How did you start

[Style]

Hi, we currently have a part time business with around 150 towers/toy machines. My wife does most of the work whilst I still have a FT job. Would love to take the plunge and move into vending full time but its a big step to give up the co car, pension etc.

Im interested to hear your stories. How did you start? How many sites? What did/do you vend? Has this changed? Any mistakes we can learn from and how can you grow quickly?

Thanks in anticipation.

Andy

[choice vending]

7 years ago i was scraching my head struggling for business ideas and i brought a copy of daltons weekly. There was a few adds trying to sell vending franchises i idea apealed to me imediatly because it would fit in nicely with my passion for match angling. i drove around the country to meet a few of these people who tried to sell me a franchise. 3 months later i brought some machines of a company called IPH on an independant basis (i paid far to much lol). A week or so later i was buying some chicken form my mates butchers shop talking about my plans and i ended puttng my first vending machine in his shop. Then Choice Vending Services was born.

[Snackmore]

Crikey Brian you vend Chicken Drumsticks, thats FOUL

[PGBrew]

I had 150 machines, a full time job & a part timer working for me. I had just turned down an opportunity to buy 200 machines when I was made redundant. I went back and bought those 200 machines and have been full time ever since. First of all how good is your job? Do you enjoy it? Do you earn more money than you could vending and is it sustainable? Secondly do you have spare capital? You don't need a lot of capital for just towers, but toys, rides, tatoos etc are more expensive but lower maintenance. Allow at least 50k. Run your job alongside the vending business for as long as possible this will allow you to capital build. The best way to grow you vending business is by aquisition. Look around your area and give the oppersition a call. Don't have too many towers, they are high maintenance.

[Style]

Thanks guys, nice to know it wasn't just us who paid too much for machines.

[part-time-operator]

depends what you mean by paying too much...you always have to pay for education! if you spend too much buying machines or a round you still have something to show for it. these days you can spend thousands of pounds on university and end up with nothing to show for it at the end!

[dorsetvending]

Brother Glenn helped me buy a fair few machines in early days which were repaid over a few years. Bought out a couple local guys and paid them in monthly installments. Been plodding on ever since.

[Ade]

every machine you buy strip it, see how it works, put it back together


Ade

[Snackmore]

good advice Ade, I do that with my women!

[Style]

every machine you buy strip it, see how it works, put it back together


Ade

Its great. Whenever I strip a machine and put it back together again Im always left with a spare part!