Can I place 17 machines next week? That is my goal but we will see. I have my locator working hard and he promised a few locations for me on Monday. If anyone else out there feels like donating their time and energy to my business feel free to start calling locations in Naples, FL for me!
Alan Sampson and I are working for locations on Monday as well. He has his phone ready and is going to call 100 places. We have a nice script worked out and I think it is going to work great. I am going to have a few machines in my car and when he generates a lead I'm going to head right over to the business and bring in the machine. These are free locations so let's hope I get a lot!
About vending enough M&M Peanuts. So in the beginning I was a little stingy with the amount of M&M Peanuts I distributed. Well, I have had a few complaints. The latest was at the pizza place where I made $55. I told him I would replace the machine and make sure it would vend plenty of M&M Peanuts. Lesson learned. The customer is always right.
Everyone in my direct area (friends/family) thinks I should slow down on this business. Everyone on here thinks I should keep going, expand faster, and be an example for those just starting in the business. Me an example? We will see, haha.
I've never really listened to nay sayers so I guess I will just keep going. I don't really see a choice to be honest, what else am I going to do?
LAST THOUGHT: If all of my readers found me JUST 1 LOCATION I could expand much faster! What do you guys think?
CANDYMAN CAN
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73 comments:
Steve posted an excellent article on his BLOG. It is well worth reading in detail. The numbers are what the numbers are. If $7 per month are the " real " numbers for every machine in the country it is believable that someone working on it with good machines can average over $15.
I would like to hear from others about the " real " numbers that they are collecting each month. Robert talks real numbers....Steve talks real numbers. I will continue to share my real numbers as time progresses. Thanks you.
Alan
Rob,
I am not going to be an annoying butt about it, but what did I say about the P- M&M? Ha HA.
Anyways, I an going to set my gole for 10, you set yours for 17, we will see who can acheive theres.
I would find you location, but I can not do that. Alan do you have any machines? I do not think you do, so how can you sare your real numbers? Ok, well the $7 comes from the "little" locations. You have to think about avrages. I have machines that do $4 a month, others that do $80. When you round it all out, locaions will do around $7 a month.
It is true about the $15, If I wanted, I could re-locate machines so that all my machines do $15.
Now, My real numbers: most of my machines do around $10 a month. These are single head gumball charity machines. Others do $30 to $40 dollars a month. These are Double or Triple head commission paid locations.
Kyle G.
Kyle, I'm confused. What do you actually average per machine per month?
What is your ratio of single/double/triple head machines?
Rob
Rob,
I have many machines. I avrage $4 to $10 on single heads. I avrage $10 to $23 on a double. And $30 to $35 on triples.
Kyle G.
yhhhhh
Sorry for the last post. That was a test. Anyway why would anyone get into this business. By the time you add product cost, travel and time you are losing. $10.00 a month is not smart business. What could be net-$5.00.
Rain Forest,
I would suggest you leave now. Why would anyone get in this business? It is fun, and very entertaining. I have a group of friends, we go to a BOSS (bulk operators super show) show every year. This is easy money. $10 a month, times that by 50 and you get what? $500. Minus $100 of that for product, and you make $400 while you sit at home. No, I do not appreciate you getting on here and saying that, when you have no experience! This is so many peoples life styles. If you do not like that fine, but I make over $2,000 a month off of candy machines. You say it is not worth the trouble?
Kyle G.
I'm not in the mood to thwart such negativity and lack of business knowledge.
Rob
Rob,
I agree. I do not think people who know NOTHING about this buiness, and have NEGTIVE things to say, should keep to there selfs. This is not a NEGTIVE blog. I welcome, myself, people who want to say good things, and want to learn.
Kyle G.
qqq
I am sorry for coming off negative. I think this is a great business for someone who is solo. My fustration is I was not going to be hands on and I think there is not enough to go around if you have employees. But I think if you are solo you get to keep the full profit. Does everyone agree that this is a profitable business but with employees there is just not enough to go around.Thanks
Rich
Rich,
There you are wrong too. If you hire someone, thay could find tou locations, you buy the machines for them, then thay have to give you %30 of profits. Thay keep the rest as pay. This can be $2000 a week if thay work hard!
Kyle G.
Rob,
I hope I can go locating tomorrow. I just got a call from the dentist. I have to go get my teeth cleaned. I can not cancel. I will try. :-(
Kyle G.
