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Articles Categories:
 How to Set up My Vending Business
Tips for Increasing Your Cash Flow
Looking for New Accounts/Marketing
What to Look For in Machines
General Business Articles for Success
General Articles for Your Success
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What About Using Locators to
Place Machines?
The first option
some people consider when entering the vending business is using a
LOCATOR. A "Locator" is simply a person you hire to place your
vending machines in local businesses. I'll say up front
that this is almost always NOT your best solution and here's
why:
1. It is very difficult (not impossible) to find a trustworthy
locator. I have read of many "horror" stories of vendors losing
their money.
2. Even with honest locators, the problem is that not
every new account you get is worth keeping. Sometimes as many as 50%
of your accounts are hardly worth keeping.
3. If the
accounts you get from locators are low-producing, it takes much longer to
pay off your vending machine investment and get to real
profitability.
4.There is usually a large cash outlay for their
services IN ADDITION to the cash you pay upfront for the cost of the
machines. This is a "double-whammy" to vending startups. It is
especially bad if your multi-thousand investment in locator services ends
up netting you unfavorable accounts.
What is the solution? I
have two main solutions for you.
1. Take the money you would invest in
machines and locating and buy out a company. By going this
route, you can buy machines on location already making money (most with
product already there too). You would be surprised at the number of
small companies for sell with anywhere from 10 -200 machines. Many
people simply get tired of running their routes or find out it's not as
much money as the sales person promised when they bought their
machines. I picked up 26 machine on a route where I was already
operating my company for a mere $1000. The owner was asking $2000
and when I met with him I found out his wife had cancer and he was over 60
years old wanting to retire to take care of her. Without asking, he
said if I would just take the machines I could have them for $1000.
They paid for themselves in about 6 months and have been making profit now
every since. If you're willing to WAIT, you can find good deals like
this too.
2. The second option is to place the
machines yourself. Please read on! This is where you will
make your real money. This is the challenge I had to overcome to
become more profitable. And no, I was not a salesman. There
were some real obstacles mentally I had to overcome. I did it
though, and you can too. We'll talk about how you can help yourself
in other articles later. The point is that with the atrition rate
will have with accounts (10-15% usually) you have a great advantage toward
profitability if you can market your own machines. You save even
more if you can do it while running your route. Motivate
yourself! It's part of growing as a business owner. Grow
the person, grow the business!
Mark Evants
(C) Christmark Enterprises,
LLC.
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