Vending is a great opportunity for people looking for a road to self employment, but this doesn’t mean that it’s always fun or easy. I’ve been in this business since November of 2007 and I’m here to tell you that vending really is a great way to make a living, but there are a few things that you need to be aware of. A lot of people are probably like me, I did the bulk of my research about the vending business online. There is a lot of good reliable information out there, but there is also a lot of crazy hype out there and when you’re just starting out the problem is know which is which. After all, a lot of people writing about vending are usually trying to sell you something, so they have a vested interest in making vending sound as good as possible.

One of the biggest scams in vending is the vending business opportunities (biz ops). Vending biz ops sell groups of machines and then usually offer to help get them located, essentially selling the dream of an instant income stream, they make it all sound so easy and so alluring. Unfortunately this all comes with an outrageous price tag. These biz ops charge up to 4x time’s market value of the machines and services that they’re selling, but a lot of people fall for the hype. After all, these businesses are all about marketing. They know that you almost can’t go wrong appealing to people’s greed, ignorance or desperation. I know that in our society it’s not polite to blame the victim, but if you think there’s a quick easy way to make money, or a quick easy way to lose weight, then you’re basically a potential walking victim.

I’m hoping that by publishing articles like this, I’ll maybe save someone a lot of heartache not to mention money. By all means do your won research, find out how much the retail on machines and locating should cost and find out if this is even close to what the biz op is offering. An excellent high end vending machine can be had for less than $300 and located for somewhere between $40 and $50. For about $250 you can get an all metal machine that will be 3 times better than the cheap plastic machines sold by biz ops.