662: From Zero to $50k/mo in Vending Revenue in 16 months

0:00:05 From zero to 50 grand in monthly vending revenue in 16 months.
0:00:08 What’s up? What’s up? Nick Loper here. Welcome to the side hustle show where we’ve been helping
0:00:13 people make extra money since 2013. Today we’re talking about the popular quote unquote passive
0:00:19 income business of vending machines and how my guest was able to scale up his operation to 30
0:00:26 locations in over 50 grand in monthly revenue in under a year and a half. From H&H Vending,
0:00:32 Cologia. Welcome to the side hustle show. Hey, Nick. Thanks for having me. You bet. Stick around in
0:00:36 this one. We’re going to learn how to negotiate your first vending machine placements, the right
0:00:42 locations that make the best fit there, the startup costs involved, and just how passive and profitable
0:00:47 the business really is if you’re constantly having to restock products. But Anthony, take me back to
0:00:52 the beginning, not that long ago, year and a half ago. And you’re thinking, why I ought to get into
0:00:57 this vending machine business. I’m going to turn some snacks and drinks into some monthly cash flow.
0:01:03 I’ve been in the real estate industry since like 2009. And I was like talking with my wife and I’m
0:01:07 like, my kids were three and five at the time. And I’m like, you know what? I’ve had the real estate
0:01:14 business. You know, I’ve been doing this here for, you know, 15 years. I go, I really want to do
0:01:19 something for like the kids. And I want to teach them like entrepreneurship and like work ethic. You know,
0:01:24 now that I’m making this transition from this other real estate job I was doing, I go,
0:01:28 we should look for some type of business that I could, you know, put the same blood, sweat and
0:01:33 tears that I’m putting in on the real estate side, you know, and put it into basically a business that
0:01:37 could be like a recurring income stream. Because with real estate, obviously there’s the highs and
0:01:42 lows and peaks and valleys. So, you know, once you sell a house or flip a house, it’s like, okay,
0:01:48 got to do it all over again. I came a guy across, uh, Mike Hoffman on Twitter and he had this
0:01:52 vendingpreneur community. Yes. Mr. Passive on Twitter, right? Mr. Passive. Yes, exactly.
0:01:58 And I was like, hmm, vending. Interesting. I go, and then I started like reading more about it.
0:02:02 And then I was like, you know what? I go to my wife’s name is Taylor. And I go, you know what?
0:02:07 I go, I think this could be a really good business that we could do. Not a lot of upfront capital
0:02:13 initially. We could grow it into something passively, you know, and do it with the kids. I can teach them
0:02:19 entrepreneurship and work ethic. And I think that would be a really good idea for us to kind of go
0:02:24 full blown. So it was like a two, three weeks. I was going back and forth with Mike and his team
0:02:31 and I ended up joining this community like end of September. And I just went full blown, like all in
0:02:37 at the time. Fast forward, you know, 15 months later, you know, we did, uh, with it just being the end of
0:02:42 February a couple of days ago, you know, we were over $65,000 in revenue, you know, and I’m looking
0:02:48 to be at over 75,000 by the end of April. Cause I have other machines that have just got installed
0:02:53 this past week. And I got three more that are going in, uh, three locations going in like next week.
0:02:59 And so that’s the name of the game is stacking locations and machines. And now what, what’s your
0:03:04 take on this? Like, is there a place for one machine, two, two machines, like, you know,
0:03:09 the toe dip, Hey, I want to get my kids, you know, some exposure to supply and demand and cashflow
0:03:14 and product inventory turnover. Or it’s like, do you need to go big? Like, do you need dozens of
0:03:18 machines to make it into like full-time thing? I mean, a full-time thing. Yes. But just to,
0:03:24 to be able to operate. Yeah, that’s a great question, Nick. And you know, my story is different from like
0:03:29 everybody else’s story. Like, so, like I said, I ended up joining Mike’s vendingpreneur community.
0:03:36 And when I was in there, I talked to a lot of other different people that had different routes.
0:03:41 I was kind of like treating them as like my board of directors, but there was a guy down in Texas.
0:03:48 He’s a high school football coach and a teacher, and he has only four locations and he’s doing 20 K a
0:03:55 month. Wow. You know, so you could be very selective with your locations of like how, like, depending on
0:03:59 your goals or what your time is like, Hey, I’m a fireman or I’m retired. I just want some supplemental
0:04:08 income, you know, or I’m a teacher and I want to teach my kids to do this. They’re 18 and 19 and
0:04:12 you’ve got some built-in stockers already and stuff. So it all depends on like what your goals are.
0:04:18 So for me, when I first got into the business, like I was like so antsy. I was like, Oh my God,
0:04:22 I got to get a location. Let’s do this. Let’s go. Let’s go. But the biggest thing I tell people now,
0:04:28 when they, when they’re going to start out something, I go, be poised, wait for the right location.
0:04:34 If it takes four or five months to wait for the right location, wait for it. Don’t just do your,
0:04:39 let me use a sports analogy here. Don’t use your spring training or training camp and like, um,
0:04:45 football on a, on a location that is not going to be the best. That’s what happened with me.
0:04:48 When I did it, I ended up getting a location that was five minutes from my house.
0:04:53 And unfortunately it’s only been doing like $700 a month because there were certain questions
0:04:59 questions that I didn’t maybe ask in the beginning of when I was basically looking when I was basically
0:05:04 qualifying that property. When I first initially went, I don’t know, 700 bucks a month is not
0:05:10 nothing. Well, 700 bucks a month of revenue. So once you deduct your cost of goods and your fees and all
0:05:14 this stuff, you know, usually your cost of goods, you want to shoot from like anywhere from like around
0:05:20 35%, you want to be like 35%. If you’re growing exponentially, like kind of how I am, you’re
0:05:26 buying so much inventory because you’re constantly refilling up new machines. I’ve been averaging a cost
0:05:31 of goods of maybe like anywhere between like 40 and 43%, you know, but like once I plateau,
0:05:38 my goal is to be 35 to 33 ish percent cost of goods, you know, at that point.
0:05:42 Okay. So interesting. Raw number is like sell something for a dollar. That means you bought
0:05:48 it for 30 cents. That’s correct. Okay. Yep. So I try to shoot for margins for drinks and chips. I try
0:05:55 to shoot for 65% plus candy can’t get there. Cocoa has gone up in price, you know, and just like with
0:05:58 everything with inflation, you know, candy is going to probably be like one of your worst margins,
0:06:05 you know, like it’s, you’re probably going to be like 50 to 57% on your candy. And then what I’ve
0:06:09 been doing is since I’ve been going into a lot of class A luxury apartments, a lot of the seven
0:06:17 11s and Walgreens and, you know, just have been closing, you know? And so what I’ve been doing
0:06:20 is I’ve been going in there with my pitch and saying to these property managers and say, Hey, you know
0:06:25 what? I’m like, I’m also going to, it’s not old school machines. I’m using these AI powered smart
0:06:31 markets now. And I’m saying, Hey, I could put incidental items in there, you know, Tylenol,
0:06:37 toilet paper, paper towels, Vizine, Mucinex, NyQuil, Tide Pods, Bounce Sheets, whatever.
