A Mom Making Money with Soda Vending

New Locations

2013-04-02T06:17:00.000-05:00

Last year, I bought a soda route that included 7 machines on location. Most of the route has done as expected, but I lost two of the new locations. They were at apartments that got bought out. Although my service was excellent, the new owners had their own vendors they wanted to use. So now I am looking for locations again. Today, Dustin, Isabella and I are going to start the search for new locations. I have chosen to take my children with me as I search for locations because they will be with me when I fill up the machines. Originally, I had thought that having them with me would be a detriment, but I realized that not taking them with me would be a lie. I don't want anyone surprised when I show up to fill machines with a parade of little helpers. Dustin will hand out my business card and little Isabella will hopefully smile big. I think finding locations is the hardest part of the vending business. I find it hard to just show up at an apartment leasing office and ask if they need a soda machine. It seems like it would be easier to just get someone else to do it, but it is much better to do it myself. Then I know what the apartment looks like, who the people are in the office and how they responded. I used a locator for the first 2 machines that I had. I still have one of the locations, but the other one turned out to be a very poor producer. I know what I am looking for better than anyone else, so I will take the responsibility of finding the locations myself.

Time Flies

2013-03-08T22:23:00.000-06:00

I am amazed at how time has flown by. I now have a new baby and 7 new machines. Isabella Jubilee was born in September. I had to contract with someone to help me with my machines through a difficult pregnancy. Isabella and I are doing great now. She is "helping" me with with my business by riding on my back. She has finally gotten use to the snugli and doesn't cry too much when I carry her to fill up the machines. As long as her tummy is full she is great. She usually just takes a nap while I work. The "helping" part is she acts as extra strength training so that I get back into shape faster.

Locaton Search Reload

2011-02-17T18:49:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day is over, so it is now time to start searching for soda vending locations again. I helped prepare a wonderful banquet for the couples in our church. That took up all of last week.

Also, the temperatures are a balmy 70 degrees this week. The last two weeks we have had snow and ice. The schools were out 4 days and then one day. Besides making it difficult for stocking the machines, the snow days actually ended up being fairly profitable. I suppose that everyone was trapped at home and needed their soda. I only had one machine problem related to the snow. The heater didn't work on my multi-priced bottle machine. The sodas seemed to make it through the cold OK. No one has complained. I should have opened a soda to make sure it wasn't flat.

This week was recovery from last week. I ended up with a sinus/ear infection and a broken filling on one of my teeth that had to be taken care of.

Now I don't have any more excuses not to contact some of the prospective locations again. Out of 68 apartment complexes that I originally contacted, there are 16 that have not said no outright. I will continue to work on them until they take my machines, or tell me NO.

Snow Day

2011-02-04T18:40:00.003-06:00

Wow, did we get some snow. There is about 5 inches of snow outside. This is the first time I have been snowed out, I think. I did not get to go to service the soda machines today. I am hoping to get to them tomorrow. We have been out of school three days this week. It has given me time to get some accounting done.

The new location is doing well. I am excited that we got the machine placed. There is only one more machine in my backyard. I will get back to my search in a week or so. I don't think that soda is on anyone's mind when there is snow and ice on the ground.

Enjoy the snow.

New Location

2011-01-29T19:55:00.002-06:00

I finally found a location. I am so excited. I found out a week ago Wednesday that I had a location. I moved the machine to the location on Monday morning. There was a little glitch. The person I use to move the machine had alternator trouble on his moving truck. He got it fixed and I got the machine moved. The kids and I got it filled. Then while I was testing it, I found that there was a jam n the Sprite selection. We unloaded all the Sprite and got it reloaded. Then the dollar bill exchanger did not work well. I changed it out with my backup bill exchanger. I also had to replace the light and starter and drill one of the locks bigger. Every time I move a machine it seems like the locks do not line up properly.

The machine is working properly so far. I have checked it twice since placing it. I am so excited to finally have that machine on location. It has been sitting idle since November 10th.

