Vending Opportunities

Vending is an excellent home based business. This allows you to be your own boss and work at your own convenience. The number of hours you need to work would depend on the number of machines you own. The other benefit of this business is that you need not employee any sales personnel as vending machines does all the sales for you. Of course, you can hire others to work for you depending upon the scale of your operations.

There are few things which you can do all by yourself. These include service and maintenance of your machines, restocking them and identifying new locations for installing your machines. In case you are unable to identify locations, you can take the help of route locators. Another way of finding locations is by consulting owners of restaurants or schools. These people can provide you with information like where to place your machines, what kind of machines are generally used and what kind of items are stocked in them.

As far as schools are concerned, there are the most preferred locations for installing vending machines. Initially operators selected schools for dispensing chocolates, snacks, ice creams, candies, juices, pizzas and similar food. But with increasing obesity among children, school management and parents are discouraging junk food machines. This has given rise to a new era in vending business and thus healthy vending came into existence.

The main aim of healthy vending is to inculcate healthy food habits among people in general. These healthy vending machines dispense healthy snacks, low fat food items, milk, and juices instead of junk food. As a prospective vending operator if you are unable to find a vending company that has a stock of these healthy food items, then you can purchase them yourself from healthy snack stores.

Another business opportunity for vending operators who target children is toy vending machines. These machines are most appropriate for stocking miniature toys. To become successful in this business, a vending operator should constantly be in the outlook for new avenues.

Planet Antares staff can provide you with all the necessary information that you would need to kick start your vending business. Planet Antares has been in business for over three decades and understands the business more than any other company. With their support you can surely achieve your goal of being financially independent.

Vending Nutritious Food

Obesity is a growing concern across the globe and more common among all age groups in US. It is really agonizing to notice that even school children fall prey to type 2 diabetics. What could be the reason? Increased consumption of junk food and little or absolutely zero physical activity are the main reasons. Obesity has several adverse effects on our health and makes us more susceptible to heart and other deadly diseases.

Many false allegations are made on vending industries stating that this industry is completely responsible for increasing obesity among school children. The main reason being schools are the most preferred locations for installing vending machines. Over the last few years, it has been observed that large numbers of children between the age group of 6 to 19 are overweight. Apart from this, two out of every three adults in US are overweight.

Obesity is a deep routed problem which cannot be solved immediately. There are several factors that lead to obesity and hence it is improper to blame vending industry alone. However, obesity has enlightened customers who are now switching to low carbohydrate and low fat nutritious food. Vending operators should make use of this change in customer habits for their own benefit.

Vending industry should offer nutritious food in order to meet the changing needs of customers. Here are the top five among latest trends that are to be adopted by vending operators:

• Eating healthy food: Vending operators should make required changes to promote healthy eating.

• Low carbohydrate food: Since customers are counting on the intake of carbohydrates, operators need to offer low carbohydrate and high protein products.

• Healthy food: Schools and parents are encouraging healthy food for children and are replacing junk food with healthy products. Operators should make use of this opportunity.

• Change in lifestyles: More and more individuals are seeking to make changes in their eating habits to lead healthier life styles. Customers are looking for products that can control their cholesterol and body fats.

Vending can be a successful business as long as operators keep themselves updated with changing markets and make modifications in accordance with customers tastes and preferences.

How to Increase Profits In Vending Business

Pricing is one of the most important marketing strategies. It influences the success or failure of a vending business. It has been observed in the last few years that vending operators are unable to hike their prices as other retail channels. Unlike other businesses, vending product prices are dependent on competition and customer contracts.

There are ways in which a vending operator can make profits. Increasing sales by reducing prices is one such way. The prices of product should be kept well within the reach of customers. This you can increase your sales and overall profitability. Another way is to slash prices of selected items without forgoing your profit margin. This is possible only if your vending machine is able to attract more customers.

