Learning About the Vending Business
I always advise people looking to get started in vending just to buy a couple of cheap used vending machines off of Craig’s List, place them themselves and wait about 3 months. You can do all the reading and studying you want, but nothing beats hands on practice. And seriously, the most you’ll be out is less than $500 to conduct this little experiment. It’s a pretty cheap education! We American’s like to analyze and study stuff to death. Whatever you do, don’t buy into one of the many biz ops you see online or spend too much money when you’re just starting out.
Like most business start ups, vending has a pretty high failure rate. This isn’t because vending is a rip off or a bad business, it’s just because it’s a business like any other and people don’t know what to expect. Way too many people think that vending will be easy or effortless. Well, it is easy, but it is not effortless. A great deal of effort will be required to build a route up to the point that it will finally seem like it is worth the effort. Each vending machine only makes about $7 per head so you will need a lot of machines to make any sort of decent profit. Until this point, it will seem like a lot of work without a lot results.
Once you’ve bought and placed your used vending machines you can see exactly for yourself what is required to be successful. You’ll see exactly how much money your machines will make and how much work it takes to service your route. Until you do this, it is all theory. So, by all means do your research and studying but don’t let paralysis by analysis take you over. You may actually find out that vending isn’t for you. Or perhaps it is exactly what you hoped for and can’t wait to get more. Either way, get out there and vend!
