How to Make $2k+/Day With Vending Machines⏐Ep. #262

Quinn Miller (0:00)

I'm doing in the range of like 1500 to 2000 in sales per day. It's definitely trending up higher towards like 2000 I was looking for things where I didn't have to be there all the time, low cost of capital to enter and then had some solid cash flow. That's kind of where I stumbled into vending. What I saw was like, hey, I never had to go there for the sale. And then so what I started doing is making cold calls. I landed a location that did 1500 bucks in the first month. So I was like, okay, we have something here and then left corporate and did that full time.

Chris Koerner (0:23)

Wow, left corporate after the second machine?

Quinn Miller (0:26)

Yeah.

Chris Koerner (0:26)

Three dispensary locations, 50 grand a year.

Quinn Miller (0:29)

Yeah.

Chris Koerner (0:30)

Wow. Yeah, that's good.

Quinn Miller (0:31)

The easiest way to run this business is literally just have a drink machine where you click the button. So it holds like eight different products and just put a bunch of those out there.

Chris Koerner (0:39)

The drink machines are the easiest.

Quinn Miller (0:40)

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Chris Koerner (0:42)

If you could go back and perfectly script starting this business from scratch, what would you have changed to make things really clean, really profitable, really efficient?

Quinn Miller (0:52)

So I'm Quinn Miller. I own and operate a vending machine business. That's how I started. It's kind of expanded a little bit now. So it's transformed into a new traditional snack and drink. We do like smart coolers. We do like market concepts. Now I also have a ATM business as well. I got into the business because I am based in California and I love real estate. But the problem out here is that it's heavy appreciation.

Like cash flow and most people were like, oh well, why is that bad? What happened was I bought some real estate out here with my buddy. I bought a property for quite a bit. We renovated it and then the cash flow is so, so light. It was about $700 a month. We split it between three parties. And when we were fresh out of college, and this might sound crazy to a lot of people, but the house was like $550,000, right? So it wasn't cheap.

Chris Koerner (1:47)

Yeah. And that's in San Diego?

Quinn Miller (1:49)

Yeah. Yeah. And so we did the renovation and the cash flow was really poor, but it reappraised for quite a bit. But it reappraised for, I think, like $800 now.

Chris Koerner (1:57)

Wow.

Quinn Miller (1:57)

Which is awesome. Yeah. But we bought it at the back end of 2018 And then, I don't know, maybe a year or two later. That's what it looked like. And the goal is to buy more, right? Not just have the money sitting there, because I couldn't have all my effectively life savings sitting in this piece of property, not cash flowing at all. They didn't want to do it. And so I got out of that and I was looking for alternative, not to say asset classes, but some things where I didn't have to be there all the time, low cost of capital to enter and then add some solid cash flow. That's kind of where I stumbled into vending and I saw other people doing it online that didn't necessarily have the same background as me from a sales perspective. And so what I did is I put it out of my buddy's mechanic shop, a machine that I bought off Craigslist and it didn't do good at all. But what I realized was I didn't have to ever go there to make a sale. So that's good and bad. If you never have to go, then the machine is not selling. But so I never had to go there. So if it's doing like 150 bucks in sales and the machine holds 600 drinks, you can go there once every six months or once every three months, whatever the number is.

Chris Koerner (3:01)

So you at least fell in love with that aspect of it, but you realized finding locations is going to be harder than you thought. Finding good locations would be harder than you.

Quinn Miller (3:08)

I didn't think it would be harder than I thought because I never even prospect it. What I saw was like, hey, I never had to go there for the sale. And so what I started doing was making cold calls. And then I landed a location that did pretty well. I think it did maybe 1,500 bucks in the first month. So I was like, okay, now we have something here.