I have been helping Evan sell the World's Finest Chocolate for his school this past week. We went out all day on Tuesday and Thursday and half a day on Wednesday with his class. It was a lot of fun. The kids were troopers. They are learning a lot of valuable lessons. He is learning to sell things early in life. I think it will serve him well. He has already gained a lot of confidence.

Business cards

2011-01-15T19:13:00.002-06:00

I finally broke down and ordered business cards today. I designed my own logo. So far, I have been printing the business cards from home, but I needed to buy some more paper. I decided to check out some web pricing and found that Vistaprint had reasonable prices. They do a great job in up-selling. I ended up getting 250 cards, 25 magnets, and 140 address labels for less than $20.

Cold or Hot

2011-01-14T17:40:00.002-06:00

Cold weather is not the best for soda sales. The kids and I braved the cold again today to fill up our machines. Dustin does not like to be cold. His poor little hands were so red. He cried and cried today. My kids are definitely Texans.

I can dream of summer. At least my back is getting a break from all of the lifting. I am so glad that we are in Texas. I don't know how soda vendors do it in colder climates.

Burning a soda machine

2011-01-13T18:52:00.002-06:00

The kids and I were looking for locations yesterday and one apartment told us that their machine had been burned up. She said that some homeless guy was trying to get money out of the machine and crossed the wires and caused it to burn. I do not understand how that would help to get the money out of the machine. The money area is well protected so that as long as the door is closed it is very difficult to get to any of the money. She said that the guy had destroyed about seven machines in the area.

I have cages that protect against theft and vandalism, but I don't know if they would protect against arson. There isn't that much on a machine that can actually burn. I will need to look into this type of vandalism and see if there are any modifications that I can do to the current security system that will deter arson.

I welcome any comments on burning up a soda machine. I am interested in anyone's personal experience on how someone can burn up a machine, if it allows them access to the money, and how to prevent it.

Locations Search

2011-01-11T15:10:00.002-06:00

We are still searching for a location for two or three soda machines. The kids and I visited another six potential locations today. We are finally see a little hope. Two of the apartment complexes that we visited do not have soda machines. Now we have to progress to actually procuring the location. So far I have four very good possibilities and another three or so potential locations.

I learned a hard lesson recently. I had a location that I thought was in the bag, but I lost it. I talked to the office staff and sent them a thank you letter. Almost immediately, they called me back to meet the complex manager. I meet with her and she was very happy with what I had to offer. She just had to get the final OK from the district manager. They had a location on the property and everything ready. I called back the next week like we agreed and they were still waiting. I thought I had the location secured, so I stopped looking for locations. I called back every 3-4 days and it was always the same answer. One day I called back and the person who answered the phone said that they already had a soda machine on the property and that they didn't even know the manager that I had talked to. Somehow I had lost that location. It was a great location with almost 300 apartment units and a lot of people without vehicles. I still do not know how I lost the location. How did someone get a machine on location while I was still talking to the manager? I am still trying to find a location for that machine that was supposed to go into that complex. Now I will keep looking until each machine is on location and generating money.

So, even though I have a few good leads, I will keep looking. None of the leads have said move in this week yet, so we keep going. I would rather have to go out and buy several more machines and build several more cages than have to still be looking at the machines in our back yard in March.

The Search Is Still On

2011-01-07T19:52:00.002-06:00

The kids and I are still trying to find the most efficient way to conduct a location search. So far, we have been going to apartments, taking them a candy bar and a business card, and giving them my "elevator speech." The kids enjoy handing out the cards and candy. We have had good responses, although no immediate "move in tomorrow" responses. I have been trying to write a thank you card to the apartments that I visit. I have returned to a few of the more promising complexes and they remember me, the kids, and the thank you note.

I have to plan where to go next. There are so many apartments in this area. I drive around to specific ones and see others I need to stop at.

I have some more thank you cards to write.

New Year, New Search.