0:06:40 Okay. Yeah. Yeah. More than just snacks and drinks. Sure.
0:06:45 Yeah. You know, you, those are a little bit like around a smaller margin, maybe like 45 to 50%,
0:06:50 but I put it in there because when I go in there to pitch a location, it’s a value add that may be
0:06:54 a certain person, a certain operator that has machines in there right now, they can’t offer.
0:06:54 Okay.
0:06:56 You know, so they see the value in me.
0:07:00 Let’s go back to this first location. The one that you said is doing 700 bucks a month.
0:07:01 Yes.
0:07:05 Sits super close to home. It sounds like, you know, business with training wheels,
0:07:10 like a, you know, low risk kind of a, kind of a thing. I could stock it myself as, as need be.
0:07:10 Yep.
0:07:15 You don’t have the machine yet. I imagine you get a yes from the property manager. What’s the
0:07:20 conversation like? Hey, have you, have you thought about Mike was, so Mike was on the show episode
0:07:25 599 last year. You go back, listen to that one, but he was like, don’t say the V word. He’s like,
0:07:30 lead with like modern amenities. Don’t say vending, but what’s your, what’s your conversation like
0:07:31 with this building or with this operator?
0:07:37 Yeah. Uh, vending it’s out of my vocabulary. Um, I, I, I say it’s, it’s, uh, there are smart
0:07:43 markets is basically what they are. The AR, the AI, their AI smart markets. And that’s what I lead
0:07:49 with. And then this is going to be amenity for your workforce. Uh, this is going to be an amenity
0:07:54 for your building, you know, cause if you don’t want it, I’m going to go down the street anyway.
0:07:58 And I’m going to talk to, you know, the other competitor. And if they say yes, that’s an amenity
0:08:03 that they’re going to have and that your building won’t have, you know? So it’s, it’s a competition
0:08:08 type business, especially, you know, like in luxury real estate, but like in manufacturing or
0:08:13 that’s the one warehouse that I’m in at right now, you know, they want their people to be satisfied
0:08:18 and work hard and it’s a nice amenity for them. You know, was that, was it an apartment
0:08:21 building that first location? No, the first location. So this is where I made the mistake.
0:08:26 So whoever’s listening and wants to start your own vending route, make sure you’ve qualified
0:08:31 the location thoroughly. So when I went there, they told me they had two shifts and it was 75
0:08:39 employees. So I assumed that it was 75 employees for both shifts. Well, it turned out to be that
0:08:44 there were 70 employees for the first shift. And then for the night shift, there were four.
0:08:51 So I was thinking that this thing was going to be 150 employee place. And it was just a mistake
0:08:55 on my part. You live and you learn, but you know, make sure you’re thorough and you ask those questions
0:08:59 and make sure you understand what the, you know, how many people are working there. I mean, especially
0:09:04 if you come across like one of these commercial buildings or office buildings, you know, what’s
0:09:08 the vacancy? Okay. Well, that’s great. But how many people, how many of these suites and
0:09:13 these people are working from home, how many of these companies inside this office building
0:09:18 are supplying goods for free, you know, cause it might be like a wealth management, you know,
0:09:22 team or office in there that has maybe a hundred employees that go in there, but then, but they’re
0:09:26 supplying everything for their employees for free protein bars, water, all that stuff. That’s,
0:09:32 that’s going to deter you to them from going there. So just make sure you’re very thorough with,
0:09:36 with like asking your questions once you go there, just so you’re qualifying the property
0:09:40 correctly. Because they might say, Hey, we’re 80% occupied, but if there’s, they’re only reporting
0:09:47 into work two days a week, it’s not a lot of foot traffic. Yeah. 80% times 40% of the week is a
0:09:54 little bit, a little bit lower. Is there a sweet spot that you found in terms of, you know, building
0:10:01 size, number of residents, number of workers, or, you know, before anything lower and just like,
0:10:06 it doesn’t really make sense. If I’m evaluating a property site, it’s got to have for residential
0:10:12 real estate, it’s got to have a minimum of 200 units. Okay. And I don’t like garden apartments.
0:10:17 So I don’t want like the, the machines being in a clubhouse. And then there’s a 800 units that are
0:10:22 like a four block radius. And then people have to walk to the clubhouse. I don’t like those.
0:10:26 I need a building that is a, it’s all one building. So the elevator takes you down to the
0:10:31 vending machine. You know, it takes you up. You can’t walk outside because again, convenience.
0:10:37 Yeah. Manufacturing facilities. I would want to be in there with at least 150 employees.
0:10:42 If it’s an office building, I mean, I’ll tell you, I’ve been looking at some of the most beautiful
0:10:47 skyscrapers in downtown Chicago for the past eight months. And I’ve had a ton of meetings with a lot
0:10:51 of them down there because I’ve just been getting referred to them, but I would go through the same
0:10:55 questions now of when I’m asking them, okay, what’s the vacancy? Oh, 60%. How many people are working
0:11:00 from home? Oh, well, you know, it’s Mondays and Thursdays are there’s about maybe a thousand
0:11:05 people through the turn dial, you know, and then maybe Fridays there’s maybe 300. I’m like, okay,
0:11:09 so we’re working with like around 2,300 people a week. So times that by four, you know, we’re like
0:11:15 around 9,200, you know, for the month. It’s like, I’m like, all right. I’m like, but I don’t know
0:11:18 like how good it’s going to do. And a lot of these commercial buildings, they have these empty
0:11:23 seven 11s or the bookstores that they used to have where they were cooking before COVID, you know,
0:11:28 they got all these empty spaces, but I just don’t want to be the Guinea pig. So what I’ve been doing
0:11:31 is, and I haven’t got anyone to take one yet. Mike has been a lot better than me. He’s actually had
0:11:36 some people that have subsidized. So what I do is, is with those commercial buildings, just so I’m not
0:11:41 losing in the beginning is that I will go in there and then I will offer them. And I’ll say here, I
0:11:45 don’t know what your location is going to go ahead and do. I go, but I need a, and I’ll work my numbers
0:11:49 backwards with like what I need to be profitable on that location. And I’ll just say, for an example,
0:11:53 I need to make $2,000 in revenue. That way it could cover my cost of goods, my stock or any
0:11:59 spoilage. This monthly or weekly? Monthly. Okay. Yeah. So if the machine without me knowing it,
0:12:04 if it goes in there to does $1,300 a month, you know, okay, I’m going to invoice you for the
0:12:09 difference of $700 where you’re building or your owner is going to have to pay. I know you guys want
0:12:15 these amenities and stuff like that, but I can’t take that risk of being a Guinea pig here and having
0:12:19 this thing, having me lose money. And then I have to move the machine for relocation and all that.
