Anyone who ends up getting into vending thinking it’s going to be smooth sailing is going to be quickly disappointed. The cold hard truth is that more people will fail in the vending business than will be successful. Personally I attribute a lot of this to the fact that a lot of people don’t fully understand all that running a vending route entails. There’s a lot of misinformation being promoted about vending and while it is an excellent business, it is definitely not a get rich quick scheme. If you go into vending with your eyes wide open and aware of how hard it can be, you’ll better your chances of success.
Two main things you want to keep in mind when just getting started:
Vending is a numbers game; you will need potentially hundreds of machines in order to make a full time living. The national average is $7 per vending machine head. Let’s assume you have double heads and do some quick math – 100 machines will get you to $1400 a month. Although some people can make it on $1400, most people will want at least double that, so that’s now 200 locations to make $2800 a month. Keep in mind that when you’re first starting out, you probably won’t even make $7 a head. You’ll be moving your machines around all the time and have high product waste expenses.
Another thing that new people fail to anticipate is the time and work involved in starting a route, this process can take several years. Now imagine working all this time for free while reinvesting all your profits while expanding your business. Most people get discouraged at working this hard with seemingly no extra benefits in the short run; this is why most people end up dropping out. Vending is definitely a long game.