Starting a vending machine businesses can be an attractive proposition.
They can generate good income and also at the same time allow you a degree of freedom over the hours you work. Though like many other forms of self-employment, it can be hard to get them going and become profitable!
A Vending Machine Business Opportunity
Just in case you’re not sure what this is, it’s basically the stocking and maintenance of those vending machines that you see in bars, restaurants, hotels, clubs and other public places.
These can offer drinks, candies, snacks, socks, ties, panty hose, toothbrushes and just about anything else that people may need quickly when they’re out-and-about.
What work is actually involved may vary depending upon the nature of the business itself. It may include some or all of the following:
- Servicing of the vending machines;
- The delivery and installation of the machines;
- Keeping them stocked with product;
- Customer liaison;
- Sales area development and expansion (i.e. finding new locations);
- The training and management of other staff.
How To Get Started With Vending Machines
There are usually three main options.
1. Do it all yourself.
In theory, you could go to a dispensing machine manufacturer, buy some machines, fill them up with a product and then go around trying to get people to install your machines on their premises.
This may be tricky though. For a start, the dynamics are likely to be against you. You won’t find too many locations that are entirely free of vending machines and trying to compete with other larger concerns that have more machines, more staff, better insurance and a more experienced business proposition, may be a real obstacle to overcome.
You may also find that the economics are problematic. For a start, the margins are likely to be small. You may be unable to obtain the discounts available to your larger established competitors through ‘bulk buying’ with the machine manufacturers or the suppliers of your consumables – this may erode your margins to a perhaps unsustainable level.
Even so, it is possible and with the right research, adequate capital and a determination to work hard, you may make it.
2. Take A Vending Machine Franchise
This is perhaps the most common route and there are many opportunities for vending machine franchises.
The advantages are clear. You’ll probably get the machines provided together with technical support. You should be able to get your stock at volume discount levels and you may also get a pre-set territory with a developed customer base just ripe for you to develop and expand.
3. Work For A Vending Machine Franchise
This is where you work as an employee of an existing franchised business so as to ‘learn the ropes’. The hours are likely to be long and the rewards very probably low, but it might be seen as an investment in terms of getting ready to launch your own franchise in due course.
What You’ll Need
If you’re working for someone else, you won’t need much apart from determination and perhaps your own transport.
If you are really starting your own franchise or an independent business then you’ll need all the usual things including some potentially chunky amounts of capital – though obviously less so for the franchise.
You will probably need to be mobile and depending upon the size of your territory, you may have to accept some nights away from home. You may also need a degree of mechanical aptitude, as some franchises will include machine servicing in their requirements.
It would also be advantageous if you had good sales and inter-personal skills because many such businesses have a high-degree of on-selling requirements.
Vending Machine Franchises – Be Careful!
As a final comment, remember to be cautious about buying a franchise. Sadly, it’s not unknown for some to exist solely and exclusively for the purpose of ripping off purchasers.
There’s no easy sure-fire way to guard against this. You’ll need to use commonsense and be healthily sceptical about what you’re being told.
A few tips worth thinking about:
- Look up the franchise on the Internet to see what you can find and what the gossip is;
- Demand several references from existing satisfied franchise owners – also do some research to find your own and don’t just use a few ‘tame stooges’ that the franchise owner has wheeled out to reassure you;
- Don’t assume you’ll get an existing established customer base just because you’re told you will. Ask for names and details then check them over the ‘phone – unless you want your garage full of un-installable machines!
- Think about insurance and liability and be clear with whom it responsibility sits. If a member of the public gets their hand mashed up in one of ‘your’ machines – just who is going to step up to take responsibility when the lawyers come crawling out of the woodwork with their multi-million dollar claims?
- Vending machine businesses can be fun and lucrative but do your homework first and avoid diving-in headfirst!
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