Starting up a vending machine business is one of the cheapest and easiest businesses to start, but this doesn’t mean that’s it’s entirely risk free. There are some potential risks that can quickly run you off course and end up costing you thousands of dollars. The two biggest risks to avoid are paying too much when buying an already established route or buying into a vending business opportunity (biz op). Biz ops are easily one of the biggest rip offs in vending. Too often the people that get caught up in then never recover and eventually end giving up on vending.

I would recommend that everyone just getting started in vending start as cheap as possible. This limits the risk and increases the odds of overall success. Until you’ve been doing vending for about a year I would recommend not buying any established routes as it’s too easy to overpay until your more familiar with the vending business. If you’re hoping to keep your expenses down, there’s also no reason to buy new machines. Although it can feel great to have brand new shiny machines, it’s not necessary in the early stages. You best bet is to go as cheap as possible and buy used vending machines. You can find lots of great offers on Craig’s List. This way you can get started ASAP without a whole lot of financial risk.

20 used machines will only cost can cost less than $2000 allowing you to get a nice little start in vending. Working 20 machines for a few months will give you a real world education in vending. After this you’ll know more about locating, product selection and time management than any book about vending could ever tell you.

If you get caught up in a biz op that ends up costing you $15,000 for 30 machines, you’re going to have a very hard time recovering from this. It’s a huge unnecessary investment and a huge risk. My methods allow you to easily cover your expenses without assuming any debt. If you end up deciding that vending isn’t a good fit for you then you really haven’t lost that much. If you end up liking vending, then you can keep expanding slowly the same way or then try buying new machines or already established routes if that works better for you.