2011-01-06T21:29:00.003-06:00

I found a replacement location for one soda machine, but I lost another location. I knew that would happen because I had two machines with the same management group. Thankfully, I had the best machine on location until November. The first time around, the kids and I visited 23 apartment complexes and we found a location that was not happy with their current vendor. We got that machine placed and it is doing well.

This second search has been more difficult. The kids and I have talked to about 50 complexes. I am confident that we will provide superior service to the current vendors, we just need a chance to prove it. The good thing about where we are looking is that there are still many more complexes to talk to.

I am having to grow in my marketing skills. This is an area that is difficult for me. I enjoy filling the machines and even fixing the problems. Talking to people and interrupting their day is hard. Conveying the confidence that I have in our ability to do a good job is challenging. Remembering to smile and be energetic after hearing no 5 times is hard. I am growing. I am becoming a better businesswoman because of this experience. My kids are learning a lot about getting out there and talking to people. They are troopers.

I still need a location for my soda machine

2010-07-12T22:36:00.002-05:00

The vending machine moves went well. We got all three machines moved. The two that we switched out were working great as of Thursday and Friday. My poor kids were exhausted after the moves. We went to all three locations twice. I had to go and unload the machines, and then reload the machines that were switched. Then we had to go and clean up the floor under the machine at the location that we lost. I am glad it is all done.

I decided to go on with plan B and C for finding a location. Today I visited one apartment complex that didn't have a machine, but they did not want one. I visited a second complex that has two machines. The first one I saw was not functioning. I was excited, but as we went to the office, we saw the second machine. It was running. I didn't see if it was actually working. We went in and talked to the really nice person that was working there. She gave me the names of three other apartments to try. I offered her the same finders fee that I offered my other locations' personnel. Maybe one of them will pan out.

I found a list of all of the apartment complexes in our zip code. Tomorrow the kids and I will try to visit as many of them as possible. I decided that I would take the kids with me. They might discourage some of the potential locations, but they are part of this business. Plus, they are cute and memorable. Then if the people ask, I can tell them that we are doing this to send the kids through school. That lets them know that we are in this business for the long term and that it is important to us.

I thought of another option if plans A-D do not yield a location for my orphaned machine. Plan E is to pay a locator service to help me place my soda machine. I do not want to go that way if I can avoid it. I need very specific locations that will let me take the kids with me. Many of the locations that I was given last time I used a service where small business run by men. Small business usually do not want noisy kids disturbing their employees and customers. The kids are usually good, but they can be noisy just because there are four of them.

I have also checked Craigslist. I found a person selling several machines on location. I will have to call him and get a little more information. The price is right, but I don't know if the locations are right for us.

Tomorrow is moving day.

2010-07-06T18:40:00.002-05:00

The soda machines are going to be moved tomorrow. I decided that since I was moving one machine, that I might as well move two other machines. Tomorrow is the big day.

I am switching two machines. My army recruiting station machine is selling much less than in the past. I have not determined the cause. I have a great multi-priced bottle machine there. I decided that my storage location would benefit from having bottles of water and Gatorade instead of just cans of soda. So, we are switching the two machines. I am a little nervous about the switch. I only have to one bottle machine, so I will have to purchase bottles separately for it. When I move the machine, I will not know how often I have to go and fill it up. I anticipate that Gatorade, Propel, and water will sell well over the summer. The problem is that the new water bottles tend to get jammed in the machine. The eco-friendly design is not machine friendly. The package says that it will vend, but I have been having trouble with them vending properly. I guess I will just check the machine every week for a while until I get a feel for how many drinks are selling. It is like placing a machine at a whole different location.

The switch should mean that I have to go to the recruiting station much less. Cans do not expire as quickly as bottles. I was having an issue with condensation. This machine should be much better.

I have lost one of the apartment locations. I am going to give the manager a thank you note and I am thinking of going and getting some cookies or other goodies. I am still hoping that someone in the office will turn me on to a new location. If I don't hear anything in another week or so, it is onto plans B, C and D.

