A vending machine business can be an excellent way of obtaining a significant level of revenue. There are a multitude of opportunities to locate vending machines where they’ll attract significant business, but you need to plan efficiently.
If you don’t plan ahead when you’re starting your vending machine business, you’re likely to have problems in the future, which may limit your revenue. We’re going to look at some of the problems you could come across, and how taking the time to plan before starting out can help prevent them from occurring.
Location does not attract sufficient traffic
Choosing the best location for your vending machines cannot be left to guesswork. If you simply choose any venue, or perhaps even make a decision based solely on the cost of locating, you may not achieve the revenue you need to grow your vending machine business. Before you choose a location, such as a college, hospital or office building, you need to spend time checking on the number of prospective users and whether competitors have their machines in the same location.
Location costs are higher than they should be
Wherever you choose to locate your vending machines, you’ll probably have to pay a fee to the owner of the location. It’s important that these fees don’t eat too heavily into your profit. If you just opt for the first offer, without research or bargaining, you may be losing out. It’s always a good idea to have a shortlist of possibilities and to make sure that you negotiate the best possible price.
You can either pay a fixed rental price for the space, or arrange to pay a percentage of your earnings. The latter is often the better option, as it means that if the amount of money you take fluctuates, you won’t lose out.
The items you are vending don’t sell
There’s little point in spending money on setting up a vending machine business if the products you are vending don’t sell. If you don’t research the potential purchase patterns of users, you aren’t going to be able to provide the items that they want to buy. For instance, if you have vending machines located in a fitness centre, you probably don’t want to stock them with high calorie items such as chocolate bars or fizzy drinks. It makes sense to create a stock of nutritional snacks and mineral waters.
You can also maximise your sales by providing products that match the holiday season, such as Easter and Christmas. Doing this makes your stock more enticing, and helps to increase your profits.
Your vending machines aren’t reliable
If one of your vending machines breaks down, you don’t just lose business at that point in time; you also run the risk of deterring people from using your machines in future. Likewise, if snacks that are dispensed by your machines aren’t the correct temperature, people will stop using them. For this reason you can’t afford to purchase or rent machines that aren’t reliable. Conducting proper research helps stop you from investing in machines that may cause problems for your business.
You also need to make sure that you have a reliable repair and servicing option in place so that you don’t lose valuable business while waiting for repairs. Check with the people from whom you rent or buy your machines to make sure that they can provide a reliable service for you.
Reducing the risk of vending machine problems
These tips should help prevent some of the problems you could experience when setting up your vending machine business. Remember, the more research you do, the more chance you have of creating a very profitable business.
