Vending Machine Business Ideas, Opportunities and Investments for Recurring Revenue

Overview of the Vending Machine Business Opportunity

The vending machine business is a multi-billion dollar global industry and is attractive to many entreprenuers and investors. Vending machines can be a part-time or full time business and requires a low investment to get started in comparison to other businesses and the path to profitability is pretty clear. You find good locations and keep your machines stocked with hot selling items.

It sounds easy, but starting your own vending machine business can be difficult, primarily because finding good locations is a challenging process. If you don't already know you'll discover that the market is already very saturated. Go to most public places, malls, rest stops, etc... and you'll find plenty of vending machines full of soda, candy, chips, honey buns, and other junk food.

So if you are exploring vending machine business opportunities and want to build a plan for success then you'll want to avoid being another me too vending machine operator. It's certainly possible to find new locations that need traditional vending machines but that may provde too difficult as existing vending machine operators are always looking for new locations. If you can great, but if not then evaluate existing vending machine locations with high traffic and opt to purchase and place newer vending machines that sell healthy snacks, lottery tickets, and the very popular coffee and energy drinks.

Types of Vending Machines

Photo by CarbonNYC

There are plenty of options for what you can sell in your vending machines:

• Traditional Combo Machines with sodas, candy, snacks, junk food
• Healthy Snacks and Organic Food
• Hot and Cold Meals
• Bottled Water, Coffee, Tea, and Energy Drinks
• Scratch off lottery tickets
• DVD Movie Rentals
• Personal Products
• Electronics
• Stamps
• Newspapers
• Ice
• Ice Cream
• Pizza
• Pencils, Stickers, Tattos, and Toys

How to Decide What Type of Vending Machine to Buy

Deciding what type of vending machines to buy can be a difficult process. Should you buy used vending machines or new vending machines. It's easy to fall for the marketing hype of buying the newest, latest, greatest, most innovative vending machines but you'd be wise to research your local market before you invest several thousand dollars in buying your vending machines.

Before you make an investment you need to know the demographics of the people that will pass by your vending machines. The only way to do that is to find your actual vending machine locations and measure the amount and type of people that pass by. You can do this yourself or hire someone to do it but it's essential that you measure real numbers instead of making assumptions. You should ask real people that pass by if they would ever use your vending machine. This will give you vital information needed to make an educated decision on which vending machine to buy. Also stay up to date with the latest vending machine news, trends, trade shows and more by checking the website of the National Automatic Merchandising Association.

Leasing Vending Machines

If buying is too much of a risk then research vending machine leasing options. Several companies lease new, used, old, and antique vending machines at affordable prices but be careful and check their reviews and as cheap is not always good. If your machines break, take your customer's money without vending their desired product, etc... then you'll lose a lot of money.

Tips for Finding Great Vending Machine Locations

People buy from vending machines because they are convenient and quickly satisfy their craving for food, energy, sugar, chocolate, a salty snack, entertainment, etc... A great vending machine location is a high traffic area that doesn't have convenient alternatives for providing people with their quick craving fix.

1. Memorize all of the available vending machines listed above.

2. Memorize a list of common vending machine locations:

• Rest Stops
• Hospitals
• Bus Stations
• Airports
• Car Repair Shops
• Public Golf Courses
• Hotels and Motels
• High Schools and Colleges
• Businesses and Offices
• Popular Hiking Trails (strange, but yes, see main photo)

3. Create a brief survey using the vending machine types and locations and send to your network of friends and family either via email or talk with them on the phone or in person and ask them if they know of any prospective locations. The more specific you can be when you ask the better results you'll receive. If you ask: do you know of any good vending machine locations, then the odds are your friends and family will say no. But if you ask if they know a contact person at specific locations you are targeting then you are more likely to get the personal referral you need to acquire that location for your vending machine business.

4. Once you've contacted your network of friends and family you need to expand your prospecting efforts to your local community. Get involved with the chamber of commerce and attend local business networking events.

5. If you're not afraid of rejection then cold calling can pay dividend but be sure to tap your network for referrals first as a warm lead is always an easier sale than calling someone out of the blue.

6. Hire a company that provides vending machine location services or buy vending machines from companies or franchises that help you find locations as part of their offering. However, be careful as the vending machine provider's motive is to sell vending machines so don't get talked into a new location without first doing proper research and always compare vending machine prices to make sure you're not getting ripped off.

Vending Machine Payment Methods

Many people rarely carry cash with them so it's critical to your success to offer credit card and debit card payment options and if possible text message payment as almost everyone has a cell phone these days and sending a simple text message to pay for a soda would be the preferred payment method by many of today's generation teenagers and young adults.

• Cash
• Credit Cards and Debit Cards
• Text Message
• U-Key

Do Your Research and Take Action

In conclusion, vending machines are big business and will continue to be big business as long as people crave instant satisfication which will not end anytime in the foreseeable future. Now is a great time to get involved with vending machines that sell healthy snacks, coffee, and energy drinks but be sure to do your homework and secure the best vending machine locations and the right selection of vending products before you invest your hard earned money.