How big can you grow with only using locators?

[Jax Snacks]

The other factor is whether you are doing charity or commission.

95% of my charity locations were from locators.

95% of my commission location were done by me or were purchased from another vendor.

Also, If you do the charity locating yourself, you will need to develop a charity pitch that you are comfortable with and does not misrepresent things.

[Agapevending]

I have  tried Locating my self and  didn't do very well.  I even read the books from the pros.  contracting out  works better for me.

Besides you can write it off on Taxes too.

I'll just stick with Eddie he has done a great job

[will.vend]

If you want to grow a business, you cannot do everything yourself. You must delegate some tasks.  That is why most businesses hire employees.  Money will come and money will go, but even the poor person has the same amount of time in a day as the rich person.  Do you want to spend your time doing something that you can pay others to do?  From a business perspective, it is much more economical to pay somebody to do the work that they are trained to do, while you do the things that keep your business running.

I don't entirely agree that this concept fits locating vending machines, I do agree with this philosophy in many ways but it doesn't apply to locating IMO.

There are a couple of things to take in consideration here:

are you full time or part time?

Locator's fit the business model of part timers alot better than full time vendors... I have stated this in another thread somewhere in TVF world.

briefly, part timers have a full time job and with the help of a locator simply place the machine when called. Full timers are always out and about on their routes and know the lay of the land better than any locator could possibly know.

Now to my point: if I delegate locating to a locator I have to trust he/she is going to get a valuable spot. If the location is a dud, I have to go and pull the machine and relocate it either myself or back to the locator. (double work)

While working my routes I will watch or call on a location several times, sometimes I'm just getting a feel for if I even want to place machines there. This research cost me practically nothing because I am already in the area.

Now going with dperry’s concept I would rather delegate things in my business such as inventory control, cleaning and  repairing machines and other essential warehouse type functions, days that I spend in my shop net me no collections for that day.

I will always work my routes either by myself or with someone tagging along, there are to many ways to steal the collections and I don't want to deal with that. And yes I would trust a relative or spouse but that's not what were talking about.

I'm not trying to be disagreeable with anyone that has posted to this thread, these are my thoughts and opinions only!

[The Mage]

My goal with business is to move to an optimum business model.  My definition of that is delegating everything.

When a business is set up, the goal is to get it to a point where you work there because you want to, not because you have to.  If you decide to spend a couple of months in Maui, then come back, everything is still working fine.

I do have to admit this philosophy fits full line better then bulk, and for most businessmen the idea would to be to contract out the work first, and the sales (locating) last.  But some people just are not salesmen, and if they had to live on sales, or locating, could never do it.  While at the same time there are people who love locating, but not the grunt work.  They would despise the idea of filling, emptying, cleaning, and fixing vending machines.

Get 2 people who specialize in each of these areas, and you have a powerful business.