Lost Location

2010-06-28T20:41:00.003-05:00

I lost one of the locations for my soda vending machine. It is at one of the three apartment complexes. The supervisor told the manager that corporate had a new vendor that they wanted to go with. Apparently, there is nothing wrong with my service, corporate has just made a decision about who they want to have at their apartments. I am disappointed about their decision. I think that they are making a mistake, of course. I provide some of the best service that they will get. There are not many soda machine operators that will answer calls on the weekend or in the evening. I seldom see a machine that has a contact number on it. I know for a fact that their last contract did not even come close to the service that I provided. I had to remove the machine from the property and call the company that owned it to come and pick it up. It took the apartment complex 2 months of calling before I took care of their problem. It took me 2 more months of calling to finally get the vending machine returned.

The complex that I lost is the lowest producing complex. The machine is located in a gym that is closed at 6 PM. Many people want soda much later than that. I had asked several times to move the machine outside so that it had 24 hour access. I think the complex could have been my highest producing one if the machine was outside at a convenient location. I am more worried about losing my other location that is part of the same corporation. I have not heard anything from them and I gave them their commission this morning.

So, now how do I find a new location? It is very hard to drag 4 kids along to a bunch of apartments while I asked the managers if I can place a machine there. People tend to get overwhelmed with the kids. My kids are good, but 4 young children is unusual enough that people don't know what to think.

Plan A: I have decided to pay a finders fee of $100 to any of the apartment personnel that connect me with my next location. This is the first time I have tried this, so I don't know if it will work. I have given a flier to the personnel in each of the three apartment complexes that I have machines at. My hope is that they are impressed enough with my service and could use $100 that they will recommend me to some of their friends that work at other complexes in the area. Several of the women said that they would find me something. I will just have to wait and see. I will move the machine in about 10 days. I am hoping that I have somewhere to move it to. Otherwise, I might have to go to plan B.

Plan B: I know several locations that do not have a soda machine. I will try finding someone to watch the kids while I go over and talk to the managers and see what they suggest.

Plan C: Dropping in on as many of the apartment complexes in the area as I can without the kids, perhaps while my husband is home on Saturdays.

Plan D: Offering a finders fee through fliers placed on the machines themselves.

Right now, I am not too desperate. I will try just plan A. If I loose the location of the sister complex to the one I am loosing, I will be desperate and have to implement one or all of the other plans.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on getting locations that are kid friendly? I have been blessed with falling into the locations that I have now as easily as I did.

Excess humidity a problem for my soda machine

2010-06-03T16:38:00.003-05:00

The popping noise turned out to be the fan from the compressor hitting the metal "hat" over the compressor coils in my soda machine. When I got to the soda machine, the compressor was covered with fluffy snow white ice, the sodas were warm, and the fan was definitely hitting something. I had to unplug the compressor and the fan. After some investigation, I found that the flap that lets the sodas fall into the dispenser was lying in the dispenser instead of hanging in the door. This machine has a faulty flap. When I first purchased the machine, the flap was missing and the one they replaced it with isn't the exact match. Every once in a while it comes out and falls into the dispenser. Well, it turns out that the compressor does not like that much warm, humid air entering the cooling chamber. It works over time and freezes up.

Luckily, it is easy to fix a snow white frozen compressor. I unplugged it and the fan while leaving the rest of the machine plugged in so that it would still vend sodas. I left a note on the machine while I came home and got my handy blow dryer. With blow dryer in hand, I heated the ice on the compressor until it melted. Then I repositioned the "hat" so that it wasn't hitting the fan. I reattached the flap and plugged everything back in. I checked the machine the next morning and it was working as good as new.

Now if I could figure out how to get another one of my machines from filling up the water overflow tank in the summer. I have replaced the original tank with one at least twice as large. I have placed extra sponges in it so that there is more surface area for the air to blow over it and evaporate the excess water. Still it overflows by the second week. This is a machine that I really wouldn't have to check but twice a month except for the water overflow problem. In the winter, I do not have a problem. I can go a month or two without having to empty the water. The machine is in an indoor climate controlled location. I have checked the seal and looked for areas that could be leaking warm air and have not found any.

