Dealing with the Competition in Vending
Competition among vending operators is something that exists in the vending industry. When you place your Planet Antares vending machine in a location that already has snack and beverage vending machines, you will find that the degree of competition among the vending operators will increase greatly. To deal with competition you will just need to implement some strategies in your vending business.
Vending machine
If you have a vending machines that stands out from other vending machines, or if you have a vending service that uses technology, your chances of beating out the competition will increase. Planet Antares vending machines are attractive vending machines that are easily noticed. Vending machine sales are impulse sales, so if a potential customer sees an attractive vending machine that is offering some kind of refreshment, he will be compelled to buy from the vending machine. Your vending machine will be singled out from the other vending machines that are offering the same merchandise, because it is the one that managed to grab the attention of the customer. All this means that you should consider the looks of a vending machine before buying it.
Technology
Incorporating some form of technology in your Planet Antares vending business will be a quick and easy way of pulling customers to buy from your vending machine. If other vending machines in the same location are all offering the same kind of service and your vending machine is offering a vending experience with a difference, customers will definitely buy from your vending machine. In addition to this, location owners would want to have such a machine in their location because they know that it will bring in more business for them as well. The use of technology in your vending machines will mean that you will have a quicker and more efficient service.
Products
Provide the customers of your Planet Antares vending business with quality products, so that they will continue to buy from your vending machine. Find a supplier that can provide you with branded products as well as a wide variety of other products. This will give the customers a wider selection to choose from. As customers continue to buy from your vending machine, you will slowly get to know which products are popular in each location. When you find that out, you should only keep those products in your vending machine, to ensure that customers will keep coming to your vending machine. Get the best deal that you can from the supplier so that you can sell your products at lower rates than other operators.
Servicing
Make sure that your vending machines are serviced on time and the machines are well maintained, so as to avoid mechanical problems. Keep the vending machine clean as well. Other vending operators may lack in these areas, so this will give you the advantage.
Buying an Established Vending Route
An established vending route is a vending business that is fully functional with vending machines already in locations and a supplier to provide all the required products. With an established vending route, there is no need to look for vending machines, locations or a supplier. An established vending route has to have already generated sales over a period of time for it to be considered as established.
When buying an established vending business, there are a number of things that’s you need to be certain about before you put down your hard earned money to buy an established vending route. If you are lucky enough to come across a Planet Antares vending business that has quality vending machines in place as well as a supplier that is providing a variety of snacks and beverages make sure that you secure it as your future vending business. Planet Antares is a company that provides quality vending machines and excellent vending programs, so if you associate yourself with them for your vending business, you are bound to make huge profits. Just make sure that the seller of the vending business is handing you a business that is profitable.
There is no point of buying an established vending route that is not making money because it means that you will have to start everything from scratch. There are vending operators out there that have bought established vending businesses that are failing and have managed to pull them out of the pits. These vending operators are people who had effective strategies that they implemented in the vending business. A vending business that is not doing great would of course cost much less than one that is doing well. If you are up to reviving a vending business that needs reviving, you can take up the challenge if you think the strategies that you have will work.
A successfully established Planet Antares vending business would be great to invest in because the vending machines are durable vending machines with excellent mechanisms that reduce the chances of mechanical problems. In addition to this the vendor would have been using a Planet Antares vending program, which is considered by many as a sure way of leading a vending business to success. All that you would need to do is pick up where the previous vendor left off. If the previous owner of the vending business had maintained good relations with the location, you would need to continue doing the same. Go round with the seller of the business on one of his routes to see how he has been running his business. Introduce yourself to the location owner and the supplier of the vending business so that you can talk to them about their vending services. Get to know if they are satisfied with the way things are running or if they expect more from a new owner. This would be a great start to your vending business.
A vending business is a unique business opportunity that can help you achieve financial freedom. According to statistics, vending is among the most profitable of businesses, so whether you start a new vending business or buy an established vending route, your chances of succeeding are very high so long as you put in some hard work.
Facets That Make Vending Popular
Vending as a business
The vending business is currently generating billions of dollars in annual sales. A larger part of the industry consists of smaller, independent, local operators. Compared to other businesses, vending offers a great opportunity for someone to build a home based business. Planet Antares Inc. can provide you with the freedom to develop a business as you learn so that it can evolve into a full time successful enterprise. In other words, it is business that you can shape to fit into your own lifestyle.
All-cash business
Vending is a, pay as services are rendered, business. It is an all cash business. Each time you will service your Planet Antares vending accounts, you will get paid. Place the right machines in the right locations so that you can have maximum sales from your vending machines, because the key to success is sales.
Locations
Developing a successful Planet Antares vending route is something that will take time and effort. Never be afraid to ask a location if they can use your services. Locations are your customers and you need to meet them face to face.