Kyle
I was thinking a 50/50 split, not 70/30. I was figuring if you have someone locate machines you pay them the 30-35 dollars a machine. Then you have an employee service the machine and you go 50/50. At 500 machines that would be 5000.00 a month (assuming this 10.00 NET average everyone taks about or is the net less)in which 2500.00 goes to my employee and 2500.00 goes to me. But with your idea of a 70/30 split my employee would make 3500 and I would make 1500. That sounds much better for my emloyee but not to motivating for me assuming I buy 500 machines for 50,000 and returning 1500 a month times 12 would give me 18000 return. I guess a 36% return is not that shabby. It seems like a lot of work for 18,000.00. Do you agree? That is why being solo you get to keep the whole 5000 a month. Do you agree?
Rich
Kyle
Where do you come up with 2000 a week? Iwould love to pay my employees that amount of money. Please explain? I don't see it.
Rich
Rich,
Yes I do. However, locating is not an easy thing. It is hard work. You have to deal with business owners. That is why many people pay someone else to do it.
If I could hire someone to locate, fill, and do the all around keep up of my route.
I would hire someone in a heart beat..once i get big enough.
Kyle G.
Kyle
Are you willing to give up 70 %?
How do they make 2000 a week?
Rich
Rich,
If someone was willing to get out there and work there butt off, thay could fill around 265 machines a day. Now that is 1,325 machines a 5 day week. That is $13,250 dollars a week if someone works hard, finds locations, and fills them up. Now would that be more than $2,000 a week? I think so!
Kyle G.
Kyle
265 machines a day? I heard somenone can only handle 20-25 a day. Where are you coming up with those numbers?
Rich
Rich,
I am sorry. I ment 265 every week. That is $13,250 a month. That is still over $2,000 a week!
Kyle G.
Kyle
That is still servicing over 50 machines a day. Is that really possible? I heard 20-25 is industry max. Are you sure you are being realistic. Those numbers go against everything I have been reading.
Rich
Who on this board can comfortably service 50 plus machines a day?
Rich
Rich,
ME! It is not hard!
Kyle G.
Kyle
Why does all the info out there tell everyone that they can only possibly handle 20-25 a day. What am I missing? How can you double the industry max?
Rich
Rich,
For one I get up at 5:00 am and fill thoes open stops. Go eat breakfast, and start again at 7:00 am. I work on it till 5:00 pm!
Kyle G.
Kyle,I am very impressed. Great job. Do you just handle Bulk or do get into soda and snacks.
Rich,
Bulk only. I am going to grow my company to cover Amusements also. Amusement Cranes/Rotery Cranes to be exact.
Kyle G.
Kyle,
I heard arcade can be good? Do you like arcade?
Rich,
Arcade what?
Kyle G.
Rich,
I think the main problem here is trusting the individual who is working for you. Obviously you could hire some kid to do it for $10/hr. If it takes 20 minutes to get to a location and service a machine you are talking about $3.33 per month for your employee.
There is this EZcount system keeps track of the number of vends each machine has for you. This way your employee couldn't steal your profits. However, I have no idea how much this would cost to implement.
Also if you serviced the machines for yourself for 3 months I'm pretty sure you could create a statistical spreadsheet on excel that would tell you with 95% accuracy what a machine will make the next month. To me this seems more feasible.
At any rate, even with 200 machines this could be a weekend job.
Rob
On the amount of machines you can service a day, It really depends on travel time to each machine. If you have 50 machines located within a 5 mile radius then yes, Its very possible. However if they are spread out farther you can do less. Industry average may be 20-25 a day but remember, Thats an average. I do 30/day myself. 50 is not unheard of.
Rich,
I think servicing 50 machines per day is very attainable. Especially if your locations are in close proximity to each other. Personally I wouldn't service more than 20 a day unless I had to.
Rob
Rob,
YES Your right. I would simply use our triple head "boxs" so the kids could not get to the coins!
You could go collect the quarters yourself!
Kyle G.
Exactly my thoughts Caserri. I think we wrote that at the exact same time.
I would also like to mention that if you fill a 3/4 of the way up it will last for a long time. I really do not think that you need to service machines every month unless they need it. I think a lot of machines can go 3 months without being checked.
Rob
That's correct Rob, Some of my machines are serviced every three months as well, You will get a feel for how often you need to visit them. There is no sense wasting your time and gas money servicing an account that has plenty of product in it.
Rob and C. Vending,
That is true. I do not fill most of mine untill there is little candy left, but gumballs have to be filled 1 time a month!
Kyle G.
You guys have some great advice. Thanks. If you do not service for 3 months, doesn't that mean the candy will spoil or it is a bad location not making a lot of money?
Rich
I don't think gumballs or runts ever spoil. A machine can easily hold $100 worth of candy. So even a machine doing $30 a month could sit for a long time.
Rob
I don't know why you guys are not into arcade(Pac-man). I heard that is more profitable then Bulk.
Rich
Rick,
No, some will, but most will not.
If a location will not sell very much in 3 months, I will move the machine somewhere else.
