Whats your end goal with your vending business?

[Rick Falcon]

Well said Miz.

Personally I think the number of heads or locations is irrelevant; it's the profit margin and stability that count. 200 heads could be a nightmare if you constantly had to move machines, or some of them were not very profitable, or some locations constantly complained and hassled you about product selection, commission %, etc. Also I can't say this too many times: consider diversifying! Vending is great but you should never keep all of your eggs in one basket. What if something happens that dramatically affects your business? Suppose there is some incident where the plastic they make the caps out of is found to contain lead from China, and for a while people are scared to let their kids buy the toys? Or the price of candy increases too much and it's no longer profitable to sell at 25 cents but people are too stubborn to pay 50 cents? What if a large vending company sweeps in and steals a lot of your spots and jeopardizes your income? Why not take some of that vending income and invest it elsewhere so you have an empire, not just one little vending nation? You could use some of the income to invest in IPOs or local start-up businesses, buy tax liens, save up for down payments on income properties, or the down payments to start other types of businesses, etc etc etc... Just a thought!

[The Mage]

Ultimate goal?  For me I may just be passing through.  I know, blasphemy for many of you, but it could be a decade or more before I would be back out.  Though that could change, as I am enjoying the process, and the future is never certain.

But I am currently building this business at least as a source of additional income, and then once the initial growth phase is over I will be piling any and all income onto my remaining debt.  Then will come another growth phase, and a stockpiling of cash while I then venture into Real Estate.  Once the Real Estate starts taking off, I will then start to phase out vending.

I have taken a slight detour recently, that is cutting into my vending building, but in the long run my hope is that it will make things run even better.

As far as when to quit your job, you may not need to fully quit.  Find out if your job can be reduced to part time, or switch to another job that you can do part time.  I have mentioned it before on these forums, but if you get a job delivering pizza, you can make a decent part time income, with the flexibility to cut down hours.  Now this will depend on how much of an income you are moving from.  After all if you are leaving a $120K a year job, then dropping to delivery driver obviously might not cut it.  But if your making $30K, then driving you could make $15K easily part time, then you would need to match that with Vending income, or less if your willing to take make budget cuts temporarily until the vending grows more, which may be even easier if you left your days free.

What is nice about this option is that as the vending business takes off you can cut down your hours, freeing up more time for vending, without completely dropping a job until completely ready.

[antoniocinisi]

I  plan on working less and vending more short term.my end goal is to have a nice profitable low maintenence  business that will help me live well when I retire.

[lisa vending group]

only my 2cents,but i would review your plan.I have been self employed most of my life,and I am probably the oldest member here.I got into vending by chance and did it to leave behind a income for my wife,not just principal(which eventually disapears.I am in good health,but never know!

I question your plan,only to bring to light your pension etc.this is gold and you need to do nothing more than to keep working to have it.although it might not seem that important right now,there are no variables associated with it.vending will still be there when you retire,but you gave up your pension.you are basing your plan on a perfect world (good health etc.)

all i am saying is weight the trade off carefully.pension/health insurance all in place.what is the value of that?

possible option....keep working....expand vending to the point you need help,and give up that cost to your employee.I dont have all your info,nor do I want it,but see if this is something that could work for you and your family.good luck with your decision  ron

[dperry]

What if something happens that dramatically affects your business? Suppose there is some incident where the plastic they make the caps out of is found to contain lead from China, and for a while people are scared to let their kids buy the toys? Or the price of candy increases too much and it's no longer profitable to sell at 25 cents but people are too stubborn to pay 50 cents? What if a large vending company sweeps in and steals a lot of your spots and jeopardizes your income?

Or what if you get into an accident on your route and get laid up and can't work for months or more?

[The Mage]

Insurance.  One of the many details that needs to be addressed.  But there are cheap ways to go about getting insurance, and you should always be prepared just in case something happens.

As far as health insurance.  Many people dislike this option, but it is a really good option when you understand it.  Catastrophic care.  You cover your basic medical care yourself, and the insurance only kicks in at $5K - $10K.  Last I knew this type of insurance is about a fifth of what a regular policy is.  A lot of people have a problem with the large deductible, but the same people wouldn't bat an eye at spending $20K to $30K for a car.

I do believe there are private buying groups that help people or small businesses purchase insurance at more affordable rates.  Since the group works together they can get the discounts that the big companies get.  (I have to admit I haven't done any research into these groups.)

There is also the option of being on a spouse's insurance. 

But this is all the technical aspects that must be thought through, and there are hundreds we are not discussing.

You want to minimize risks, but life is not without risk.  There is no way to prepare for every contingency, and trying will result in that old paralysis by analysis.  Something I have been very prone to myself, and what has resulted in years of doing nothing because I couldn't prepare for everything.

But while you are in the planning stages, make a list of everything you think you will need to do before you leave your job.  Then decide what on that list is extremely important, and what really isn't that important.  Over time you will add and subtract from that list, and the list can be organized into a leave work plan.

i still like the idea of moving to a part time job, because it is not a direct jump into business.  Instead you are taking more managed steps into that direction.  (Sorry I typed this out fast.)

[dperry]

Of course you will want to have insurance.

But, what if you can't work?  what happens to your business?  What if you are laid-up for 4-6 months or more?  Without constant attention, your business will start to fade away.  Locations will put your machines in the back because they aren't being attended to.  New competitors will come in and take your spots.  Your machines will get stolen.  You'll lose locations.

I guess what I'm saying is that it might also be a good idea to work out some sort of partnership with somebody else to help when you are not able to run the routes.  It might be a good idea to start including your children into the business.  Maybe you need to start hiring help.

All things to consider.