Low overhead expenses
As an owner of a vending business, storage rental and utility expenses are eliminated since you would be working from home.
Silent salesmen
Once you have the Planet Antares vending machines on location, they will do all of the selling of the products. These vending machines are glass front vending machine, so the items in the vending machine are always well displayed. The vending machines display the products to the potential customers, collect cash in advance, and then deliver the product on the spot. Vending machines are always on the job, working 24 hours, seven days a week.
Profits on vending products
The profits that you can make with a vending business can be as good as 50% gross margin or more on each item that is sold through the vending machine. Income is determined by the number of items sold. This in turn is influenced by the number of machines that you have on location and the amount of traffic that you have in that location.
Vending as a business is popular because it is a good example of a low risk and high return investment. The amount of money that you can make in the vending business is amazing. One thing that we can be sure of is its continual popularity.
Maintaining Quality Service in your Vending Business
Quality service levels can improve productivity in your Planet Antares vending business. This of course would be possible if all the employees of your vending business are effective in their departments. For example, if you have a route driver employed, you need to make sure that the driver is running a successful route.
Planet Antares offers a wonderful vending program which shows you how you can run your vending business effectively. Expanding your vending business would be hassle free if you have good help to service existing customers. You should never be forced to turn away new business because of lack of good help to service the existing accounts.
This is not an issue that can be found only in the vending industry. Everyone in business today is feeling the pinch of a full employment economy. In vending, a lack of qualified employees usually results in a drop in the quality of services that you render to the customer. If this were to happen in your vending business, customers would look elsewhere for a better service. To counter this problem, Planet Antares vending operators need to review all of their systems and procedures in an effort to maintain quality service levels, with smaller staffs. The area that would need focusing is the route labor, because it is the largest expense on the profit and loss statement after product costs.
Despite all this, there is really no simple solution to this problem. In order to attract and retain quality service, a company must offer competitive wages and benefits; a safe, friendly work environment; a training program that enables employees to perform at or above acceptable levels; and offer the employee the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. There are some operators that install route commission plans with the hope that it will provide simple solution to all of their staffing problems. The level of an employee’s compensation is tied to the level of productive work he does. Given the incentive, most people would be willing to work harder, since they are being paid for their effort. This is why it is referred to as incentive compensation.
If you have a sizeable Planet Antares vending operation, you would need to become an aggressive and creative recruiter. However, before the company can afford to pay market rate wages and benefits, it will have to develop and implement route productivity practices that maximize the amount of revenue each route person turns in, relative to the cost of running the route. In other words, you can’t pay competitive wages unless the company earns enough money to do so.
Vending in Small Locations
Building a successful small location vending program would require commitment, proper planning and a lot of sweat equity. A small location can be an account that has less than 50 employees. Planet Antares vending machines can work well in a location that has 50 or less employees. Your vending business can be profitable, so long as the employees make regular purchases from the vending machines. One thing that you need to keep in mind is that becoming successful in small location vending is not a quick or easy process.
If you want to apply or adapt your Planet Antares vending business to locations with small populations, there are ways that you can successfully do that. There are operators out there that are testing new options for small location vending which has always been an ongoing industry challenge.
Small location vending has never been particularly beneficial for a majority of vending operators. Technology can change this by creating new efficiencies, but at an additional cost. The efficiencies can make up for the added expense and thus reduce the costs in relation to sales. This can be very beneficial to a Planet Antares small location vending business.
The demographics of the America workplace are changing. Over 90% of American businesses now employ less than 50 people. Conventional vending systems are no longer economical or profitable in small locations. Planet Antares can help you establish your niche in the small location vending business. There are experts available that can teach you how to make money in small location vending. This will help you to avoid making mistakes that many vending operators have made in the past.
Choosing a small location takes the same process as looking for other types of locations. You need to make sure that the vending machine that you are providing works well with the location. A vending business can be profitable if you make it work. A small location can be profitable for your vending business if you use the right approach. Since a small location has a small population, you can easily meet the demands of the customers by providing them with the products that want. This can be easily done since they will be the only people that will be using the vending machines on a regular basis. On top of that, you should be able to provide them with an excellent vending service since you are catering to a small population.
Product Flexibility in Vending
When you own a Planet Antares vending machine, you are free to place whatever products the customer wants in your vending machine. For example, some people like Coke while others prefer Pepsi. In this case you would just need to store both brands. Consumer’s preferences vary, account by account. The more people there are in a vending location, then the more the diversity in their tastes. You cannot expect everyone to like the same products.
According to a national survey that was conducted, personal preferences for cold drinks are divided as follows: Coke 38.6%, Pepsi 27.4%, others 34.0%. If you provide only Coke products in your Planet Antares vending machine then that means that 61.4 % of the customers are excluded. If you keep a variety of soft drinks in your vending machine, that will make all the consumers happy. Contented consumers will mean repeat business for you. Branded snacks and beverages always do well in vending machines because they are easily recognizable. Placing branded products in your vending machines does not mean that you place only one kind of brand. Have a variety of branded products in your vending machines, so that you cater to everyone’s tastes.