I was called today for another jam at one of the apartment complexes. Someone had put in a handful of coin car wash tokens. I just wonder why they thought that those would work. I am just hoping that it was kids that didn't know better rather than an adult just trying to get some free soda. Maybe I can find the car wash that takes the tokens and wash my van.

Tomorrow is another day in this exciting vending business. I wonder what I will find.

Summer is great for soda vending

2010-06-01T14:49:00.004-05:00

Summer is here. Well, not officially by the calendar, but schools are letting out and it is heating up. We should hit 100 F his week. I am so excited. As the temperature rises, the soda sales go up. I love summer time. Already, I can see sales increasing. I noticed that the pools at one of the apartment complexes that I have my soda vending machine opened last week.

As sales increase, so does coin jams and other mechanical problems. I have had to do a lot of monitoring of the vending machines at apartment complexes. I guess the people there have spring/summer fever like my four year old. The last two weeks I cannot get him to stop climbing the walls (literally, as well as trees, furniture, and anything else). Someone put 20 pennies in one of my machines last week. I have been checking one machine every day or two. I always put a sign on the machine that it is working and when it was last checked or fixed. That helps get the customers back faster after a big coin jam or two.

I just got a call about one of my machines making a popping sound. I am really curious about that one. I have to wait until the kids wake up from their nap.

Summer is wonderful for business. Go out and make some money.

Soda machine sees the light

2010-05-03T21:53:00.002-05:00

I finally did it. I got the light working on my soda machine. I have a location that is outside at an apartment complex. I thought that it needed the lights working, but since I buy used machines, I got one without the lights working. I tried more than a year ago to replace the bulbs. That didn't work. So I knew that it was the ballast.

I was overwhelmed with the idea of replacing the ballast. It did not have any connectors that just unplugged. I had to actually cut the ballast wires and rewire a new one. Now that I completed the project, I don't know why it was so daunting. All I had to do was unplug the ballast from the main power, unscrew one screw, cut the wires at both ends of the ballast, remove the ballast, go to the home improvement store and find a replacement, strip the wires back 1/4 inch, match black to black, white to white, red to red, and blue to blue, and reconnect the wires. It was so easy. I want to go over there one evening and see what it looks like lit up. It was too bright outside today to see much difference.

I am hoping that having the machine lit up at night will encourage more people to buy soda after dark. I will have to just wait and see if my guess is correct. Now I have three more machines that need the lights replaced. I think the difficult part is going to be finding the bulbs.

Spring Showers - great for flowers, not the soda route

2010-03-07T16:41:00.003-06:00

It is raining again. Wow. This seems like a lot of rain for Texas. Hopefully we will get a lot of flowers with all of these spring rains. The weather has really put some of my vending plans on hold.

I still haven't had a chance to get the light bulbs and ballasts replaced on my soda machines. I still need to do some spring cleaning on the machines and spruce them and the cages up a bit.

I finally let the kids out to help me with our soda route on Friday. It was a beautiful day. They had a blast, especially since I busted a soda. The only time they get to drink soda is if I bust one open. When they hear the can drop they get excited. When they hear the spraying sound, they get overjoyed. Now that it is warmer, I can move Dustin to my back instead of bundled up in my jacket on the front. This is a really good thing since he weighed 18 pounds at his 4 month checkup.

Soda vending in the snow

2010-02-23T13:45:00.002-06:00

The soda vending business is down this year. We are having a lot of cold weather. I cannot believe how much snow we have had. It was supposed to snow today, but it seems to be staying to the south.

It has been so cold that I haven't gotten to do any of my vending machine maintenance yet. It has to be above 40 degrees before I can touch up the paint on the cages and other things.

The kids have been learning to stay quite and sit in the van. Many of the locations that I have I can pull right next to the soda machine. I have decided to leave the four kids in the van while I fill the machines because it has been so cold. They do not complain at all. My children to not like being cold. They have been helping me more at home counting the money and things like that.