Kyle G.
Rick,
I am not into those because cranes are more profitable!
Kyle G.
No gum has a usable shelf life of 6-8 months while Peanut M&M's can go 13 months. Novelty candy like runts are good for at least 9-12 months
Rob,
Gumballs will go stale faster than anything I sell! Thay get hard, and fall into little peices when there stale!
Kyle G.
After that time they are not un-usable, the quality just isnt as good but it wont hurt anyone.
So then you can increase your profits by servicing bulk every 3 months instesd of every month. Kyle why are you killing your self servicing evry month when you can increse the amount of machines and service evry 3 months? Cassari, does peanut MM spoil in 3 months?
Thanks
Rich
Kyle is correct. They will get crumbly after 6-8 months. But they usually sell quicker than that.
No PMM's are good for 13 months. Just keep them from extreme temps.
Yea, I rotate them into my 5 cent 1in Gum machine when thay go stale. Ha Ha.
Kyle G.
Rich,
Because I have 3 routes. I service 1 every month. I have many machines.
Kyle G.
I don't enjoy my gumballs unless they are little hard, haha. Well, I'm learning a lot. I have one location where the M&M Peanuts have cracked and crumbled some. Any ideas on this? It's not a hot location.
Rob
Kyle,
Great way to reduce shrink due to spoilage! Where do you get your 5cent mechs?
Rob,
Those are called jawbreakers! HAHA
Kyle
What do you mean you service 1 per month. Is that every machine per month or one route machines per month? How many machines do you have per route? To me servicing one machine per month is a waste of time when you can service the machines every 3 months.
Rich
I got them spical orderd. I have 30 A&A machines. 1 of thoes is 5 cents. I got the mechs from A&A.
I do not knoe what to tell you Rob, but thay will be a hunk of dust when you go back. Peanut M-M turn to dust in hot places. That place is not cooled propley for Peanut M&M.
Kyle G.
Rich,
I have my one big route divided into 3 little ones. I service one group 50 to 60 machines a month.
Kyle G.
Kyle
Sorry for all the questions but you are confusing me. You said you service 50 plus machines a day and now you are telling me 50-60 a month. Which is it? Next, why are you servicing a machine once a month when you can service the machine every 3 months?
Rich
Rich,
I do the same as Kyle, I have my machines segregated into specific routes and service different machines everyday until all are serviced. Takes 30 days to turn the cycle.
Rich, If you have a machine that empties in 30 days then you should service it in 30 days some locations dont merit a service every 30 days. Im sure the locations that Kyle is servicing every 30 days are hot locations that need it more often.
Cassari
If you service 30 a day, does that mean the max you can make is $6000 a month? 30 a day equals 600 a month times 10 per machine equals 6000.00.
Rich
If all my machines made 10 a month then yes however my fleet average is a currently bit more than 10. I accomplish this by continualy moving poor performers to better locations. I have a program that tells me which machines need to move. So instead of expanding my fleet and growing larger, my main focus is on moving machines to increase my average.
Cassari
One way you can increase your average would be to sell soda and snack to the locations you have Bulk in. Is that a good strategy?
Thanks
Rich
Kyle u asked if did bulk no. But starting soon. I BOUGHT A 4 slection used u-turn 60 dollars . Bad Idea the change holder never stays in place in the machine. Could u kyle please tell me where your machine are the ones you go to at 5 am in the morning? whats open during that time that you could service your machines. Also how many bulk machines you have total. You said you service 50 machines a a day, 5 days a week.So that means you average 5 machine serviced each hour for a total of ten hours a day minus a breakfast and coffee break in the morning.Sounds about right.I talked to a guy in New York and he said anything over 50 machines is just overkill. I think 500 machines is a good number 1000 is great. Anything much more imposible to do unless you hire some one or become superman. You see I would like to do this full time Then sell the business and go on to something else. Also all this talk about cranes sound great however I think pinball machines are great. Why you say?, these are just plug, play and pure profit minus 50% fee for the owner and a service repair once and a while. Pinball is making a huge comeback with stuff like the sopranos pinball machine and other hot titles. Video Games go out of style quick and dont have an appeal to females.Also Pinball is addicting like the crane.Think about it say you made $50.00 per machine per location x 100 machines equals $2500.00 per month minus 50% fee to the owner. This is not unreasonable plus the cashflow is greater than candy and gumballs.Try to make $30,000 a year on 100 candy machines.
Josh
That is why I think if you do everything you make the most money. Why not have a pinball game, bulk candy, soda and chips and an ATM all in one location. Now your talking success.
Rich
I sort of agree with loading up locations with more than 1 product. It is much easier once you have a candy machine in there to add more, it would seem so anyway.
