Vending Machine Business

A question about : Vending Machine Business

Hi All,

I am looking to start up my own business to make some extra earnings to top up my wages. I currently work part time and am studying part time and I get by but that's about it. I spoke to my mum about maybe starting a new small business and she said she would help me with an interest free loan.

I wanted to start something with a budget of about Ј5,000. At first I was thinking of importing stock from china to sell on ebay, but i saw an article called poorly made in china. This made me have some doubts and to look elsewhere. I've always thought using a vending machine would be a good idea as you just fill it with stock and empty the money etc. Also as I have a disability it wouldn't be too demanding for me.

I was just wondering how it would work putting a vending machine in a business, do you literally just approach say an office and ask can you put the machine in there and they say yes or no and you then come and re stock it say twice a week. Also are there any rules and regulations or licences that you need? I saw that you can join a franchise in vending but surely you can just buy a machine yourself and cut out the middle man.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Joe

Best answers:

• Unless you have experience in this sort of business , you will have to pay to learn it. You can get a franchise and learn that way as essentially their expertise and experience is essentially what you are buying with a franchise. One other way to learn is by trial and error, but you can only do this if you leave enough capital there to pay for your "errors". I would not knock this last method completely as many very successful people have built up their businesses just this way. It depends on the business of course as learning on the job has its limits.
• I'm sure someone else on here does this - or if memory serves they installed a machine in their company and their daughter manages it herself - I think she was only in her teens.
  Struggling to remember the detail but I'm sure I read it here!
• In many cases you will have to pay to site your vending machine - especially in high footfall commercial areas. You are after all using the office's space and electricity.
  You will need insurance for the machine, public liablity insurance for the machine and the product you're selling, and business insurance for your vehicle for carrying goods.