0:12:23 And then like, I’m, I don’t win, you know, it’s not, it doesn’t set me up for success. I haven’t
0:12:28 had anybody take me up on that yet. Mike has maybe done two or three of those out for him out in the
0:12:32 West, out in Oregon by you guys. Like he has done, like he’s been like a master at it.
0:12:38 Got it. So that is, so that’s the pitch is like, look, we could offer these, um, amenities,
0:12:43 snack, drink, you know, food service ourselves as the business owners, or we could hire
0:12:47 Anthony to do it. And we understand he’s got to make some money and this is his minimum.
0:12:50 And if it doesn’t hit that minimum, then we’re going to have to subsidize it,
0:12:55 but it’s still worthwhile because it keeps our employees, you know, keeps the tenants happier.
0:12:58 That’s the pitch anyways. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, absolutely.
0:13:02 More with Anthony in just a moment, including what happens when your prospect building
0:13:07 already has a vending machine and how much you might have to pay to place a new machine right after
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0:15:27 Shopify.com slash side hustle. I asked Mike the same question, like if this building has been around for
0:15:33 10, 15, 20 years, like have they literally never thought about this before? It’s hard to imagine
0:15:38 an office building or even a residential building that didn’t already have this vending machine in the
0:15:44 lobby or in the elevator bay. What I have found out in this business is extremely archaic.
0:15:50 All these property managers, majority of them had operators in there, but they just couldn’t get a
0:15:56 hold of them or they weren’t stocking it. So what I do is when I go into an appointment, I tell them,
0:16:00 hey, I’m local. You could call me. You’re going to call this cell phone number. You’re going to get me.
0:16:04 Okay. And I’m going to get back to you right away. When you’re dealing with these property managers,
0:16:08 these people that have decisions they have to make, they don’t want another headache of chasing you
0:16:12 down as a vendor, you know, and that, cause already doing that and dealing it with all these other
0:16:14 fires that they’re dealing with through the building. They’re dealing with the painter,
0:16:18 the scaffolder, the window company, the, you know, all these other different trades that they’re
0:16:22 dealing with. If you just call and you give them a nice experience of customer service back,
0:16:27 it’s refreshing to them. So when I go look at a property, I put a proposal together. I send it,
0:16:33 I take pictures and video. I send it over to my mock-up guy. He gets it over to me within 24 hours
0:16:36 and I send them a proposal within 24 hours. And every single time when I do that,
0:16:41 they are floored away of how quickly they got that proposal. So get back to people quickly,
0:16:45 you know, set expectations from the beginning. A lot of these, like I said, a lot of these property
0:16:50 managers, they are, they’re, they’re worried about when is it going to be stocked because it hasn’t
0:16:54 been regularly stocked. So I, I go on that first meeting and I set up the expectation. I tell them,
0:17:00 I go here, when I’m, when we sign up, I’m going to let you know what day your property is going to be
0:17:05 stocked on. So then that way, if you’re getting down to like four Cokes or three Snickers, I don’t,
0:17:10 I don’t need to have 30 property managers texting me. Hey, it’s getting low. I’ve already set the
0:17:14 expectation of knowing that, Hey, your machine is going to be filled up on Tuesdays. So if it’s
0:17:18 Monday or Sunday and it’s low, I mean, we’re going to be refilling it shortly. So they know I’m coming,
0:17:23 setting that expectation. And I let them know after the first month, if I feel like your machine needs
0:17:27 to be stocked twice a week or three times a week, we’ll make the adjustments in our route schedule.
0:17:31 we’ll make sure that it’s going to be filled. Okay. So you find a lot of time you’re conquesting
0:17:39 market share from some legacy providers that have gotten, um, you gotten complacent or, you know,
0:17:44 they’re not answering the phone. They’re not performing the way that you would like for somebody
0:17:48 who’s new to the business, who’s young and hungry, who wants to go out and get it with a, with a more
0:17:52 modern experience or more modern machine. A hundred percent. Okay. Because a lot of the locations that I go
0:17:56 into, some of them had the same machines that I had in, but the other half, you know, they had
0:18:00 maybe the old school coil machines that maybe when me and you were growing up that we would see.
0:18:07 Yeah. I remember, you know, banging on, come on. Exactly. You know, it was like, so now I go in,
0:18:12 I show exactly now this new machine, these new machines that I have. And, um, you know, they’re
0:18:16 blown away, you know, they’re blown away. Okay. So that’s what’s in the proposal. The proposal says,
0:18:20 this is the machine that we’re going to use. You need to check out the specs, the model number,
0:18:24 you know, how, what it’s, what it could potentially hold in terms of inventory. This is when we’re
0:18:29 going to come by your stocking, restocking day is Tuesdays. And, you know, here it is sign on the
0:18:36 bottom line. Are they looking for concessions from you in terms of, well, you’re going to take up,
0:18:41 you know, 12 square feet of our floor space. We’re going to charge you rent for that on a monthly
0:18:47 basis, or we’re going to charge you a percentage of sales. Like what’s, what’s typical in terms of
0:18:52 that arrangement? So usually there’ll be a rev share agreement that I’ll give them when I go
0:18:56 into there. You know, when I first initially thought when I got in this business, I’m like,
0:19:00 ah, do I give rev shares? Why not? But I don’t need Anthony 2.0 coming down the line and offering
0:19:04 rev share to all my buildings and trying to boot me out, you know, uh, you know, a year down the line.
0:19:06 It’s always another person coming down the line.
0:19:11 Exactly. After I just spent $400,000 on equipment, you know, this past year. But like,
0:19:16 what I’m saying is I go in there and I say, here, I offer it from them to the beginning of
0:19:21 a rev share. And because I want to view it as a partnership, if I’m doing the job of what I’m
0:19:26 doing and I’m constantly evolving, uh, and I’m making certain changes and I’m doing different
0:19:32 things there, like with the machines and trying out new products. And I’m just very, I tell everybody,
0:19:36 I’m a very collaborative person. I don’t care what it is to put into these machines. I don’t care.
0:19:41 Like I will put whatever I have my variety that I put in there initially because I tell the,
0:19:45 I tell everyone it’s like dating, you know, it’s like a month or so. And so you kind of learn that
0:19:49 building. What do they like? Do they like Pepsi? Do they like Coke? Do they like Doritos? Do they
0:19:54 like Cheetos? Like, do they have more protein? Do they like kind bars? If somebody has a suggestion,
0:19:59 that person, that resident could scan that QR code and they could go ahead and send that back to me.
0:20:03 And my staff gets it. And we review those weekly. And then we make those changes, you know,
0:20:08 on certain those machines. If somebody has got a request for, um, a La Columbe black coffee,
0:20:12 I’ll go in there and I’ll take out one of the drinks that are maybe not selling. Maybe the Pepsi
0:20:15 isn’t selling and I’ll just replace it the following week and put it in there.
0:20:19 Okay. That’s, yeah, that’s kind of cool to crowdsource that wisdom a little bit. Yeah.
0:20:23 You can take a stab at the beginning. This is what we’re going to put in.
0:20:23 Yeah.
