Ebooks

[jgoldenmba]

Any great ebooks on the vending trade anyone recommends?

[NorthTXVending]

Many of the members here recommend  My Vending Uncle's ebook "Small Change".    I have recently read it, and agree it contains valuable information regarding the industry.    Also, once you become a Plus member, you will have access to several great ebooks  and vending articles in the vending library section of the forum.    You have definitely found the right place to educate yourself. 

[dogcow]

"small change" was terrible, maybe some people could find it useful but i thought it was absolutely useless. my apologies if the writer reads these forums i hate to single it out but i am shocked anyone can really say it was useful i felt ripped off buying it.

[NorthTXVending]

It is too bad you feel that way dogcow.  IMO this is a very good read for someone with little or no knowledge of the industry.  In order to be successful, it is imperative to avoid mistakes already made by others and documented for our benefit.    I believe there is 100% money back guarantee, if not satisfied.    I took advantage of the copy available on the vending library. 

[dogcow]

It is too bad you feel that way dogcow.  IMO this is a very good read for someone with little or no knowledge of the industry.

It's really not, unfortunately i found its chock full of bad advice and filler/fluff. It's also poorly organized and edited. Yes I am aware there is a free version on this website but I did not find this website before purchasing. I did contact them about a refund, that doesn't change the fact the book stinks and was a waste of money.

Here's an example :

You Never Know

Never pre-judge a location. Nothing is as it seems. We had an experience were we got

asked to take over a large location, 200 people working in a belt factory. We put in 2

coffee machines, a bill changer, 4 microwaves, an 11 selection pop machine, a large snack

machine and a large food machine. All those machines together NEVER combined for a

$200 week. It turned out that the workers were paid low piece work wages. They had

learned to distrust the old vending operator because he had stale product and never refilled

the machines. The coffee machines were constantly running out of sugar, or cups, or

coffee. People were paying 65 cents for a glass of hot water and sugar. These low wage

workers had given up on vending and all brought brown paper bag lunches and snacks

from home. They even had little coffee pots set up between their sewing stations. It was a

disaster.

Another example:

A small metal stamping plant. 30 people total between 2 shifts. One secretary and 3 guys

in the office. A small lunch room. We put in a C-series pop, snack and coffee machine. 4

selections of pop, 9 selections of snacks and coffee, soup or hot chocolate. Two years

later, they had 45 employees. We had a full-size pop machine, full size snack machine,

food machine, bill changer and full size coffee machine. We filled these machines 3 times a

week. Our best week was over $600.00.

Bottom line: Never pre-judge a location.

You'll probably be wrong.

Try it and be flexible.

Question #3

“What Are The BEST Locations?”

Answer:

As I said earlier, if you pre-judge a location, you’ll be wrong.

Simply get ANYlocation.

Then as your business grows you can decide to remove your vending from poor

performing locations, or just keep growing with more locations.

We used this rationalization. We just kept finding locations. When we landed a location

we would look for a “great deal” on equipment to fulfill the needs of that new location. If

we couldn’t find equipment at an acceptable price we would remove the needed

equipment from our worst performing location (that had the type of machines we needed.)

If we could find a deal on equipment we left the poor performing location until next time.

Sometimes dogs do turn into stars. It’s better to have your equipment on ANY location

than it is to have it in your garage.

The only exception to that statement would be locations were the equipment is being

heavily vandalized, or you are being robbed.

Your motto should be: “The BEST location is our NEXT location!”

That's pretty much the sum total of what this book has to say about an important aspect of the industry, locations.

I think everyone understands that nothing is set in stone, some locations look good on paper but really suck. However

they don't even give you a rule of thumb about what kind of revenue a location might do. I certainly don't think anything in

this book would help land a good location, it doesn't discuss making a proposal, pitches or anything.

I can sum up this book in two sentences basically

1. Don't buy from biz-ops ( no @#$%, unless u were sleeping through the 90s most people know this)

2. Try to locate honor boxes first, to see if you are any good at selling vending.

#2 genuinely good advice, but that's pretty much the sum total of anything useful in this book.

They have a second book on locating that is almost as bad as this one but has 1 or 2 useful tidbits, at full price that book would be a rip off too but they charge less for it if you already got suckered by their first book. The editing/organization of the second book is atrocious too, I swear its like they have never read a how-to book before and just wrote it in jack kerouack stream of consciousness type of style.

Now for a better book look at Vending Machine Fundamentals. This is a good book which is well laid out with useful practical information. Is it dry , absolutely, but its well edited and provides good info. However I felt it also sort of fell short in some areas, I don't distinctly remember if it tells you what type of accounts to look for , or how to determine generally revenue but I don't think so. I alsothink it gives some sort of @#$5 advice about buying machines on loction, something about you should pay more for them on location than off.

