Have you ever wanted to be an entrepreneur? Make your own hours and take control of your financial future? If yes, then the vending machine business could be a great opportunity for you. Starting a vending machine industry is a great opportunity for anyone looking to get involved with small business. Like most successful entrepreneurship, starting a vending business also requires hard work.
1. Your Passion and Commitment
The first step is making the commitment that it is something that you want to do. You need to figure out your why factor. This is your long-term purpose of why you are starting your business. Whether it is to be your own boss or work your own hours, it is a decision that you need to make before you start. The reason this is important is that it will help keep you motivated throughout the process of starting and running your business.
2. Choose the Type of Vending Machine
Once you have made sure that this is the business for you, the next step is deciding what type of equipment you are going to use. This is an important decision to make AFTER you have established the locations for your machines. Type of vending machine should be influenced by the type of goods you intend to sell and sometimes the method of receiving payments. However, the common vending machine can do the followings :
- Office Supplies Vending machine – For school and office supplies
- Candy and Soda Vending machine– Drinks and snacks
- Coffee Vending machine – freshly brewed coffee, hot chocolates etc.
3. Decide the Vending Machine Location
Finding the locations for your vending machines is the single most important part of the business. It has been said that the vending machine business is actually just the location finding business. This is because, without a location, vending machines can’t make any money. So before you get involved with the vending machine business make sure you do your research on how to find and acquire the best locations for vending machines. If possible, even secure your locations before you buy your machines. You should select a high traffic area, such as the front of a busy store, for example, you can place the machine in the Senegambia area or West Field. These are commonly visited areas in The Gambia. Nonetheless, do not ignore the security and safety of the machine.
Read more about vending machine business.
4. Negotiate with Suppliers
You will need to make an arrangement with vendors who will provide the stock for your vending machine. This could be a form of a sales agent to supplier relationship or an outright purchase of stocks.
- Sales-agent – This involves looking for suppliers who are willing to provide the stock and pay you a commission on any sale quantity. This allows you to buy at the suppliers’ selling price and ability to return unsold stocks in most cases.
- Outright purchase – Here you buy the stock and sell them at a higher margin. For example, you buy a bottle of Coke for D10 and sell it at D12. You may not be able to return the unsold goods.
Of course, we are right to have assumed that you have prepared yourself for funding your business and maybe a simple business plan. Nonetheless, the vending machine business is a great opportunity for anyone looking to start their own small business in the Gambia. Well, if this describes you, take a look at a detail on how to Start a Vending Machine Business and to learn more.
Written by August Noble and our Staff Writer.
Finding locations for your machines is the most important part of starting a vending business. When you increase the number of your machines, the profits will compound, so a basic commitment is needed.
I agree with you Julius. The location of any business and particularly the selling point ( in this case the machine) is very important for sales growth.