0:20:28 And then you get some data pretty quickly. If you got 200 residential units to say, well,
0:20:32 what’s, what’s actually moving here? And then take out the bottom 10%, bottom 20%,
0:20:33 try something new.
0:20:37 Exactly. No, absolutely. You know? And then basically that’s kind of like what I do. So
0:20:41 if I get those suggestions, I’ll review those weekly. And then I basically do a review of all
0:20:43 the machines, like, you know, basically monthly.
0:20:46 Okay. On the rev share side, what’s typical?
0:20:52 Three to 5%. Yeah. So when I go in there and it’s of gross sales, you know, because, um,
0:20:56 if you do it off profit, like, you know, profit could get like a little, it’s, it’s a little
0:20:56 tough.
0:21:00 Not, not a ton, but it’s, it’s just something to throw the property management company or
0:21:02 throw the building owner.
0:21:06 Throw the owner. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s more about them getting a little bit of
0:21:10 something back. You know, they feel validated that they’re getting something for return for
0:21:10 this amenity.
0:21:15 Because the alternative is they could just do it themselves. And I’ve been reviewing some like
0:21:20 performa, like real estate syndication type of documents. And there’s a line item on there
0:21:25 for like laundry and vending. Like they count on this as the investment group as part of their
0:21:31 revenue. And so there’s some segment of the building owner populations like, no, we’ll just
0:21:36 keep that in house. We’ll keep, you know, all that margin. But there’s another segment, like the kind
0:21:40 that you’re catering to is like, we don’t want to deal with the logistics of product and restocking
0:21:44 and machine maintenance or anything like that. We’ll just, Hey, you want to give us 5%? Cool.
0:21:46 You, you deal with it.
0:21:50 Yeah, they don’t. Because a lot of the people that I’ve experienced with is that they just have
0:21:54 so many fires that they’re putting out, fix this punch list on this unit here, this move in there,
0:22:00 like all this stuff. So like I am, you know, there’s just, there’s just a lot of, you know,
0:22:05 fires that they’re putting out and to have them focus on restocking. That is just something that
0:22:09 it’s like the ROI is not there for them. That’s not the best use of those, uh, those property
0:22:09 managers time.
0:22:15 Got it. So you mentioned, you kind of alluded to this equipment cost here. What does a vending machine
0:22:23 cost? What is, what’s your take on financing versus buying versus new versus use? Like lots
0:22:24 of different routes that you can go here.
0:22:30 I have like five different machines, which is kind of hectic because now I’m dealing with five
0:22:34 different operating systems, uh, in their backend and trying to have them all communicate to each
0:22:39 other with me, just pulling reports and all that stuff as well too. So, um, it’s a little bit of a pain
0:22:43 in the butt, but, uh, I’m working through it. It’s not like, like, it’s not like hard and it’s
0:22:48 like so much like extra work, but it is, you know, it is a nuisance in contrast to like the Southwest
0:22:53 model where we’re going to fly one type of airplane. So every, you know, any mechanic can work on any
0:22:57 plane, like that kind of thing versus, okay. It adds just a little bit of complexity.
0:23:02 Yep. Absolutely. So like the, I have a futuro combo machine, which it might be like one of those
0:23:07 ones with like the coil and that one takes cash. You know, those, I have a, I have four of those
0:23:13 machines at a shelter and those cost me like around 5,000 and I bought those refurbished.
0:23:18 Okay. Brand new. They would probably go for 6,500. I think is the new pricing as of 2025.
0:23:24 The micro markets. I have three of those. When I, when I say micro market, those are like those open
0:23:32 markets, people, you know, honest policy people could check out at a kiosk, you know, and those roughly,
0:23:37 and then I’d have to build and put those together and those run anywhere from like eight to like,
0:23:42 nine grand of what those are. But in those items, you got to look because you have some theft,
0:23:48 you know? So it adds a little bit to my guy when he goes to stock it. Cause one of our policies are,
0:23:54 one of our processes are when he goes to restock that micro market, he counts, he, he stocks the
0:23:59 whole unit. And then he has to go and verify all the inventory that is there, every single item.
0:24:04 And then if there’s 10 Cheetos that says on the system, but there’s only physically eight,
0:24:07 he has to change it to eight. Cause what happened to those other 10? Well,
0:24:12 somebody probably stole it. Yeah. You know? So those are the micro markets. I have Stockwell’s,
0:24:20 which are an AI smart machine. Those run like around like eight grand, like 80, like nine grand,
0:24:26 probably once, once it’s delivered with freight. And then the newest and latest machine that I’ve been
0:24:31 installing, I’ve installed 33 of them within the past four months has been these micro marts.
0:24:36 so they are a refrigerator. They’re AI power machines work like a Stockwell, but they hold
0:24:43 more inventory, but they actually have a video digital board that runs on the machine. So,
0:24:48 which is very powerful for me because like I can run ads on there is what I’m feeling like what I can
0:24:52 do down the line. Once I have the data and that could be additional revenue that I could get in without
0:24:57 even like, I haven’t even tapped into yet. Sounds fancy. Dude. When I was installing one of these last
0:25:02 weeks in the Fulton market area, which is like an emerging area, like in the West loop in Chicago,
0:25:07 like it’s like where Google has their space and there’s new buildings being built all the time
0:25:14 over there. The property manager was doing a tour, a owner’s tour and I was installing them. And when he
0:25:17 was, when he was walking, when one of the people were walking by, they like looked at it, they took a
0:25:21 picture and you know, because they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It’s not like anything that
0:25:25 they have seen. It’s a really good looking machine. So property manager comes around the corner and
0:25:31 gives me a fist bump, you know, cause I made them look good on his tour. Nice. What are those things
0:25:37 run you? So those with freight, they are like around like 12 K on there, you know, so they’re a little
0:25:45 bit more expensive, but I’m, I’m, I’m counting on the ad space that I could potentially be selling down
0:25:49 the line. Once I have the data in front of me, Hey, I’m at a 500 unit building. I’ve had,
0:25:55 you know, there’s a monthly, I have over, you know, 800 transactions. There’s been this amount
0:25:59 of dollars, you know, and then, Hey, Coke, Pepsi, Chicago Cubs, you guys are playing the Cardinals
0:26:03 this week. Okay. But you want to put, you know, something in ad space on here for a hundred bucks
0:26:07 a month or 50 bucks a month, you know, and run it. Okay. Yeah. Now you’re in the media business.
0:26:11 Exactly. Right. Got a little mini billboard here for you. That’s what I’m hoping. I mean,
0:26:15 that’s, that’s my goal there to kind of really increase the revenues on those machines. So like
0:26:19 that, that is my goal. So next year, I’ll hopefully have a better idea about how that went.
0:26:24 This is helpful at the risk of doing public math, which I’ve sworn off doing, but it’s kind of this
0:26:31 upfront capital in equipment and inventory. And then, you know, a payback period of a number of
0:26:37 months or potentially years, if it’s a slow location, but like, how do you think about a winning
0:26:42 location or what’s kind of a target ROI, if you think about it that way, in terms of,
0:26:44 you know, the payback period on one of these machines?