I would still like to stick with semi-passive products like bulk/pinball/whatever else you don't have to check all the time. Pinball makes a lot of noise though. It would have to be a bar area.
Man, you know what product did well in Orlando when I went to school was this punching thing. It gave you a score on how hard you hit.
We would be drunk in a big bar and slamming on this thing all night to see who was the strongest. Of course I won, haha.
Rob
Also you might want to try sticker tattoo machines Rob.
I'll be honest those sticker machines never had much appeal to me. I guess I just don't like the way they look. I added a new poll to the site on the left hand side.
Rob
NEW MOUTHWATERING PROFIT IDEA
I have thought of a new profit idea that brings in more lushish free flowing over and and over again hard core CASHOLA pure MOOLA. Its based on the percentage however a little diffrent. How to add as much as $60.00 to $120.00 or more in coins in your machine per year.Well here it is tell the owner or the store owner they get a certain percentage of the profits what ever you wish 10%,20%, or 30% but you give them clause saying you get the first $5.00 or $10.00 out of the machine for each month. No percentage is taken out of the first $5.00 or $10.00 then after that they get the agreed percentage of profits. That way you get 60 to 120 commision free for the year per machine. Now if you had a 100 machines and you did this that would equal 6000 to 12000 per year commison free. Its better if you had this written in a contract.Want to make even more money put it in the contract. Add a 10 or 20 dollar service charge if they asked to have the machine moved. Also they must give a 30 day notice if they want it moved if not they will be charged a 25 dollar late service fee. Believe me when I say simmular contracts like these happen all the time. Just read your contract on your credit card application or your cell phone application or the famous Blockbuster video no more late fees jargon.Fist Blockbuster says no more late fees if you you return the movie on time if not you buy the movie or else you sell it back to them and they charge you a restocking fee they call it.I KNOW IT I HATE IT TOO BUT THATS THE PRICE YOU PAY. They have enourmas fees for late fees and hookups and such.This is all legal and you should be paid for all of your services.IM GREEDY.QUOTE from Wallstreet the movie "Greed is Good".Please give your opinons on this issue. Ohh and thanks for the extra vending locating scripts although the one about being in the military is good and every one likes the military and gives you a lot of perstige ,trust ,respect and honour its sort of like so many commericals on tv they all ways put the same type of chacters in the commericals with those kinds of qualities in people. You know the type get a doctor on tv or any one in a white coat (medical profession or a scientist)or any other trusting person such as grandma or granda, mother or father.Some of us are not in the military so if you have any suggestion how we can be more relateable to give the people a good sells pitch let us know.I do like the point on using local charities.You know the media spins stuff all the time.
Hey Josh,
Nice idea on the commissions. On my next commission location I will use your idea! Very nice.
I'm glad you like the part of the sales script where we mention Alan is a veteran. I think it will help a lot too. Especially now in the time of war people show extra respect for these titles.
Wish us luck tomorrow.
Rob
Rich,
Im said if I hired someone. I service 50 to 60 machines a month. I can not service a gumball machine once a month when it empties out in 4 weeks!
Kyle G.
Well at 6am all of my hair salons owners are in. (I get in before hours in some places). I have 20 break rooms in factory's. I can service these any time of day. I have a PD break room, 24 hour access there (I have a key).
Now after I service all these places.. Drive from town to town it is about AM. I eat, and then start breaking down. I have big strip malls that have like 20 stores. I have machines in most of all thoes stores. So I run in, flip open the top, fill, take money out and leave! I have got this down to a science 2 min. a location.
This guy in New York can kiss my butt. 50 overkill?. My butt He is a lazy butt if he thinks 50 is overkill. I have a friend that owns over 3,000. He and his wife run the route!
Kyle G.
Thanks Kyle Great comments now I know I can do this. I like the fact that you metioned factorys. I think I will try the factories and warehouses here in Columbus Ohio.Theres plenty here. Tell me when dealing with factories and warehouses who do you have to talk to get the bulk machines located. There usually like so many managers to talk to. Do you talk to someone like in the big corporations ceos, board of directors?Another words the guys in the suits. Also what do you say to these people? Did someone ever say no you cant put your bulk candy machine here because a big soda & snack machine vendor said so. I would think this totally diffrent from talking to your local mom and pop resturant or clothing store.
Josh,
You have to ask for the PLANT MANAGER. This man will be mean, and stern. You will have to ask to place it on the plant floorvot in the break room. Now, you will get lots of no's from these people. I got all my plants from people who leave there BV machines in the plant, so the manager lets me place one there.
I would suggest you stick with Mom and Pop places however. You can use charitys at these places and get many placed in a day at places like these.
Kyle G.
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