How can I start a vending machine business?

If you are buying already placed machines dont pay more than 30-50% of the yearly gross revenue of the machine. There are so many people out there just waiting to rip off people that want to start a vending business. They will try to charge you 3,000$+ for a machine.

And forget gumball machines. You will gross about 100 dollars per YEAR with those…thats right…per YEAR. The big money makers in vending are the large soda machines and the candy machines.

The best way to find the cheap machines is to place an add in the paper saying you want to buy vending machines or a vending route. Not everyone will want to sell you their machines for the 30-50% yearly gross price i told you about because most of them will find that they spent 5,000 on a machine and think they should be able to get their money back at least. Dont let them trick you. If you pay 3k-5k for a machine, it will probably take you 3 years+ to make your money back if you are lucky.
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Associations may be a good avenue to explore. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet.

http://www.vending.org – National Automatic Merchandising Association
http://www.ava-vending.org – Automatic Vending Association
http://www.vendingconnection.com/ypassoc.html — Directory of Vending Business Associations

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can about the industry. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

* Start Your Own Vending Business (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) by Anne Rawland Gabriel
* Vending Business-In-A-Box: A step-by-step guide to starting a profitable vending business without getting burned by Bryon Krug
* Vending Success Secrets – How Anyone Can Grow Rich In America's Best Cash Business! by Bill Way
* The Vending Jackpot by Ronnie Talent
* Cash Locations: A step-by-step guide to securing the best money-making locations for your vending machines by Ronnie Talent

There are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check out these articles:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Vending-Routes—How-To-Fail&id=60641 – Vending Routes – How to Fail by Steven Gillman
http://ezinearticles.com/?Vending-Machines&id=140389 – Vending Machines by Michael Russell
http://ezinearticles.com/?Owning-a-Vending-Machine-Business&id=65681 – Owning a Vending Machine Business by Max Bellamy

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
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