Getting The Most From Your Vending Route

It’s hard to predict the sales you’ll get from your vending machines. Sales depend largely on where you place your machines as well as their quality and contents.

Whether you operate one or a hundred vending machines, you will need a business license or a seller's permit, or both, depending on your local laws, to make sales through vending machines. Whether you operate one machine or many, one permit will cover them all. However, there are exceptions; if the items that you sell cost less than 15 cents each, you don't need a permit for your vending machine sales.

The startup costs for a vending machine business vary according to the types of vending machines that you have chosen. Generally, people start with one or two smaller machines, such as candy or gumball vending machines. These are the least expensive but they generate a lot of vending machine sales. To predict the amount of sales, you need to look at the cost of the machine, the cost of the candy, and the location where you plan to place the machine.

How much can you expect to make from one vending machine? If you buy a new machine for about $300 and a bag of 850 jawbreakers for about $50 that you sell at 25 cents each, you’ll make $212.50 in sales. Deduct the 40 percent commission, or $85, that you pay to the storeowner, and you have a return of $127.50 for just one machine. You can depreciate the cost of the vending machine over several years. If you buy a used vending machine, it won't take you as long to turn the sales turn into profits.

The more machines you have, of course, the more vending machine sales you will realize. For the first few months after starting your vending machine business, you will be recovering the money you invested in the vending machines you bought to get started. However, it won't take you long to recover this amount. If you have all your machines in the same location, you only have to make one stop to refill the machines and take your money out of them.

When the money you receive from your vending machine sales is all profit, you’ll probably start to think of expanding and buying more vending machines. You can diversify your vending machine business and increase your sales by buying different types of machines and finding different locations for them. You can still service all your vending machines on the same day and you won’t have to give up your regular job. However, as your vending machine sales increase, this can become your only source of income and you can become the only boss you have.