[antoniocinisi]

only my 2cents,but i would review your plan.I have been self employed most of my life,and I am probably the oldest member here.I got into vending by chance and did it to leave behind a income for my wife,not just principal(which eventually disapears.I am in good health,but never know!

I question your plan,only to bring to light your pension etc.this is gold and you need to do nothing more than to keep working to have it.although it might not seem that important right now,there are no variables associated with it.vending will still be there when you retire,but you gave up your pension.you are basing your plan on a perfect world (good health etc.)

all i am saying is weight the trade off carefully.pension/health insurance all in place.what is the value of that?

possible option....keep working....expand vending to the point you need help,and give up that cost to your employee.I dont have all your info,nor do I want it,but see if this is something that could work for you and your family.good luck with your decision  ron

first as you noticed ity is a vague plan.as I said the route will HELP me live well it wont be my only source of income when I retire.my wife knows my route better then me since we service together,and just this week found us a new location.my wife is very much involved with the vending so unless we die together in a car accident or something the route should be ok.even my brother knows where the important locations of mine are.

[lurtsman]

I guess thats a plus to only making 33,000 at current job, it wont take me as long to replace that income.  

Quoted for truth. The benefit to never getting paid in accordance with my production was that it made the switch to my own business far more lucrative. When the Director goes home, and I'm assigned to redo their work that is a problem. When they are paid more than 4 times as much, and get less than half as much done per hour, that's a waste of money. That was when I knew I had to build my own business and get paid in accordance with what I produced. When I quit that job citing that I didn't have time for it they asked if I was quitting my business also. I told them it paid far more, and it was that pay and ability to earn at that rate that made my time too valuable to work there any more.

[The Mage]

Of course you will want to have insurance.

But, what if you can't work?  what happens to your business?  What if you are laid-up for 4-6 months or more?  Without constant attention, your business will start to fade away.  Locations will put your machines in the back because they aren't being attended to.  New competitors will come in and take your spots.  Your machines will get stolen.  You'll lose locations.

I guess what I'm saying is that it might also be a good idea to work out some sort of partnership with somebody else to help when you are not able to run the routes.  It might be a good idea to start including your children into the business.  Maybe you need to start hiring help.

All things to consider.

This is one of the reasons I am focused on creating a passive income.  But 9 times out of 10 if your going to be laid up for a long time, it will be short enough that it may not hurt a bulk route very much.  But there is that one time out of 10.

My wife has done my route with me, and while she would fumble with it, and take longer then I do because she is not as familiar with it, I know she could do it.  I might have 1 or 2 more relatives who might step up too.

If you have a back up person, and maintain records, you can have a plan in place where another person can take it over, but with modifications.  If it looks like you will be out for a significant time, have the person pull any machine that is performing under a certain amount.  This may be an amount that you would not willing to pull a machine yourself, but just to make it easier on your backup, so you have the most efficient and profitable route possible.  Maybe extend the service time, and split all routes in half.

Or keep an eye on a young relative that you could hire to come on if something like this happens.  They quit flipping burgers, you get to recover.

Problem is there are things that could happen that put you out permanently.

But if anything happens, be more worried about yourself then your route.  Get the insurance to cover yourself until you have built up enough resources that you don't need to work.  But temporary set backs do occur unfortunately.  You may need to go back to work, may lose part or all of your route, but ultimately you need to live.  If you built up a route once, you have learned enough to do it again in half the time.

No matter what life will slap you around.  it doesn't hurt to prepare for it, but don't live your life worrying about it.

[sbishop]

world domination

forget World Domination...I want to be a billionaire...Soo freaking bad!!

[The Mage]

forget World Domination...I want to be a billionaire...Soo freaking bad!!

Amateurs.

I am bypassing Trillionaire, and going for Quadrillionaire. 

And beyond Galactic domination, as well as Universal domination, but Multi-verse domination.

If your gonna think big, Think Freakn' BIG.

[The Mage]

I wanna be a girls college volletball coach.

I wanna be a girls (ehem, I mean Women's) Volleyball bench.

(Sorry, I think we are taking this thread downhill.)

[antoniocinisi]

I wanna be a girls (ehem, I mean Women's) Volleyball bench.

(Sorry, I think we are taking this thread downhill.)

if you guys were going down hill I`m gonna come tumbling down to by saying I would rather be a womens bicycle seat,preferable a womens rental bike seat.

[mainor5251]

only my 2cents,but i would review your plan.I have been self employed most of my life,and I am probably the oldest member here.I got into vending by chance and did it to leave behind a income for my wife,not just principal(which eventually disapears.I am in good health,but never know!

I question your plan,only to bring to light your pension etc.this is gold and you need to do nothing more than to keep working to have it.although it might not seem that important right now,there are no variables associated with it.vending will still be there when you retire,but you gave up your pension.you are basing your plan on a perfect world (good health etc.)

all i am saying is weight the trade off carefully.pension/health insurance all in place.what is the value of that?

possible option....keep working....expand vending to the point you need help,and give up that cost to your employee.I dont have all your info,nor do I want it,but see if this is something that could work for you and your family.good luck with your decision  ron

Not sure if you were referring to me or antonio.  But here is the reasoning behind my thinking.  I work for the state of Florida  at a prison as a correctional officer.  Not a bad job and it does have good benefits but I love vending and being self employed.  Unless I'm willing to move around to different regions I can only go so high at the prison, where there is much more potential in vending.  So, i can play it safe and do vending on the side and stick to my regular job for the next 20 years or put my destiny in my own hands and make a real go at vending and being self employed.  I think doing what you enjoy everyday is worth alot.  I will only quit my current job if I have reached a certain level of success, and vending is only the first step to my long term goals, would also like to venture into a few other things.