0:26:50 So with me being initially started, I wanted to increase my cash flows right away on these,
0:26:56 on these routes that I had. Cashflow was very important to me. So I actually ended up paying
0:27:03 some of my first locations cash just so I didn’t have a finance payment. And that way I was able to
0:27:08 increase like my cashflow net. I wouldn’t have to factor that, you know? So one of those machines
0:27:16 that I bought was like nine grand with, it was doing like 23, 22 to $2,500 a month. So my net payment
0:27:23 of like what would come to me off of all that would be like around like 750 or 800 bucks. So I was like,
0:27:28 okay, my net payment is 750, 800. I’m going to break even on this and like less than a year. And then like,
0:27:34 if I look at my return on that, like every year over going over, like I’m going to be making that
0:27:38 it’s like a hundred percent return. So I’m like, right after it’s paid off. I mean, there’s depreciation,
0:27:43 there’s maintenance involved, I imagine, but you’ve covered your expenses and then it’s all gravy.
0:27:46 Yeah. Then it’s all gravy. And then like, I’m running the numbers. I’m like, okay, here, it’s
0:27:49 like a, each year it just goes up a hundred percent return, return, return, return. And then obviously
0:27:54 there might be maintenance and it might not be go up as high each year’s as that. But so when I was
0:27:58 looking at the numbers, I was like, oh my gosh, I’m like, I have to like, I’m making like 8% over
0:28:02 here. I’m like, I’m just going to take my money out and then just invest it into my machines. You
0:28:06 know, it’s like a better return. Right. Cause if you’re looking at a a hundred percent return
0:28:11 potentially. Yeah, exactly. So that’s the way I looked at it, you know, initially now what I did
0:28:16 was is that since I was growing, I leveraged like financing capabilities, you know? So some of these
0:28:21 places had, um, financing options. Basically what that meant was it would be like 0% down and then
0:28:25 they would finance it over 60 months and then maybe be like a 12%, you know, interest note.
0:28:31 And then maybe that machine would cost me like 160 or 175 bucks a month, you know? But if I’m making
0:28:37 1500, $1,600, you know, the one 60, one 75, it really wasn’t, you know, the end of the world,
0:28:41 like for me to go ahead and pay that, make that payment. Cause now I got extra cash where I could
0:28:47 go reinvest back into the business by just, you know, buying inventory, you know, building out the
0:28:51 warehouse and all that stuff as well too, which I’ll kind of talk about like how my transition went from
0:28:57 like me actually like growing. And then when I actually hired my first person and like when I
0:29:04 actually did that. Yeah. But yeah, so that’s kind of like where I was at within regards to like
0:29:08 evaluating these things, if I should pay cash or if I should go ahead and finance it, I will say
0:29:13 besides those first couple of machines that I paid cash, I financed every single one since.
0:29:19 More with Anthony in just a moment, including how he turns one location lead into three and hiring some
0:29:23 help. So we didn’t have to keep stocking the machines all by himself right after this.
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0:31:49 Okay, this is really helpful because yeah, I think we hear all $400,000 in equipment costs. Like, you know, the
0:31:56 jaw kind of hits the floor. But there are different creative options. Think about your return on monthly
0:32:04 cash flow, right? If you said, Oh, my financing payment on this machine is $175, $200 a month. And I’m clearing, call it
0:32:12 $300 even in monthly profit on maybe $1,000 in sales. Like if we’ve got those, that’s even like really low
0:32:18 margins. You’re paying for the machine, you’re paying for your inventory. And even if you’re breaking even
0:32:22 for the duration of that payment period, like you’re adding equity to the business, which is another
0:32:26 really interesting thing. It’s just like, yes, there’s this monthly, you know, semi-passive cash flow
0:32:31 play. But there’s also like, okay, now if I’ve got this route that’s doing 50, 60 grand a month,
0:32:38 like there’s a multiple that a new another vending operator would come in and buy that from you. Did you consider
0:32:45 buying existing routes like to grow through acquisition, if you know, from that old tired operator that you just wanted
0:32:50 out? Or has it all been kind of new, new conquest or new, new placements?
0:32:56 No, but I actually we I actually bought one in downtown Chicago, there was a kid through the community, Mike’s community
0:33:02 that was moving back home. And we, I basically bought it from him and we transitioned him out as
0:33:07 he moved back home. And I basically took over his route. Okay. When I joined his community in like
0:33:12 October of like 2023, he has like a lead generation service and stuff like that. So I like paid for him
0:33:16 to handle all that stuff. So as I was doing that, I was doing pop-up, pop-ins, hitting the ground and
0:33:21 everything. Like it was very like light for me, like in the beginning, like I, like I got some leads, but
0:33:26 like they weren’t really like good locations to do. And then like February of 2024, it just like all
0:33:30 happened like a waterfall. Like every property manager was answering the email campaigns that
0:33:35 his team set up. And it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I was like, what the, yeah, it was,
0:33:41 it took me off guard. So I went to every one of those meetings and I closed them. Now I live an hour and a
0:33:46 half away from the city of Chicago. So I didn’t want to build a business model where I had to go down to
0:33:51 the city. I wanted to build it out by my house and I wanted to do it within like 25 minutes of
0:33:56 driving. Didn’t work out like that. So I pivoted in my business and I ended up getting a storage unit
0:34:03 downtown, started off in an 80 square foot unit, went to 150 square foot unit. And then we just like in
0:34:08 September of last year, you know, we went to a 700 square foot unit spot. You know, when I went into
0:34:14 those meetings with those property managers, I went in there and I closed every single one of them.
0:34:18 And then what I did was the reason why I was able to grow so quickly was I was able to turn one of
0:34:24 those leads into three other locations by saying, Hey, you have another property manager. You have a
0:34:28 regional manager that oversees other properties that would like to see our, get value from our
0:34:32 amenity and see those other buildings. And then it was just like, introduce me here to there. I would
0:34:36 go look at those things, put the proposal together for that one and then close it and go.
0:34:41 So turning one customer into two, turning one lead into three. Say again, how are you incentivizing
0:34:44 those people to introduce you to other property managers?
0:34:47 So like going back to the rev share, like people will talk about it and say, Hey,
0:34:51 will you offer rev share? Yeah, I do. Well, and then what I would say is like, okay,
0:34:56 it doesn’t start until six months after. Cause I have a huge front upfront costs of like buying the
0:35:00 machines and everything like that. I’m like, so what I’ll do is I’ll start rev share after six
0:35:04 months, but I will expedite, I will cancel that out and expedite the rev share for you.
0:35:08 You know, if you refer me to over three other sister properties that you have within your network
0:35:11 and they’re like, Oh, well, we’ll take it. Some of them, some of them jump on it. Some of them
0:35:16 don’t majority of them did. And then I was able to get into these other, you know, locations relatively
0:35:22 quickly and kind of grow the route pretty quick. Do you find that? Is that just a virtue of like
0:35:26 podcasters, no other podcasters, property managers, no other property managers. So it’s just like,
0:35:29 well, this, you know, ownership group just has other buildings around the city.
