OK folks, sorry I haven't posted in so long. The reason I've been absent from this blog is because I had pretty much put my candy machines on hold for the time being. However, I am now pretty much ready to get them out. I hope (Lord willing) to have them placed by the end of January. I have figured out where I will buy the candy, and I have pretty much everything lined up, all I have to do is find the TIME to go out and find a place to put them! :) So anyway, that's where I'm at right now. Don't think I've given up or anything, I had just had to put them on hold for awhile and now I am ready to get them placed.
I will probably try to go to places like Jiffy Lube and other auto places; The Water Mart; and that kind of place. I might even try like the little Mexican restaurants and that kind of stuff. I'm not sure yet, but I intend to start trying after the first of the year, when I finally have the time off to do that.
So that's where I'm at, just about to get them placed. We'll see what happens from here! :)
Tuesday, December 16
Monday, April 28
A Title
Hey, if anybody is reading this, I need to come up with a title for my candy vending business. Anybody have any ideas?
I am currently considering 'Candy With a Twist', and 'Twist and Turn'. I like both of these, but if anybody else has an idea, can you let me know? Unfortunately, I can't offer a prize here on the blog like I am for my friends, but I will at least announce the name of the winner, and the winning title.
This title will be on my business cards, and probably on my machines also, so it needs to be good.
On other matters, I believe I am going with a specific charity, but I don't want to say anything quite yet...I want to pray more and sleep on it one more night before I have to make a final decision on that matter.
One last note, I purchased the Vending Locations Booklet sold at http://www.vending-locations.com/ It had several helpful tips, plus a few scripts to use, and even a location agreement form. I'm not sure whether it was necessarily worth $18, but then, I'm too much of a cheapskate. I don't like spending 50¢! So I do recommend it, and I am glad I bought it...
That's all for now, but please leave me a comment if you can think up a great title!
I am currently considering 'Candy With a Twist', and 'Twist and Turn'. I like both of these, but if anybody else has an idea, can you let me know? Unfortunately, I can't offer a prize here on the blog like I am for my friends, but I will at least announce the name of the winner, and the winning title.
This title will be on my business cards, and probably on my machines also, so it needs to be good.
On other matters, I believe I am going with a specific charity, but I don't want to say anything quite yet...I want to pray more and sleep on it one more night before I have to make a final decision on that matter.
One last note, I purchased the Vending Locations Booklet sold at http://www.vending-locations.com/ It had several helpful tips, plus a few scripts to use, and even a location agreement form. I'm not sure whether it was necessarily worth $18, but then, I'm too much of a cheapskate. I don't like spending 50¢! So I do recommend it, and I am glad I bought it...
That's all for now, but please leave me a comment if you can think up a great title!
Thursday, April 17
Sorry About That
O.K., sorry I haven't been on here in awhile. I've been working mostly on my other blog, and then of course there's always tons of other stuff that needs to be done...
I talked more with the charity that I wanted to support, and the bottom line is that they do not have a vending machine program, nor do they want to start one. I offered to make my own stickers, but they asked that I not use their name or logo. So we're kinda back to square 1 as far as a charity is concerned.
On other matters, I found a lady who is selling what appears to be an excellent booklet concerning the placing of vending machines. I am going to buy it, and once I have read it, I will know whether or not to recommend it.
I talked more with the charity that I wanted to support, and the bottom line is that they do not have a vending machine program, nor do they want to start one. I offered to make my own stickers, but they asked that I not use their name or logo. So we're kinda back to square 1 as far as a charity is concerned.
On other matters, I found a lady who is selling what appears to be an excellent booklet concerning the placing of vending machines. I am going to buy it, and once I have read it, I will know whether or not to recommend it.
Tuesday, March 25
So Far, So...
Well, so good, because the Lord has a plan for everything. The charity that I have felt lead to support does not have such a program, nor do they wish to begin such a program. I have emailed them again, asking whether it would be against their policy if I were to print my own stickers with their name on it, and donate a portion of the proceeds, without their involvement. I haven't heard back from them yet.
I want to talk about types of machines. The two that I have are the basic 4-selection U-Turns, but U-Turn also makes larger ones. They have two different models of 8-selection machines, and they also have a huge 12-selection machine. You can see pictures and info about all of these on their website.
You can usually spend between $80-200 on these machines if you want to, but on eBay I found a machine that the folks simply wanted to get rid of. I bought it for $46, and made a deal with them to get another one for the same price. So now I have two machines, for the price I could easily have paid for just one. I thank the Lord for that deal.
So then I sat down and played with the machines for awhile, over a couple days. I got some candy and played with the settings, deciding how I wanted to set the dispensers for the different candies. The U-Turns have an easily-adjustable wheel that determines how much candy comes out in each vend. In the process of figuring out which settings I wanted to use for each candy, I also figured out how to take the machines completely apart and put them together again, as well as how the mechanisms work and what to do if they get stuck. So, now I need to get myself backed by a charity, and work on placing them. I want to get these machines out there earning money for me!!
