Vending Machine Business

Starting a vending machine business can be a great option if you do not have a ton of money to invest but are willing to put in the work to grow something that over time will reward you with amazing passive income. In this section we will go over how you can get vending machines for as little as no money down, how you can find businesses to put your vending machines in, and how to split profits with the business owners.

First you will want to find a business location to place a vending machine before even buying one. This is very important because it allows you to jump into this business before you have even made a financial investment. Start by writing down all the laundromats, local gyms, apartments, office spaces, manufacturing and distribution centers, nursing homes, car dealerships, mechanic shops, hotels, and bars in your area along with their addresses and phone numbers. You can get to work by cold calling these businesses and going in and asking if they currently have a vending machine company they are working with. Going into these businesses in person can be much more effective because people will tend to waste less of your time in person. When going into these businesses wear a company shirt for your vending machine business that you can have made from a local shirt printing business as well as some business cards to show you are a professional in this business.

Once you ask them if they have a vending machine company they are working with, they will either tell you they do or they don’t of course. If they already do have a company they are working with, ask them what percent the owner of their machine is paying them each month. A lot of times they aren’t getting any cut, in which case you can act surprised and disgusted by this and offer a small percentage like 10% of the profit. If they do get a cut, then offer them a higher rate by 2% or so. Be sure to let them know that you will also handle the cancelling of their current vending machine agreement so that they do not have a chance to renegotiate with the owner. Get the number from the owner and call them to come pick up their machine so that you can move yours in. Another way you can convince an owner to switch to your service is to check the current vending machine they have has a card reader on it and if it does not, then point out all the money they are losing by not having one like yours does.

If a business owner does not currently have a vending machine company they work with, tell them you will have one delivered to their property free of charge that will allow their customers to stay happy and full. The goal is to give get companies to let you keep your machine there for free if possible. If an owner does want a cut, then be sure to start with a small percentage of revenue like 5% but typically you should be okay with paying owners anywhere from 0-25% of your revenue. Cold calling and going into businesses should be your main source of marketing for this industry and can get you plenty of clients quickly if you do it a little every day and continue expanding your search radius.

Another way you can find business owners to host your machines is by looking at public records for new businesses being started in your area that have physical locations. The reason why this can be very valuable is because new businesses will probably not already have a vending machine company in mind, and you can be the first one to talk to them about this opportunity. You can get the name of new businesses as well as contact info in some cases by searching for your state’s business records service. You can also use a skip tracing service like beenverified.com to find contact info for the new business owners if it is not listed. Call on all the new businesses that you think could use a vending machine and go through the same process we went over before by starting out trying to place your machine for free.

You should also be checking on Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, and Offerup for used vending machines and messaging these sellers about buying a machine along with a location or ask if they have a list of locations they are willing to sell. A lot of the people that are selling machines on these platforms have been in the game for a while and are ready to retire. If you can build a good rapport with some of the people on here selling vending machines, you would be amazed at how many locations you can get. Stay consistent with this method and be sure to make use of this method at vending machine warehouses in your area. Look up the vending machine warehouses by you, walk in and introduce yourself to the workers and ask if they know any locations that people are looking to part with. Getting around people that are in this industry will bring you more business than you would think so be sure to take advantage of this! Just make sure to be careful of scammers though and do not do business with anyone that is not willing to show you the machine and location before sending money.

You can also make use of online lead resources like vendingexchange.com which gives you a free month trial then is just $40 per month after. It will send you leads for locations through your email and if you stay on top of them, you can add a couple locations to your business every month. You should also download The Vending Bizz app from the Appstore which will also help you get locations, new machines, help you find places to buy product, and connect you with repair technicians as well.

Once you have found your first business, the next thing you will want to do is find a vending machine to purchase or find a source that you can rent vending machines from. If you are wanting to purchase a vending machine, be sure to check out Facebook marketplace, Offerup, and eBay and haggle with some of the listings you see on there. You can find some for under $500 if you are lucky that will get you started. Just make sure you test every slot and don’t buy a broken machine. Keep in mind when looking at machines to buy, that having a machine with a credit/debit card reader can make you a lot more money. The nice thing though is that even if you can’t find a great deal on one with a reader, you can always add a reader to an older machine by working with a company like Nayax.com or payrange.com. Either way, remember that we are living in a society that is more cashless than ever before so make sure you are not missing out on customers because you don’t have a reader.

If you do not have the money or if you are simply looking for an option you can scale with quicker, you can always use a service that will rent you the machines and maintain them while you focus on finding new quality businesses to keep them at. You can go to a site like vendinggroup.com or simply search lease vending machines in your area to find other options. Using this option, you will be able to get a vending machine in your newfound location for nothing out of pocket but keep in mind that you will be paying money every month just to use it when you could own all of your profit just by paying the $500-$1,000 to get a used machine. Leasing can be great for growing quickly but I do recommend that even if you start this way, start buying some machines that you can own once you start bringing in profit.

Once you have a location and a machine it is time to get some products to fill it with and choose prices that will make sense for your items. Great places to start buying products for your machines is at club stores like Sam’s Club, B.J.s, or Costco. You can also use a business food supplier like the restaurant depot once you have an LLC set up for your vending machine business. You can also check out The Vending Bizz app like we talked about earlier to get more suppliers to fill your machines from. Make sure that you are choosing products for your machine that are proven to sell and you can also look up which snacks and candies are trending to get a more accurate idea of what will sell. Price the items that you picked so that you make 50%-60% margins on every sale.

The last thing you want to keep in mind for your machines is maintenance. Every time that you go to restock and collect money from your machines you should check to make sure that every slot is functioning properly. Occasionally you will go to check a machine and you will notice that something is wrong. You should start by searching how to fix a vending machine on YouTube and learning as much of the basics of vending machine repair as you can. It is good to learn the basics of how these machines work and what easy fixes you may be able to do yourself. For the times that you will not be able to fix it yourself, you need to make sure that you have a technician in mind that can fix it quickly. To find some good technicians in your area, you can check out The Vending Bizz app as we mentioned earlier.

If you follow these steps consistently you will be sure to have a profitable vending machine business in no time. Once you find yourself in a position where you can afford to pay someone to manage your machines, then you can outsource the duties of restocking and collecting money to focus on finding new locations full time. Just make sure that anyone you hire for this duty is someone you can trust and that you have already noted what each of your machines has been making each month, so you know what to expect moving forward. Make use of the strategies to find new locations every day, and don’t be afraid to move to new locations when one is not doing so well. If you do these things you will be around in this industry for a long time.