Profitability can also be increased by reducing other over head costs. For this to happen, operator needs to make a note of all his expenses. Then he needs to identify those expenses that can be avoided. Thus he can reduce costs and increase profits.

Another way of increasing profits is by offering branded products. These are popular and have international acceptance. So operator need not spend any additional amount for its promotion. It is advisable that the operator vends both branded and unbranded items together. In this way he would be able to sell both the items without any problem.

Operator can also make minor changes in the products he offers. These days most customers prefer to use latest products. Operator can encash this opportunity by offering new products as and when they enter the market. In case the demand for these products fades away after certain time, he can replace them with the traditional products he has been vending. Thus he can make both customers happy and at the same time run his business smoothly.

Importance of Quality In Vending Machines

We take up vending business to make money. With a view to reduce initial cost of investment, operators buy used or refurbished vending machines. In this process, most of them compromise on the quality of machines they purchase. No matter, how many machines you buy or install your business will become successful only if your machines are of top quality and able to vend efficiently.

Based on their quality, vending machines may be categorised into three grades. Machines belonging to each of these grades differ in quality, price and features. So, it becomes imperative for the operator to be aware of the benefits of each of these machines and various options available. Operator should make wise decision before purchasing the machine.

“All that starts well ends well”, this holds good in case of a vending business. If you are smart enough to make prudent decision right at the time of purchasing itself, you can avoid unnecessary break downs and maintenance issues at a later stage.

It is always recommended to purchase new machines of reputed and well established companies like Planet Antares. Purchasing a right machine will not require you to devote endless hours checking on its working efficiency. Thus you can save a lot of time and money on repairs and maintenances of these machines.

Let us look on what basis these machines are graded.

Grade C vending machines: The body of these machines is made up of plastic. This makes them weak and also less reliable. These machines are more prone to frequent break downs and early wear and tear of components. Moreover, these machines are not very attractive to look at and hence not suitable for high profile locations.

Grade B vending machines: The body of these machines is made up of metal and hence are definitely better than grade C machines. However, there are still several issues with these machines. These machines are subject to more wear and tear and catch rust easily. You will have to regularly check on these machines to find out if there is any corrosion that may further damage the products stocked in the machine.

Grade A vending machines: These are undoubtedly best quality vending machines. It includes high quality metal and plastic components. It is definitely better that grade B and C machines and has combination of best features of both the above grades.

All these above factors will definitely help you in choosing the ideal vending machine that can make your business a huge success.

Vending Industry Challenges

Pricing is one of the important components of marketing mix. Price can make or break your business if not properly set. While setting the price of a product, there are several things that need to be considered. Few of them are demand of the product, target customers, targeted profit margin and competitors pricing strategy. The location in which you place your machine also influences its pricing. For instance if you place your machine in a middle class locality and price high, then there is every chance of decline in sales.

Vending is no doubt a great business but operators still face some challenges when it comes to changing prices. Even the slightest variation in prices can affect the overall profitability. While fixing prices, other factors like taxes, commissions, cost of good, equipment depreciation, spoilage and other overhead costs need to be considered. All these determine the profitability of an operator.

Operators need to monitor profitability across various locations and also consider the profit saving options. Raising prices may not be as easy as it may sound. Most customers resist price hikes in the initial stages but over a period of time they may accept it. This is true in relation to products that have regular demand. Customers have no option but to buy them even at the new price. Another profit saving option includes reducing commission, removing piece of equipment and increasing the frequency of servicing.

Before deciding on which method to adopt, operator needs to gather information about the sales and expenses pertaining to one particular location. Sometimes profits can be improved by improving the efficiency of vending machine. This might be easier when compared to increasing the price or concession in commission. You can relocate this machine to another location where it might work better. For more information you can also get in touch with Planet Antares support staff for any guidance or insight into this.

Several software packages are made available in the market that help you track your financials. However, operator needs to maintain accurate accounting books for implementing this software. These are some of the challenges faced by vending operators.