0:35:34 It’s more of that property manager, the company that they work for, how many buildings do they manage?
0:35:39 Yeah. Okay. Okay. And there’s some of them out there that manage 700,000 properties throughout
0:35:43 the United States. There’s other ones that manage 500,000. Yeah. But there’s also other ones that
0:35:47 are like smaller, which are good, you know, that you can go in and they might have 20 properties and
0:35:51 you could gain access to all 20 of those. So it all depends.
0:35:56 Yeah. So then you have a warm lead versus a completely cold, cold call or cold email to some
0:36:00 random property manager. It’s like your coworker or your peer, you know, around the corner,
0:36:05 you said we ought to get in touch and we can start that conversation. At what point do you bring on
0:36:09 somebody to help stock these things? It sounds like you’re spending a lot of time on the business
0:36:15 development time. Yeah. Meetings with property managers, dealing with the higher level type of
0:36:19 stuff, but at the same time, like, oh shoot, we’re sold out of Snickers on third street. So now I got to
0:36:23 go over here. It’s like, talk to me about the logistics maybe early on and then what that kind
0:36:28 of has transitioned to today. Absolutely. So my first machine was installed of December of 2023.
0:36:33 I then had a bunch of other, these ones, I had another one installed in January 23 or 24 and then
0:36:37 another one in March of 24. So I had three that were up and running like out in the Western suburbs,
0:36:42 like by me that I was handling and I was using a, I was basically using the third car garage out of my
0:36:48 house for this, which my wife, you know, God bless her. She’s been unbelievably supportive and amazing,
0:36:52 you know, throughout this whole process. But you know, she was like, okay, I don’t know if I want
0:36:58 to make this into our warehouses, our garage, you know? So you had to battle that stuff for a little
0:37:03 bit. So then once I started growing into the city and then when I bought that route in May of 2024,
0:37:09 I had them still stock the route in May for me. So it was good. Cause it gave me like time to get my
0:37:13 stuff settled down there in the city, find a storage unit, you know, which was a pain in the butt,
0:37:18 you know, because a lot of these life smart and life cubes and life storage facilities,
0:37:22 they don’t allow you to have delivered food there cause they don’t want infestation. So I was
0:37:28 actually able to find a place that was basically like a shared office space that, that hosted weddings
0:37:31 and stuff like that. So they didn’t care about food and they had a loading dock and everything.
0:37:36 So I was thinking down the line with me growing this, I need to find something with a loading dock.
0:37:40 So if there’s a pallet that’s going to be dropped off once my route gets big enough,
0:37:45 like I need those tools and that accessibility eventually down the line. So that way I’m not
0:37:50 jumping to another location. Okay. I didn’t even think about that. Like, yeah, you got to have an
0:37:56 animal proof type of space. Are you at that point now ordering like from, I don’t know, from
0:37:59 corporate or like a distributor? What happened? Like, how do you get the stuff?
0:38:05 Yeah. So what I did was originally I was buying all the stuff from the big box stores, Mike,
0:38:10 but what he did was he actually went with like the mothership since that community has grown so much.
0:38:15 And he basically negotiated distributor ships with all these different companies. And he went there
0:38:20 with the volume basis of the community. So it was great. So what happened was we went to this one
0:38:27 distributor and then now I could have pallets being dropped off at my warehouse now, because now where
0:38:33 my route is at, like I order a lot of inventory weekly last month’s cost of goods for me when I
0:38:41 did 65,000 was like $27,000, you know, and cost of goods again, a higher number because I’m buying,
0:38:47 I installed so many machines. So I had to install and stock so many machines that were bare right now.
0:38:53 That number will come down once, once it’s stabilized. Yeah, exactly. So what happened was I started
0:38:58 interviewing people last year in June. I was stocking all the stuff myself in June. Mike really
0:39:02 pushed me because Mr. Passive is like, you can’t be stocking these machines. You know, you’re not
0:39:07 saying that you’re not saying I’m not good enough for a 25 hour job, but like my skill set, I should
0:39:11 be using it and focusing on stuff that’s 800 or 900 or a thousand dollars per hour. I had to focus on
0:39:17 business development and growing the route. Yeah. So he’s like, but I’m like, Mike, I can’t like afford it,
0:39:21 you know, because I’m, I won’t be in the red for a little bit, you know, with bringing on a guy and all
0:39:27 this stuff. He’s like, just do it. Just like, all right. So I did it. I went out there, I posted an
0:39:33 ad and I was interviewing people and I was interviewing people based off of their car and
0:39:37 their van. And do you have a van? Do you have a truck? Cause I needed somebody to put all these
0:39:42 tow containers like in there. So I’m telling Mike and he goes, Anthony, he goes, just buy a van. I go,
0:39:46 Mike, I go, I’ve talked to you in two days. Every time I talked to you, you’re costing me money.
0:39:50 You’re costing me 30 grand here, you know, with a van I got to buy now and all this stuff. But
0:39:54 you know what I bought in and he goes, you know what, Anthony, you have to,
0:39:58 because how are you going to grow the route? If you’re going to be stocking and doing these machines
0:40:02 six hours a day, you know, when are you going to do it? You’re never going to see your family.
0:40:06 It’s going to be like another job for you. Yeah. The driver that you hired because he had a van
0:40:11 leaves for whatever reason. And then you’re back to ground zero. Yeah. Back to ground zero. So I bought
0:40:16 the van. I bought one of those four transit connect vans. They’re like 103,000 miles on it. I bought
0:40:21 it, put zero down. It was like a $300 a month, monthly payment. Car insurance is maybe like a
0:40:26 buck 75 or something like that. So I bought it. Then I was, I went back to interviewing people and I was
0:40:31 able to interview people based on the best quality candidate that I could get instead of worrying
0:40:36 about their, if they had a van or a car or a truck. Yeah. Yeah. So I was able to do that. I ended up
0:40:41 hiring somebody, brought them on. It’s nice that the facility that I have my warehouse at,
0:40:45 they allow me to park in their parking lot. Now it costs me a hundred bucks a month, but
0:40:51 that way I have the car parked there, you know, on site for my, for my guy to use.
0:40:55 Yeah. And at that time I had like 2000 units I had at the time.
0:40:58 Sorry, like rows of product in a machine?
0:41:02 No. So what I mean, 2000 units, I meant like 2000, like luxury apartment units over five buildings at
0:41:06 the time. Okay. Got it. Got it. Like one building was 200 units. The other one was 250,
0:41:12 one was 600, you know, so I had 2000 units. So I needed to hit the pavement, start going around and,
0:41:18 you know, start building that up, you know? So just this past month, I’ve eclipsed 10,000 units total
0:41:27 across my whole locations. And I have like 36 locations actually now. I’m counting the three that
0:41:32 are going to be delivered and it would be installed here this week. But, you know, I would have not been
0:41:39 able to add 8,000 units to my route if I was picking and stocking. So like, sure. Thank goodness. I took
0:41:44 his advice and I leaped and it sucked. I mean, I was nervous about it initially, but you know,
0:41:50 I jumped and I went after it, you know, I don’t want to say like a cliche saying, but like, you got to
0:41:55 start being like comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I know that’s a cliche that a lot of people say.