Isn't there a famous saying somewhere "This too will pass."

I finally figured out what was wrong with the machine that would not vend properly. The cradle (actually it is called a rotor) got bent last September when a can jammed in it. It had been bent a previous time and we had just straightened it out. I decided to replace the cradle to keep it from jamming the whole machine. We got a cradle that looked like the old one, but when we installed it, it would vend one can, two cans and zero cans, instead of one can each time. I thought it was the motor, but the motor was fine. I tried everything I could think of, including bending the stops on the motor's brakes. It didn't work. Finally, the other day, I had a chance to go without any of the kids. I emptied the row right next to the broken row. When I did that, I realized that the cradle was just slightly different than the other ones. It would never work. It would always overshoot on two of the vends and drop the wrong number of cans. I decided to set that column to 2 cans deep instead of 3 cans deep. Then I changed the selection to Diet Pepsi because the office people requested a diet soda. So now all of the columns are vending and I didn't have to purchase a new cradle. I am so happy that I got that machine fixed.

More Cold Weather

2010-01-28T15:53:00.002-06:00

North Texas is expecting more cold weather. This winter has been much colder than the last several winters. That means that the soda vending business is down. I was hoping to spruce up my machines and cages soon, but I guess that will have to wait a little while longer. Since I have several machines located outside, I spend as little time at them as possible when it is cold. I need to touch up the paint on the cages and on the machines before the spring and warm weather gets here. I also need to replace light bulbs in most of my machines. That requires a trip to the other side of town. One of my machines needs a ballast replaced. I will have to do a little research before I can tackle that project. There still is another month or two for me to get some of the maintenance done.

I need to teach the kids how to clean the machine while I am filling it. That would be really helpful. Trevor loves spraying the cleaner on the machine, but he isn't real good about wiping it off. The kids do help me clean up the trash. Slowly I am trying to teach them more things that they can do to help. It is great to have the ability to take them with me.

Progress

2010-01-12T14:23:00.002-06:00

I have made progress on the records for my soda business. I now have recorded all of my sales and expenses for 2009. That is a huge relief. It was a daunting task to catch up on two months worth of records. The good news is that I did make money this year, the bad news is my husband was hoping that we would pay ourselves back for the first 4 machines that we purchased. The business is self-supporting. I even have enough in the account for the purchase of my next machine as soon as the location becomes available. I have set up an automatic transfer from our business account to our savings account to pay us back. If everything works properly, we should have our savings account paid back by the end of the year.

I need to get my 2010 records started. I also have some ideas about different year over year comparisons that I would like to do that will let me see more how each machine is performing over the long term. Right now, I just have everything based over the life of the machine. There is still a lot of work to do, but I have made progress.

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-04T15:06:00.002-06:00

The New Year is here. Can you believe that it is 2010 already? I remember when I was in grade school thinking that it would be forever before the year 2000 arrived. We are in a new decade. That is just unbelievable. I guess that time stops for no one.

It has been a long time since I updated my blog. I did not realize how hard it would be to get all four children to sleep and me awake. I am so far behind on many things. I have not kept up my books for about as long as I haven't updated my blog. I dread trying to get everything recorded. I keep meticulous records about what sold in which machine, how much I loaded, where I bought soda, how many miles I have put on my van related to my business, and so forth. I have a large stack of log papers for each of my machines that I need to input into my excel file. I know that the business is doing fine because my bank account is growing, but I hate not knowing exactly what is going on. I miss my charts that tell me how the sales are going. I haven't done my monthly household budget for 3 months either. That is also bothering me.

The good news is that Dustin is 10 weeks old. He is starting to sleep reasonably at night and take predictable naps during the day. I am getting more energy and don't need my afternoon nap as much. Dustin is becoming a little chunky guy. When I wear him and lift soda cases my back gets a workout. I will find out exactly how much he weighs next week, but according to my mother's scale, he is pushing 14 pounds. He eats all of the time. I usually have to feed him in the van when we are running our soda route. Right now I have to wear him on the front. It will get easier when I can wear him in the back. I will try to get a picture of us so that you can see it is possible to wear a baby and fill soda machines.

