is no free lunch and the rule of "you have to spend money to make money" was never more true than in vending. Thank you very much AZVendor. Everyone's feedback has been constructive and helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 You also want to start with just basic soda machines until you have a better understanding of the ins and outs of the business. Don't do any snack machines until you can place 5 or 6 of them so you can manage your stales and don't do any combo machines as they are not profitable due to the high service intervals. Don't buy any machine until you ask about it here so that you don't waste money on old or imported junk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tblake05 Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 9 hours ago, AZVendor said: A vending business won't be a side income for many months or years, depending on how fast you grow the business. It takes 20 paid-for machines or more to truly get to a point where you might be able to say you are making money. This is totally dependent on how good your locations are. The problem is that unless you are investing a lot of cash that you don't wish to be paid back for then you will be investing every dollar of profit in your next machine all the way down the line. While you add machines you also add expenses and that is why it takes a looooong time to get to a profitable position. People think that because this is a cash business that they will be pocketing cash to spend as they wish. The opposite is true. This is an investment heavy business and very labor intensive. There is no free lunch and the rule of "you have to spend money to make money" was never more true than in vending. Truer words have never been spoken. Thanks AZ for the words of encouragement. I have to keep telling myself that everyday. When I bust my @$$ and question if all the work is really worth it. Luckily for me (us, my wife and I) another few months and our initial investment of 9 machines and all our added ones along the way (24 total) will be 100% paid for. Then like you say I can buy more. Pay them off and more... I hate when I read a forum or watch a YouTube from some idiot saying something like owning vending machines is “passive income”. Ya cause I spend no time at all with any of my machines. Truth of the matter is, I bet between my wife and I, buying product, restocking, commuting, repairing, and bookwork, that we spend at least 4 hours a day combined at least, probably 7 days a week.... part time, and haven’t paid ourselves anything in 3.5 years and only reinvested in new machines for new locations. independent vending, is more work than most people think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Yeah, fortunately I went all in on vending when I was still in my 20s. My operation supports 100% of my household and I'm still trying to grow. It has its perks but I went through some rough times to get here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 I began in 1985 with 5 soda machines, back when Choice Vend was what you bought used, and then I hooked up with Pepsi and placed 10 more within a year. It still wasn't enough to produce a livable profit so I continued my full time job. As I began adding snack machines it wasn't until I had enough machines to provide PT income and one account that had to be serviced twice a week that I moved to part time work. Then, within a year or two I had enough machines out that the part time job was detracting from my business and I went full time in vending, still only hoping to have enough, with my wife's retail job, to pay all the bills. Luckily the cost of living wasn't what it is now and I was able to afford a small warehouse to rent. By 1990 I was paying myself $500 per week and into the mid 90's it was all massive growth of 25 or more machines per year. But that was a different time and there is no way to do that any longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABCVending Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 10 hours ago, AZVendor said: But that was a different time and there is no way to do that any longer Yeah - I think that sums up everything to know about full line vending at this moment in time. Have a nephew wanted to try vending as a side-hustle - set him up with a string of beverage machines in tire/auto shops that are grinder type accounts, 5 locations gross for the whole group $750ish/mo. - told him he could add/move machines all he wanted had to pay me 10% of the gross and could cash out anytime if he wanted the whole thing for $2500 (family deal - old machines) Kid hacked away at it for a couple of years, added 1 location, lost another - never really put together enough $$ to really push through. He cried uncle and I sold off the route to some rando off Craigslist. He worked hard at it, got free jump start with locations/equipment and still never really found a way to make $ - at least enough relative to time/effort put in. Not for everyone. Note: same kid now has a string of 100+ bulk heads and says that is working for him, not making huge $$ but low stress, cheap operating costs are good for him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Since you have an MBA you know that startup businesses take time to become profitable, so that means you are in it for the long haul. I started by buying a small (very bad) route with about 2 good accounts, and I overpaid for it. But I worked thru, got rid of the junk locations and built up the good stuff, adding as I could. When I was still home based (low overhead) I was making a profit after about 3 years, and only working it part time. Circumstances made me move the operation to a small commercial unit (paying rent and utilities, etc) and had to step up my game to cover overhead. Got tough to handle it all myself and had to start hiring help (more overhead). Took a few more years to get back into real profit. The moral of that story is decide what you want from the business, if you stay home based/ part time focus on getting and keeping the best accounts you can get into, limiting your size. If you want this to grow into a full time business supporting yourself, you can either start with a lot of capital or a lot of time to get there. It's not a bad business but getting into the good accounts takes time and experience. Best of luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkinthepark Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 18 hours ago, AZVendor said: I began in 1985 with 5 soda machines, back when Choice Vend was what you bought used, and then I hooked up with Pepsi and placed 10 more within a year. It still wasn't enough to produce a livable profit so I continued my full time job. As I began adding snack machines it wasn't until I had enough machines to provide PT income and one account that had to be serviced twice a week that I moved to part time work. Then, within a year or two I had enough machines out that the part time job was detracting from my business and I went full time in vending, still only hoping to have enough, with my wife's retail job, to pay all the bills. Luckily the cost of living wasn't what it is now and I was able to afford a small warehouse to rent. By 1990 I was paying myself $500 per week and into the mid 90's it was all massive growth of 25 or more machines per year. But that was a different time and there is no way to do that any longer. So what was your full-time job before getting into vending AZ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessica Posted December 21, 2022 Author Share Posted December 21, 2022 Everyone, I just want to reiterate how appreciative I am of all your insight. You've pissed me off, patronized and insulted me, but that's ok. I'm learning and it's part of the game. I'm only looking to have 5-10 machines but want to 'try' to avoid as many pitfalls as possible. You guys have been generous with your feedback, and again, thank you for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 2 hours ago, darkinthepark said: So what was your full-time job before getting into vending AZ? Retail manager at Mervyn's dept store. I'm not sure you ever had any up there but they were in the west, Texas, and Minnesota. I did take retail merchandising and employee management with me to vending. The truck should always look as good as the machine (backstock should look as good as the floor). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkinthepark Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 2 hours ago, AZVendor said: Retail manager at Mervyn's dept store. I'm not sure you ever had any up there but they were in the west, Texas, and Minnesota. I did take retail merchandising and employee management with me to vending. The truck should always look as good as the machine (backstock should look as good as the floor). We never had any Mervyn's around here. I guess Walmart put them out of business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 Actually it wasn't Walmart. They were owned by Dayton Hudson years ago before they renamed themselves Target Corp. Then they were spun off to venture capitol companies that pillaged the real estate, charged the chain outrageous rent and ran them into the ground before bankrupting them to skim the last cash from it. A typical death for a retail company which the feds have never done anything about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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