Dream Income
Have you ever thought how nice it would be to be able to leave your job and simply walk out the door? Who hasn't had this dream right? I'd be willing to bet that almost everyone has had this dream at some point in their working career. Owning a small business is a great way to be your own boss, but not everyone had the financial means to make this dream come true. Is money keeping you from realizing your dreams? Would you be interested in a business that required very little startup capital, could be home based and requires no experience or special skills? I thought you might be!
So, without further adieu, let me reveal the business that may get you on the road to self employment - vending. A lot of people won't consider vending because it's not a "traditional" business. I find that some people are work snobs, although they don't call themselves that, they won't consider vending because they view it as beneath them. It's true that vending isn't exactly sexy, but if you're just looking to start up a business and get out of a job you hate, then maybe it's something to consider. The product costs are only about 10%-20% of the sale price, so the markup is good, but in order to make any kind of real money, you'll need to move a lot of gumballs. With enough machines, it's possible to make a full time income.
How Many Vending Machines Are Needed To Make A Living?
With enough machines, it's possible to make a full time income. So, exactly how many machines will it take to make a decent full time income? How about 400 or more machines. Now, this may sound like a crazy amount of machines, but stay with me while I run down some number for you. The national average for vending machines is about $7 a head, so a double head machine makes about $14 a month. Once you take out product costs, this is about $11 or $12 per machine per month. Using the $11 number, this means that 400 machines will make a profit of $4,400 a month. While this isn't a ton of money, unless you're living in NYC, this is a living wage. But wait, there's more. The best thing about vending is that the machines require very little effort to service, consider that they make money for while just sitting on location. To maintain our fictional route of 400 machines will take about 150 hours every two months or only 75 hours a month. This is based on my own experience servicing my own route. I'm assuming that you service 3-4 locations an hour and have your locations on a 60 day cycle, plus I add in another 50 hours for extras like locating, banking, coin counting, buying candy and all the extra little business tasks that add up. So, working only 75 hours a month can make you $4,400 a month. Maybe you want to work full time and make $8,800 a month, or maybe you just want to make a few extra hundred a month and spend more time with your family. This is the true beauty of vending, it works for all scenarios.
Is Vending Right For You?
Maybe after seeing my figures you're ready to jump right in. Well this is all fine and dandy and I recommend that you do, but you also need to be prepared for the fact that vending is a lot of hard work. Especially in the early stages. Although the vending machines are fairly inexpensive, it you're starting with very money, you'll only be able to expand slowly, this means that you won't be able to make a living until you're already in 2-4 years because you'll be reinvesting all your profits. Plus, good locations are hard to find. Not all locations will perform, so in the early stages of building a route you'll be moving machines constantly, but even once your route is established, you'll need to relocate 5% of your locations every year. Although most people are in love with the idea of small business ownership, the sad reality is that most people aren't willing to put in the effort to be successful, but for those that are willing to work hard and invest in their future, vending may just be the answer.