an idea

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I'm going to college next year and i got an idea for a "business."
I found a store online where they sell candy machines, so i was thinking about buying my own and putting it in the cafe at the college that i am going to.</p>

<p>The machine costs $3345 with shipping and handling so i will probably have to get it my 2nd year of college and get a job freshman year to make that money and be extremely conservative when it comes to money, like not buying a lot of alcohol and not going to many restaurants. But yeah I don't really know how that will work and if ill raise $3345 by the end of freshman year.</p>

<p>So if everything goes the way I plan, sophomore year I will buy the machine from this online store, and after talking to the people at my college and getting their permission (they will probably want a share of the profits i make), i will put it in my school's cafe. The machine holds 670 items, so how many times i will have to refill it will depend on how many people will buy from it, and 40,000 people go to my college so that will be thousands of people going in the cafe daily.</p>

<p>There is a wholesale goods store, Costco, by campus so i can go there and buy candy in bulk for 39-40 cents each, and sell them for .90-$1, or just make it so i get 50 cents profit from each item since i will probably put chips in there too. So if the whole machine is sold out, 500-670 items gone, that will easily be $250-$300 profit ($.50 x 600 = $300) minus the money i will pay for the electricity to run the machine and the money the amount the college will take from me to let me do this.</p>

<p>So yeah if i am going to plan on doing this, every weekend i will have to make a trip to Costco and buy $260 worth of candy to refill. And then go to the machine, take my money out of it, refill it with the candy, and make a trip to the bank to deposit all of it. If I get a lot of quarters/dimes/nickels, I will either have to take the time to put all of them in rolls or just take them to a coinstar machine, which has a 8.9% processing fee. But this will depend on how many quarters/dimes/nickels I get.</p>

<p>I will probably have to get one of my friends into the business if there is too much work and the machine becomes empty faster than once a week, and split the profits. But I will try not to so I can earn more money.</p>

<p>So yeah what do you guys think of this idea?</p>

2

<p>My dad had a similar idea, except it was a vending machine that could hold gatorade, powerade, or vitamin water (which is becoming pretty popular around where I live). </p>

<p>I think it's a great idea. However, you're most likely going to need a partner, as you'll probably be refilling it more than once a week. If you're charging cents (50c / 75c / 99c / $1.50), you'll also have to refill certain coins every once in awhile to ensure that they get their change.</p>

3

<p>yeah i was also thinking about getting a soda machine instead of a candy machine, and put in monster, redbull, rockstar.</p>

<p>but what im worried about there is the energy that i would need to power the coolers to keep the drinks cold. would that take up a lot of energy and cost more money?</p>

4

<p>Yes, it would definitely cost more if you have to refrigerate your products. Check the machines electricity usage - some machines are more efficient than others - to compare prices. However, big energy drinks cost a good deal more than snacks, so you might have a better profit. </p>

<p>Calculate all the costs and prices, and then compare the final profits.</p>

5

<p>That sounds like a gogd idea. Have you considered buyiung a used vending machine? Make sure the cafe has outlets. Get approvel and find a place with electric plugs before ordering it.If its a liberal school offer to donate like 15% of profite ot some charity to help you get in the door. Make sure to put it in an area thats highly visible so as to keep away vandels. Try to avoid those vending mcachine scams whcih convince people to invest there life savigns and then they just end up with a couple gumball machines.</p>

6

<p>Definitely do your homework and talk to your school before planning anything huge like this.</p>

7

<p>I'm really surprised that a college would just let random people put their machines in the college cafe. I thought that the dining services department was in charge of that area, and they wouldn't want to give up any of their profits by having a privately owned machine on campus.</p>