Make sure that the supplier that you have engaged provides high quality, fresh merchandise. All products must be removed from your vending machine on the date of expiry of freshness. You would not want a customer to consume something which has expired, because this might be followed by a complaint from the customer. This would affect your vending business in a negative way.
Product flexibility strongly depends on the location that you have chosen for your Planet Antares vending machines. There are some products that would be popular in one location and not so popular in the next location. For example the products you vend in a school successfully may not be as profitable in a hospital. The same products cannot work in all location in the same way. That is why you need to know what the demands of a location are so that you can choose the right product mix for your Planet Antares vending machine.
Keep all your customers happy by providing them with a variety of products so that they can have a wide selection. Place a majority of branded products in your vending machine so that they are easily recognizable. This kind of product flexibility will maximize the profits in your vending business.
How to Secure a Vending Location
One sure way of increasing the profits of your Planet Antares vending business would be by securing new locations. Nevertheless, finding new snack and beverage consumers in a mature market can prove to be quite difficult. Vending operators must combat rising prices and shortages of locations. This is why many vending operators choose to increase profits at their current locations while still maintaining their customer base. If you are looking to secure a location for your Planet Antares vending business, you can use the Internet, which has proven to be a powerful tool.
The Internet can be used to solicit prospective snack and beverage vending machine locations and to also find potential location leads. In the past vending operators used to rely on phone directories, business directories and purchased lists. This has of course all changed with the availability of the Internet. Many of the old techniques are no longer plausible. Today you can use the Internet as a business directory to look for information on potential vending machine locations. In addition to this, the operators can also use the Internet to research and qualify their leads.
The Internet can also be used to attract new clients. Businesses today are using the Internet to shop for services such as snack and beverage vending machines. This is an advantage that you would have as a Planet Antares vending operator. Snack and beverage vending machines are usually on demand by most locations. This is because Americans love snacking. Whether you are in an office, business, hospital or shopping mall, you will always notice a snack and beverage vending machine in a corner somewhere. If you have an effective business website, you can wait for the leads to come to you when they are looking for vending machines. Investing in pay per click services can help to improve your website rankings, which of course would make it more effective.
Regardless of the benefits of the Internet, direct mail, in person soliciting and networking will still continue to strongly play a role in securing locations. Nevertheless the most critical tool for securing locations is a good salesperson. A good sales person should be able to develop high quality location leads which can be converted into sales. There are certain established methods for securing locations for vending business that cannot be replaced, but the Internet is now a new possibility. You can use the Internet to secure locations for your Planet Antares vending business in a cost effective manner.
Repairing your Vending Machine
When you are running a Planet Antares vending business, you have need to have some basic knowledge of how to repair your vending machines if anything were to ever go wrong. The knowledge would come in handy when there are minor repairs to be made. There is no need to always call a repair man every time something goes wrong with the machine. Calling them would cost you extra money that you can save by doing the repairs on your own.
Maintenance of your Planet Antares vending machine is the best way of ensuring that the vending machine runs smoothly without any mechanical problems. Make sure that all the parts are always well cleaned and oiled. Vending machines usually have problems with coins jams or the bill validator being unable to accept money. There are also times that a vending machine fails to deliver the product chosen by the customer. These are some of the problems that can frustrate a customer. When a customer gets frustrated by using a certain vending machine, it means that they will try to avoid that particular vending machine in the future. This is why your Planet Antares vending machine should always be in good working order.
When your vending machines have been placed in a location, you are not going to be standing by your vending machine, watching it at all hours. The location owner is the one who will be watching over the machine. If the location owner is always present at the location, he or she can watch out for any miscreants that will want to vandalize the vending machine. This is why the location that you choose has to be in a good and safe neighborhood, especially in locations where there is no one to watch over the vending machine. Vandalism can cost you a lot of money in repairs. This would be an extra expense on your part, since it is unexpected. The damage cause by vandalism is usually extensive, that means it would need a repair man to fix the problem.
When you buy vending machines from companies such as Planet Antares Inc., you will be provided with all the necessary details about the vending industry and vending machines. These companies usually have wonderful vending programs that will show you how you can make minor repairs on your vending machine.
If there is ever a problem with a vending machine, it will be the responsibility of the location owner to alert you about the problem so that you can reach the location within a short period of time. In the case that your vending machine is in a location where there is no attendant, you can have a phone number placed on the vending machine, where a customer can get in touch with you whenever there is a malfunction. The vending route that you have established should be near your base, so that you don’t have hard time reaching the vending machines for repairs or servicing.