Anyway my $0.02 on it.

[caserri]

We've got all these ebooks available for free in our library. I wish you found us sooner dogcow, could have saved you some cash!

[WillisNYC]

I agree that Uncle's book isn't pretty or well organized, but it offered some other good advice that you are skipping over.  Uncle recommended 3rd party machines to help you overcome difficulties with capital.  He also gave me personally an example that I could emulate.  He urges you to do self location and that is how I started my business.    For someone who knew NOTHING about vending but is a natural entrepenuer, this book gave me just enough hints to get me going in the right direction!  This book also got me to discover this forum where I was able to learn even more about vending.  So despite its drawbacks, Uncles book is a great start for total newbies who know little to nothing about the business.  The book is kind of like reading my revenue update reports.  They are not well organized and I damn sure did not write them with much 'organization' in mind, but they do provide other guys starting out with information about what it is like to get started in this business and literally build a business from scratch.    So no Uncles book is far from useless, it could just use some better editing and organization. 

[Joey from GA]

So how do I go about becoming a PLUS member?

[AngryChris]

It's really not, unfortunately i found its chock full of bad advice and filler/fluff. It's also poorly organized and edited. Yes I am aware there is a free version on this website but I did not find this website before purchasing. I did contact them about a refund, that doesn't change the fact the book stinks and was a waste of money.

Here's an example :

That's pretty much the sum total of what this book has to say about an important aspect of the industry, locations.

I think everyone understands that nothing is set in stone, some locations look good on paper but really suck. However

they don't even give you a rule of thumb about what kind of revenue a location might do. I certainly don't think anything in

this book would help land a good location, it doesn't discuss making a proposal, pitches or anything.

I can sum up this book in two sentences basically

1. Don't buy from biz-ops ( no @#$%, unless u were sleeping through the 90s most people know this)

2. Try to locate honor boxes first, to see if you are any good at selling vending.

#2 genuinely good advice, but that's pretty much the sum total of anything useful in this book.

They have a second book on locating that is almost as bad as this one but has 1 or 2 useful tidbits, at full price that book would be a rip off too but they charge less for it if you already got suckered by their first book. The editing/organization of the second book is atrocious too, I swear its like they have never read a how-to book before and just wrote it in jack kerouack stream of consciousness type of style.

Now for a better book look at Vending Machine Fundamentals. This is a good book which is well laid out with useful practical information. Is it dry , absolutely, but its well edited and provides good info. However I felt it also sort of fell short in some areas, I don't distinctly remember if it tells you what type of accounts to look for , or how to determine generally revenue but I don't think so. I alsothink it gives some sort of @#$5 advice about buying machines on loction, something about you should pay more for them on location than off.

Anyway my $0.02 on it.

So basically, I should never assume how much an account is going to do and never put equipment in without an estimated revenue in mind because if I do, I will be wrong. Sounds like sound advice .

I have never read that book and don't plan to because I already got my bachelor's degree in vending (worked for a company for several years) with a minor in awesomeness.

It sounds like the guy actually fabricated some of his memories/stories to prove his point... rather than giving real facts.. however, I have seen it myself when an account that looks crappy does AMAZING and an account that looks great is a crap-hole. I have an account right now with 10 people that's doing $60/week with a snack and can machine .

[Dennis23]

I don't buy ebooks but may read some if they are free. There is so much information on the web I try to find places that give info away. You have to be careful either way and use common sense with everything you read.

Most places that give info away have something to sell also but it is your option to buy or not to buy.

Dennis

[RJT]

The real question is...

Is the info you get for free or for fee accurate?

[vendman0729]

RJT I am interested in your ebook. How much does it cost and did you write this yourself? Has anyone ever read RJTs stuff? I would imagine it would be pretty good.

[caserri]

RJT I am interested in your ebook. How much does it cost and did you write this yourself? Has anyone ever read RJTs stuff? I would imagine it would be pretty good.

FWIW, I haven't read it but all I've ever heard were good things about it. Several on here credit their success to RJT and his book.

I spoke to him about it on the phone once and I'm almost positive he said it was 100% his own content.

Sent from my Android using Tapatalk.

[kiwi]

We've got all these ebooks available for free in our library. I wish you found us sooner dogcow, could have saved you some cash!

Hi, how do I access the free library?

[RJT]

RJT I am interested in your ebook. How much does it cost and did you write this yourself? Has anyone ever read RJTs stuff? I would imagine it would be pretty good.

Yes, all content I wrote myself. PM me and I will be glad to get you the info how to purchase.

Thanks,

Robert

BTW: Thanks Caserri for the kind words....