My Newest Investment: Vending Machines
Thank you so much everybody for signing up for this list. Thank you for showing me all your support. You guys have been on social media the last week. And thank you so much for continuing to follow the email. So, without further ado, here is everything that I have to give you in terms of my newest investment in vending machines. So just full disclosure, I'm not a guru, right? So, nothing that I'm telling you or anything like that, it comes from the standpoint of a guru. I'm merely just the guy who had an interest in investing in vending machines and did so, and then I'm going to tell you, you know what I did? But definitely, I'm not a guru.
A lot of people over the last couple of days have asked me, why would I do this? Or just have been super thankful that I am willing to share the information with them. So, why would I do this? Basically, broken down into three things.
The opportunity to serve, abundance mindset, and reciprocal energy. So just a go through those quickly, I believe a servant leadership, I believe to be a great leader, you have to serve people for them truly. For people to truly get to where, where you want them to be, or where you see them be you have to be able to lead them there.
I think to do that, you have to serve them and get them on your side. So that's one. An abundance mindset, it's just what I do or what you do doesn't affect us. If I'm doing well, you can do well. If you're doing well, I could do well. That's It, there is no competition there. There's plenty and more than enough for everybody to go around and then the energy. I just want to put out good energy. I feel like if you put out good energy, it will come back to you. So, that's why I would do this. What I'm going to be sharing with you might think why vending? How I decided on my machine? The price I pay, some resources for you. My vendor who white gloves anywhere in the nation, and then any tips that I had.
WHY VENDING
Okay, so why vending? All right, so I liked vending. The reason why I was interested in it is because it has a low startup cost. It doesn't cost a lot of money to get in the vending, you need the machine, you need the inventory, and you need somewhere to put it. But as far as the cost of the machines is concern there are so many ranges of price points for a machine. You can get it at a low cost as well. Which needs a minimum time commitment. As far as the vending machines, all I'm really doing is shopping for the inventory stock in the machine and collecting my money. Making money while you do other things. Everyone always talks about the passive income, the money, the mailbox money!
That's just basically not having that put in any like labor to get that money. So definitely like that. And then the margin. So, I was so surprised the other day shopping at Sam's club, looking at the prices, I think I would have to sell candy for a dollar. Come to find out that those same candy sales for a dollar 50. So yeah, there's good, great margins in it, and I think I didn't spend any more than like 68 cents on a piece of candy so great, great margins in the vending as well.
HOW I DECIDED ON A MACHINE
So how I decided on a machine? Okay, so for me, I needed to have a machine that looked nice and being as though they were going into apartments. I know, like the aesthetic was vital. Like there's just no way, just any old machine was going to be able to be there that wasn't going to work. I looked at, and I looked at, yeah, of course, like I said, the aesthetic, I wanted to go with used. I didn't want to spend new, even though I had an idea of what the new cost I did, was able to look that information up to get the kind of comparison. And then my budget. Because I was buying multiple machines, I was able to establish a budget early and kind of work with that and get the vendor to work with me.
I asked the vendor about the maintenance. If they knew anybody to handle it if they handled it, what type of resources they had. I asked about any warranty. As it's a machine, so I expected to have a lifecycle. Still, I expect for some time, since you're spending a couple of thousand dollars on that. It will have some type of warranty. I made sure if there were any additional fees, what am I looking at?
As you know, card readers have extra fees. So, I asked them and made sure about that and then also asked them about references. People who they can refer to me, who have done business with them. I think that that's like a low key, a gem that not a lot of people take the time to do, but definitely ask for references. And if they give them to you, call them and really met the people, I think it will help.
MY MACHINE
So, this is the machine that I had is a 5 Wide, I believe it's called Wittern USI. So if you go ahead and Google that, that will tell you it's the 5 Wide, I guess is how many snacks go across, 5 Wide, 4 Wide, I think 3 Wide, that's what I have are 5 Wide.
PRICE
People ask, what did I pay? What was the price? So my machines were listed for 2950. I was able to negotiate with 2,500 per machine. I did buy three machines. I also needed three, I also need card readers for each machine. Each card reader was $300.
There was a $199 setup fee through USA tech, which is the service provider for the card reader, which I don't have all the way set up yet. So, there's a question mark there, if that's 199 per reader, or if it's 199 per account. So, I'll get back to you guys on that. And then my supplier charged $150 for delivery. Now, he was local to me so, if you're not in North Carolina, I'm not sure what he will charge for you, but he's based out of Charlotte.
MY VENDOR
My vendor is Jonathan Hoadley, extra mile vending. If you're in the Charlotte area, just Google or just go in the Facebook marketplace and lookup combo vending machines.
Please, if you do decide to work with John after reading this or watching my video if you could just let them know that you were referred by me. John has been kind enough to allow me to earn credit for each referral. So it would mean a great deal. If you could do that for me, thank you.
F.A.Q
Questions that I've received.
Did I set up an LLC? No, I did not. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that or if I'm going to. How I'm going to do that yet or, or how, you know what I'm going to do about that?
How did I find a place for the machine? I help manage a large rental portfolio of commercial apartments. So, the machines went there. I didn't have to do any looking or anything like that. That is a significant advantage for me in this, in this business that's not, I can't, I don't know how hard it is to find a location. So, there's still stuff that if I was really trying to scale this business and I would definitely need to do, and things that I plan on just learning cause from so far from what I know.
Did I have to get a permit? People have asked me about permitting, not too familiar with that as well. I didn't know if that was required since it's a property that we have on the control.
Did I get insurance? I have looked into it, haven't decided on coverage, definitely, have looked into it.
RESOURCES I SUGGEST
My resources and things that I would recommend. Keep in mind, some of these are affiliate links that I have been able to set up. So, if you do decide to purchase, I will earn compensation or commission from it, but I believe in these services, whether you buy them or not, I would only endorse them because I believe in the product.
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WHATS NEXT
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