Hey there, Vendpreneur!

Welcome to Becoming a Vendpreneur—where every week I help you navigate the challenges of running a vending machine business, whether you’re just starting out or looking to expand your operation.

This week, I want to show you how to run a vending business while working your 9-to-5 (without turning it into another job):

• 🥤 Go Niche

• 🔁 Use VMS

• 📍 Choose Prime Locations

• 💪 Build a Manageable Route

• 🚛 Hire a Part-Time Route Driver

But before we jump into more details, I want to share a few quick updates on my nightlife vending franchise, Pod Plug:

🚀 Business Updates

• 💻 Booking 4 calls a day, mainly from cold emailing potential franchisees with sales backgrounds found on LinkedIn (apollo.io is the best). At this pace, our first franchisee looks like they’ll be onboard next month!

  

  This email has been getting 4-5 replies a day and 2-3 booked calls a day. Super effective!

• 📈 Bringing on a new investor next week, and in talks with 4 others. The cap table is heating up, and things are moving fast.

• 🎰 Just got back from Vegas for NAMA, the biggest vending show of the year. Hung out with my good friends and fellow creators, Jaime Ibanez and Rico Rixo. Always a blast!

  

  Salud!

• 🙌 Speaking of NAMA, ran into one of my Becoming a Vendpreneur subscribers. He told me I was his inspiration for starting his vending business last month, and now he’s already got 4 locations!!!

  

• 🏎️ Got invited to a race car driving event with Cantaloupe – drove a Porsche 911 GT3-RS. SICK experience.

• 💡 Making a BIG decision on our SEO strategy. I’ll be diving into a top-tier SEO course next week so we can bring it in-house.

• 🤔 Deciding whether to ramp up our cold email strategy or start running Meta ads (or maybe both?). I don’t have experience with paid ads, so I’ll be dedicating some time to learning more about this in the coming weeks.

Now, let’s dive into this week’s newsletter. 👇

🔗 Best Links

Curated picks for Vendpreneurs

📱 Top Reads

• 🍼 A mom's travel disaster became the start of a successful vending business. (BBC World Service)

• 🏥 LA County introduces health vending machines for FREE (ABC7)

😱 Trending Now

• 🚁 In China, you can rent drones from vending machines. Talk about futuristic convenience! (TikTok)

• 🍦 Sydney is loving its new Korean popsicle vending machines. (TikTok)

The vending machine business is a great way to make extra money on the side.

I’m making $80K a month with 76 machines, working just 8 hours a week to keep them running.

With the right strategy, you can easily balance this with a full-time job.

It all comes down to focusing on three key things:

• Products

• Locations

• Systems

Let’s dive into it. 👇

#1: Stock Products with a Long Shelf Life 📦

Nightlife vending stands out for a reason: no spoilage, big margins, and fast turnover.

Products like ZYNs and vapes have a long shelf life.

They don’t go “bad” in the food-spoiling sense, so you don’t have to worry about them getting wasted or losing value.

This means you can restock just once or twice a month.

But keep in mind, these items sell quickly, so make sure you follow the next tip.

#2: Run Everything From Your Phone 📲

One of the main reasons people avoid starting a vending business?

They think they’ll have to constantly manage their machines.

But with the right tech, that’s not the case.

• Step 1: Use a VMS (Vending Management System).

• Step 2: Set up automatic alerts.

• Step 3: Track your products' performance.

Here’s how it works 👇

#3: Choose High-Traffic Locations 📍

Location is everything when it comes to success and saving time.

Look for places with at least 50-100 people walking by daily, like busy bars or popular clubs.

This foot traffic ensures your machines get noticed and used frequently.

Also, make sure there’s no competition within a 2-mile radius. You want to dominate the area, not fight for space.

If you want to save time and avoid the setup struggle, consider buying a vending machine franchise.

Read till the end to find out how!

#4: Build a Route You Can Actually Run 💪

Most people get stuck after 2-3 machines because they try to do too much.

A tight cluster of 10 machines in one city is way more profitable and efficient than 50 machines spread out across 20 cities (trust me, I learned this the hard way).

In 2020, I had to relocate 30+ machines during COVID.

The ones that stayed profitable?

The ones I could manage quickly and remotely.

#5: Hire a Part-Time Route Driver 🚛

I once outsourced stocking and servicing to bartenders and managers at my locations.

At first, it seemed like a win since they were already on-site.

But machines got left empty, and products went missing.

I ended up losing high-value locations and thousands in missed sales.

I could’ve avoided this by hiring a dedicated part-time route driver to handle the stocking and servicing for me.

Still, it all boils down to training. Make sure whoever you hire knows exactly what’s expected.

By the way… it took me 6 years to build this system.

It would’ve been a whole lot faster if I had:

• 📈 In-person training

• 🛠️ A proven product mix that actually sells

• 📦 Reliable supplier connections from day one

• 📍 Pre-vetted locations with built-in foot traffic

• 🧠 A step-by-step playbook instead of trial and error

Sometimes the shortcut is worth it — like through a franchise.

But not all franchises are created equal…

Check out why vending machine franchises beat other franchises (like restaurants) in my latest video below. Don’t forget to Subscribe👇

That’s why I’m franchising Pod Plug, my nightlife vending company, to help you get exactly that—so you can skip the trial and error and start earning faster.

So, if you’re ready to become a franchisee, I’d love to work with you.

But first, let’s make sure we’re the right fit for each other.

If you have:

• $25k in liquid capital

• Solid sales experience

• A willingness to learn and grow with support

• The motivation to build and scale your own business

Let’s make it happen.

And That’s a Wrap!

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter.

Hit reply and let me know what you found most helpful this week—I read every single reply and I’d love to hear from you!

See you next Saturday!

-Ethan