0:42:01 And literally that’s what I did. And I leveraged myself and I went after it.
0:42:07 Yeah. It’s that kind of hold your breath for this short-term period. And it’s like that in a lot
0:42:11 of side hustles where it’s like, I can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel and I know it’s
0:42:16 going to be uncomfortable to get there, but hopefully it’s a short-term thing. And I believe in the
0:42:21 business. I believe we can get there, but it’s, it’s not going to be fun for a minute.
0:42:26 Yeah. You know, and it’s going back to that cliche. Like I talked to somebody the other day and he’s
0:42:29 like, Hey, Anthony, I really want to get on. And he told me this and he was like, you know,
0:42:33 I’m an IT guy and I’m an introvert. And you know, do you have to be really good at sales? Like when
0:42:37 you go out and all this stuff. And I’m like, I’m like, here man, you are, you’re going to not saying
0:42:41 you have to be the best at sales. I’m like, my pitch now is totally different from when I started 15
0:42:45 months ago. I go, but I asked him, I go, are you married? You have a partner? He goes, yeah,
0:42:48 I’m married. I got two kids. I go, well, dude, I’m like, you had to sell your wife on marrying you.
0:42:54 You know, I’m like, you had some type of sales quality to convince her to know that she wanted
0:42:59 to spend the rest of your life with you. I go. So I go dig down. You have the ability
0:43:04 and just know that it’s a numbers game and you’re going to hear a lot and a lot of no’s before you
0:43:08 hit a, hear a lot more yeses. And you’re just gonna have to be, you have to get through it. And
0:43:11 it’s just a numbers game, brother. And you just have to work through it.
0:43:14 What kind of common objections do you hear from property managers when you
0:43:17 are making the initial outreach or even after you sent your proposal?
0:43:23 With them, it’s always like follow-ups because vending is not like their first priority.
0:43:29 They’re dealing with so much other stuff that’s going on there throughout the building. So there’ll
0:43:35 be times where I send a proposal and, you know, I won’t get assigned one back for a month and a half
0:43:40 or two. You know, there’s one right now that I’ve sent over last July and I’m still popping in and
0:43:45 just touching base and doing all these different things monthly because that’s the name of the
0:43:49 game in sales and pipeline. You just got to build your pipeline up. And then once one says yes,
0:43:53 one will say another yes. I mean, I got an email last week from somebody. Hey, Anthony, I talked to
0:43:58 you back in October. When can I get the machines in? I’m like, okay, sounds good. Nice to hear from
0:44:03 you, you know, but like, uh, so it does take some follow-up. It does take some sales strategy of like
0:44:08 how you want to go ahead and follow up. You know, you don’t want to be following up with people saying,
0:44:13 Hey, did you get my proposal? Where are you at now? You know, like I always follow up and I always
0:44:18 want to add like some type of value. Hey, I, I just talked to the CEO and I’m going to be ordering
0:44:23 machines this week. You know, can I get that signed proposal back where I can kind of add you to that
0:44:27 order, you know, creating some type of urgency, doing some type of different type of sales follow-ups
0:44:32 to kind of always add value. I’m not a big person of like, Hey, when are you going to get it back?
0:44:36 Cause like if somebody reads that, like I know when I read it, when I’m so busy, like, it’s just like,
0:44:39 I’m like, all right, uh, I’ll respond back to you later. Like there was no value, but it’s like,
0:44:44 Hey, I made a new vendor. I’m going to be installing crumble cookies in our machines. Now what this
0:44:47 guy’s gonna be installing crumble cookies. Oh my God. That’s so great. This is what, you know,
0:44:51 and then they respond. Okay. Have you been able to get the kids involved at all? Oh yeah, no,
0:44:57 absolutely. So on the weekends we do our Costco runs and do the picking in the garage. I’ll actually
0:45:02 brought them to some locations with me where I actually stocked them myself because the stocker at the
0:45:06 time couldn’t stock it for me. So I go, come on kids, let’s go, let’s get in the car and let’s go.
0:45:12 And I got photos of them doing it. And I’ll tell you that, that was the main mission for me was to
0:45:17 teach them entrepreneurship and work ethic when we first started. And then they were three and five at
0:45:22 the time. And they’re now going to be five and seven here, you know, come in May, but just their
0:45:28 transformation of their minds of like how they think about things like within regards of value.
0:45:31 You know, we used to walk into target all the time. We used to always be like, okay,
0:45:35 we got to get one, get something, get something. You know, now I taught them about like coupons and
0:45:40 discounts. And then they would look at like, Hey, maybe this could be good, something value for the
0:45:45 vending machine. And then, you know, something that I did not realize that they just got so obsessed
0:45:50 with vending machines. Like, so like we’re watching Despicable Me 4 and there’s a vending machine in the
0:45:55 back. Dad, there’s a vending machine in the background. Or if it’s a Taylor, like the Taylor Swift song,
0:46:00 we’re listening to it in the car last summer and it’s her song, Cruel Summer. And like 48 seconds
0:46:05 into that song, there’s a verse that where she says with the light of the glow of the vending machine
0:46:10 hits your face or something like that. And then they went crazy, like in the backseat of the car, dad,
0:46:16 vending machine. So like, um, that’s the stuff that really moves me, man. And that’s what motivates me
0:46:23 every single day. Yeah. It’s just, that’s been so great for me to experience, you know, this past
0:46:29 year is the impact of what it had on the kids. Because even when I was talking to other successful
0:46:34 type people and just anybody actually, and they would always reminisce about, Hey, I used to go with my dad
0:46:38 when he used to be a painter here, when my dad used to buy this, you know, and they’re, they get those
0:46:45 little doses of real life experience, you know, uh, at such a young age. And that’s what I really
0:46:49 want to instill in them. Yeah. It’s really cool. Cause it’s an example of a business that is super
0:46:55 easy to understand. Okay. Buy something for a dollar, sell it for two. Yeah. And Oh wait, I didn’t have to
0:47:00 be there to make that say, you know, that’s like that little flip that can switch from like, Oh, you’re
0:47:04 grow up, go to school, get a good job. And, you know, trade time for money. It’s like, here’s this
0:47:08 little fork in the road. It was, I think it’s really interesting that, and it’s cool that you’re exposing
0:47:14 to them, that to them at a young age. Thank you. I was so addicted when I first got into this business.