With the new year comes new year's resolutions. I thought this would be a good time to make plans for my business. It is wise to plan and have goals. I have several ideas that I want to try this year, including a give-away game. I am trying to work out the details and get it implemented. I will post the results and details. I would like to expand my operations by 2-4 machines. I have a new machine that is supposed to go into a location in the next few weeks. I am reading more books on guerrilla marketing. I am looking forward to this year in the soda business. I want to be able to keep my plans on track, so I won't call them resolutions. I always seem to break my resolutions. One resolution that I hope I don't break is updating my blog more often. I can't believe that it has been a month and a half.

New Life

2009-11-20T07:27:00.002-06:00

Life has been very busy lately. Dustin was born on October 26th. I have been taking this time to get to know him and take care of him. He is doing great. Soon he will be a good little helper like his brothers and sister. I forgot how much time and energy a new life requires. We are so happy to have him.

Fall is here and soda sells are reflecting it. Sales have decreased to about half of the summer high. They are right on track based on last year's fall and winter sales. People just don't buy as much soda in the colder weather. One trend that I have noticed is that the sales of Sprite tends to go up in the colder months. My theory is that as people get sick with the stomach flu, they tend to buy more Sprite. I know several people at the apartment complexes that have told me that they were sick and bought some Sprite. It is just a theory.

Actually, there is an upside to reduced winter sales. I don't have to spend as much time filling the machines in the cold weather. Granted, I would love to have a higher sales volume, but my little helpers and I are Texans through and through and do not like to be cold. We do a good job at maintaining our machines, but when it is cold, we do not do a lot of extras.

I am looking forward to being released from my doctor and going back to work. I have really appreciated the help that I have had throughout my pregnancy and recovery. I will miss her help very much. Luckily, we will get to see each other frequently and compare notes on our business trials and triumphs.

Marketing

2009-10-22T19:30:00.003-05:00

Recently, I have been reading a lot of books on marketing. I am hoping to expand my soda vending business next spring, so I have been trying to come up with a plan while I am waiting for Dustin to be born. I have been very impressed with the Start-up Guide to Guerilla Marketing. It has a lot of really good ideas that do not cost much to implement. I am looking forward to trying some of them out next spring. I will keep you informed about how they work. I am including a link to the site of the author of the book. I did not see the exact book that I read, but he has many other books that look just as interesting listed on the site. Beware, the home page has an automatic video that is a little irritating if you aren't ready for it. Guerilla Marketing Online has many resources that are listed. I have not had time to explore them though. Maybe you can find something of interest.

Soda Vending as Usual

2009-10-12T18:31:00.002-05:00

The soda vending business is slowing down now that cooler, wetter weather is here. This is exactly what I expected from last years numbers. Now until about March should be relatively slow in the soda vending world. It is a little sad to look at the numbers now compared to the middle of summer, but I realize that this business is cyclical. It will improve again next spring. Everyone is hunkering down for the winter. People do not get as thirsty for fizzy sodas now as in the middle of summer. Now people are more interested in hot drinks like coffee, hot chocolate, and tea. Maybe one day I will venture into that arena, but right now I want to stay focused on the soda business.

I am a little concerned about some of the rumors of legislation against soda. I have heard that some people want to impose a penny per ounce sin tax on soda. I do not know how they expect to collect it from all of the small vendors. Lucky for us small people, Coca Cola is already preparing a counter attack. I hope they have enough clout to stall such legislation. It would just be another tax on the poor and middle-class.

Now is a great time to think about fixing any machines that have minor issues with them. Since there are not as many sells right now, it is a good time to replace parts that require turning the machine off for a while. Also, it is still a reasonable temperature to do repairs. It is frustrating to try to fix an outdoor machine when it is near freezing outside.