Wednesday, March 12
Where I'm at right now...
Right now I'm working on getting the charity of my choice to back me. Several charities already have a vending program set up, where they provide a sticker or sign for your machine in return for a donation or a percentage of the profits. The charity that I believe the Lord wants me to give to, though, does not seem to have any such program. I have emailed them, and hopefully they will prayerfully consider starting a program like that. If not, then I pray for God's guidance as to which charity I should approach next. I really want to have these machines placed by the end of this month, and I don't want to do it without a charity backing me.
After all, besides the obvious part of the idea (donating to the charity), it's also an incentive to the business that I place the machine in, because they can then write off the space required for the machine. So it's a win-win situation all the way around. That is, if I can get the right charity behind me.
Once I have charity backing, I can work on getting them placed. Definitely the hardest part. I'm really a rather shy person... But I don't want these machines spending any more time just sitting in our kitchen. I want to get them placed and earning money. Lord willing. That's all for now, because I don't have much time. I just wanted to let everybody know where I'm at right now.
After all, besides the obvious part of the idea (donating to the charity), it's also an incentive to the business that I place the machine in, because they can then write off the space required for the machine. So it's a win-win situation all the way around. That is, if I can get the right charity behind me.
Once I have charity backing, I can work on getting them placed. Definitely the hardest part. I'm really a rather shy person... But I don't want these machines spending any more time just sitting in our kitchen. I want to get them placed and earning money. Lord willing. That's all for now, because I don't have much time. I just wanted to let everybody know where I'm at right now.
Wednesday, February 27
Beginning
Hi everybody! You might know me as Rebekah from Daddy's Girl, or maybe you just sort of stumbled upon me. Either way, I welcome you to My Candy Vending Venture blog.
For my first post, I'll give a little bit of introduction as to how I came to invest in candy vending machines. It started as part of a finances class in school, in which I read several books, including a few by Richard T. Kiyosaki. I began to get interested in the idea of someday being financially free. I also realized that I wanted to actually earn some money, even though I am still a student living at home, and I didn't really want a normal job, nor did I have time for a normal job. So I started looking into little side businesses, and stumbled upon vending machines.
After all, why not? It seems like nobody can refuse a nice little handful of candy for a quarter. They might not want to buy a whole bag of M&M's, but they can spend a quarter for a handful. Kids love it, adults love it, dentists...O.K., maybe dentists don't really care for it, except that it gives them more business. But parents like to have their kids happy and quiet, and a lot of adults have a sweet tooth, so vending is really rather popular. Even when times are hard, a little candy, for just a quarter, can make a bad day a little nicer.
In the next few posts I'll talk about the research I did to decide what machines I wanted and what to pay for them. I'm currently working on placing them, but I think that should be taken care of soon. So, the purpose of this blog is to, well, sort of document the process of finding the machines, filling them, getting backers, and placing them. Once we're pretty much finished with this process, we'll continue discussing the places, the problems, and the profits...and other stuff that doesn't start with P (I love alliteration!).
Well, that's all for this post. Visit the U-Turn website for more information on some great vending machines. The two that I currently have are the simple 4-selection U-Turns, which you can see here.
For my first post, I'll give a little bit of introduction as to how I came to invest in candy vending machines. It started as part of a finances class in school, in which I read several books, including a few by Richard T. Kiyosaki. I began to get interested in the idea of someday being financially free. I also realized that I wanted to actually earn some money, even though I am still a student living at home, and I didn't really want a normal job, nor did I have time for a normal job. So I started looking into little side businesses, and stumbled upon vending machines.
After all, why not? It seems like nobody can refuse a nice little handful of candy for a quarter. They might not want to buy a whole bag of M&M's, but they can spend a quarter for a handful. Kids love it, adults love it, dentists...O.K., maybe dentists don't really care for it, except that it gives them more business. But parents like to have their kids happy and quiet, and a lot of adults have a sweet tooth, so vending is really rather popular. Even when times are hard, a little candy, for just a quarter, can make a bad day a little nicer.
In the next few posts I'll talk about the research I did to decide what machines I wanted and what to pay for them. I'm currently working on placing them, but I think that should be taken care of soon. So, the purpose of this blog is to, well, sort of document the process of finding the machines, filling them, getting backers, and placing them. Once we're pretty much finished with this process, we'll continue discussing the places, the problems, and the profits...and other stuff that doesn't start with P (I love alliteration!).
Well, that's all for this post. Visit the U-Turn website for more information on some great vending machines. The two that I currently have are the simple 4-selection U-Turns, which you can see here.
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