0:47:18 I would be checking my, I would be refreshing my sales reports weekly. I mean, I mean, I weekly, I mean
0:47:23 like every like hour, like it was, it was so obsessive because I was so new to it. I would wake up in the
0:47:27 morning. Oh my God, how much did we make overnight? You know? And it’s awesome because like in the city,
0:47:32 you know, some of these kids, they’re going out for Halloween night or St. Patrick’s day. Like I know
0:47:37 Saturday night between one and 4am, that thing’s going to be cleared out at these luxury apartments
0:47:42 because these kids are just going to go back and just wipe it out. Yeah. Refresh on the reports or
0:47:46 pulled. Yeah. That’s great. Any big surprises, whoops, surprises or mistakes. We’ll tee it up like that.
0:47:50 Yeah. Like I said in the beginning, just make sure you, when you’re qualifying that location,
0:47:55 make sure you’re asking all the questions, you know, make sure you’re figuring out how many people are
0:47:59 working there. What’s the times that they’re working there. You know, just quantify that. Don’t assume a
0:48:03 second shift is the same as the first shift like me. And then don’t overthink it. Like I come from
0:48:07 a real estate world. That’s always says like location, location, location, same thing here
0:48:11 with vending, but it’s foot traffic, foot traffic, foot traffic. So if there’s going to be foot traffic
0:48:14 and there’s going to be people that are going to be walking by it, there are going to be sales.
0:48:21 So just make sure that you are very conscious of the foot traffic that is there.
0:48:25 Very good. What’s next for you? What are you excited about this year? Where do you want to take it?
0:48:28 If you asked me 15 months ago, if this is where I was going to be at,
0:48:33 I would be like, you’re nuts. There’s no way that would be here. So my goal is to be at a hundred
0:48:37 thousand dollars per month. I’m going to reassess the business and see if I want to go ahead and
0:48:42 double down or triple down and then grow it to a 200 or 300,000 or for even a $400,000 a month
0:48:48 business. Wow. And then some serious, serious equity involved at that point. Now you’re talking
0:48:53 about a multimillion dollar valuation. Yeah, no, absolutely. So like, these are some of the
0:48:57 things that I’m like tossing around and going around about. So I’m trying to think, you know,
0:49:01 where do I want it to go? Because I just don’t want it to get it too big where it pulls me away
0:49:08 and my stocker, a guy that I hired, he only taken off four days in six months. So great hire that I
0:49:14 had, but he was sick in January and he had the flu or whatever. So I had to wake my butt up and go out
0:49:19 there and pick and stock and do it. And it sucked. It just did. It sucked. Uh, but my kid, he had a
0:49:24 basketball practice. His first basketball practice started at 4 PM and I wasn’t missing it. So I told my
0:49:29 wife, I go, you know, I’m going to wake up at 2 AM, go do the route, pick all the stuff to make
0:49:32 sure that I’m back in time. You’re going to have to take care of the kids in the morning. She still
0:49:36 works. She’s a public school teacher out here in the Western suburbs for 22 years. And she’s like,
0:49:40 yep. She goes, I’ll do it. I’ll take care of the kids that morning. You go out and do it.
0:49:46 And, um, so it’s been good. Like, cause to have a supportive partner like that has been like,
0:49:50 I wouldn’t be here without her and with her support and just having the sacrifice and some of those
0:49:53 days where I had to get out there and do it and hustle and not come home till late. Cause maybe
0:49:57 the machine was delivered and the machine was acting up and it wasn’t working the right way.
0:50:01 And I’m on the phone with customer support till nine o’clock at night and she’s handing the kids
0:50:04 and putting them to bed. So there’s Murphy’s law for sure. No matter what.
0:50:10 Absolutely. Yeah. Whenever you’re moving bulky technology, giant machines around physical
0:50:14 inventory, there’s people involved. Yeah. Things are going to happen, but that’s part of being a
0:50:18 business owner and you figure it out as you go. Absolutely. So this has been awesome. Anthony,
0:50:23 I really appreciate you spending some, some time with us and schooling us on the rapid
0:50:27 growth vending model here at Chicago. H and H vending.com. You can find them over there.
0:50:32 Let’s wrap this thing up with your number one tip for side hustle nation. This does not have to be
0:50:37 vending specifically related. This could be whatever entrepreneurial wisdom you’d like to impart.
0:50:41 Yeah. So you are going to experience some adversity, but you’re going to have to push through it.
0:50:48 And if you push through it and persevere, you will be successful. If you are, weren’t,
0:50:52 if you’re thinking about a certain job that you’re at and you want to, Hey, I need a change or I need to
0:50:58 do this. I tell somebody jump and make the jump and go ahead and do it and push forward and, you know,
0:51:02 try to make it happen. So that way down the line, you don’t have any regrets, you know, and say, Hey,
0:51:07 I should have tried this. I should have did this. Just go out there and try it. And then you’ll leverage
0:51:11 yourself to make sure that you’re successful and it’ll happen. You’ll just have to push through it.
0:51:15 That’s right. Keep your risks low, keep your upsides high and go to town. Um, again,
0:51:21 H and H vending.com. Awesome episode. A couple of takeaways for me. You just alluded to this. Hey,
0:51:26 real estate is, uh, the rule is location, location, location in this business, foot traffic, really
0:51:32 similar to this location. How many people are going to be, uh, having exposure to this machine? How many
0:51:35 people, you know, certain percentage of those people are going to buy something if you stock it right
0:51:40 and figure out the right product mix there. And the other side of it is, yeah, on the surface,
0:51:46 Hey, you know, buy the thing for a dollar, sell it for two simple, but on the backside of that is
0:51:51 this, it’s a sales machine, right? How do we get in front of the decision makers? How do we do that
0:51:55 consistently? How do we turn one lead into three? Really like that. Hey, well, the typical, you know,
0:51:59 uh, moratorium on the, uh, rev share is six months just cause we got to pay back the machine. Like,
0:52:04 I love this line. Hey, but we could shortcut that. We can cut that out. If you throw me to two other
0:52:09 buildings, three other buildings really like that building and nurturing that sales pipeline and
0:52:14 recognizing that this is not their top priority, right? Do the follow-ups and make sure that you’re,
0:52:18 uh, top of mind. Cause there might be another Anthony knocking at their door, sending them an email,
0:52:24 a cold calling them to, uh, to try and get his machine in, her machine in. So try and be top of
0:52:29 mind, uh, on that front. We referenced episode 599 with Mike Hoffman, the, uh, the vendingpreneur,
0:52:34 Mr. Passive on Twitter. Um, I think he’s got a discount for side hustle show listeners on the
0:52:38 vendingpreneur community, not positive on that, but if you mentioned side hustle nation or side hustle
0:52:43 show, I know he’ll take good, uh, good care of you on that and go back and listen to his original
0:52:47 episode. If you’re interested in learning a little bit more, big thanks to Anthony for sharing his
0:52:52 insight. Big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone. As always,
0:52:58 you can hit up side hustle nation.com slash deals for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one
0:53:03 place. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you’re finding value in the show,
0:53:08 that is to share it with a friend. So fire off that text message for me to that person in your
0:53:14 life who is looking for creative ways to make extra money, uh, outside of their job until next time,
0:53:18 let’s go out there and make something happen. And I’ll catch you in the next edition of the
0:53:20 side hustle show. Hustle on.