The Ren Vending Group has a brand new look in looking a revenue. Follow the link (Excel document) and tell us what you think.
As far as the numbers go, we are moderately content with our monthly revenue. We brought in nearly $5,500, that’s the good news. The bad news is we lost the 5 O’Clock Sports Bar, which means we have four more machines to place in order to get back to full occupancy.
At least four bars are underperforming as well. That is a total of eight machines that we are going to re-place in the upcoming months, (so much for passive income).
Thoughts? Leave them below…
TRM
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
1. Are these 50% of what the actual machine took in [Assuming your giving half to the property]
2. What do the machines cost to purchase?
3. Would you recommend them to buy?
Rich
Rich,
Great questions…to answer your questions, yes, 4K, and hmmmmmmmmmmmm…
Yes, those numbers are ‘our’ half (after the split)…To place and purchase the machine it costs around $4,000…If you can get it into a great bar, it is a great buy, if you can’t then it’s not…the machine itself is suspect at best, a lot of problems, in breaking down and just normal wear and tear…which all leads to the hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm answer…
I second all of rich’s questions.
Gents,
The Boxer machines sound great as a concept – No need to carry stock to refill candy, sodas, gum, etc. Kind of a ’set it and forget it’ approach (except for the cash collection part, but that’s the fun stuff!) It sounds like the reality is a bit more challenging.
I was wondering how well something that is punched several times each day would hold up and it sounds like a few product quality issues have been revealed. I also wondered how the restaurants/bars would respond to the noise created by the machines – Again, anything being punched is going to generate a bit of a distraction for the other patrons unless the environment is loud enough by nature to cover the sound.
Have you talked to the 5 O’Clock Sports Bar owner to find out why they are pulling the plug (literally)? Have you chatted with your other placement venue owners to determine if they are satisfied with the arrangement and find out if they have any concerns or recommendations that could help you identify better long-term partnerships?
Passive income sounds great, but it is difficult to realize. I’ve been rolling around a book idea for a number of months that I think has a lot of potential – If I can dedicate the time today to write it, there may be potential for future revenue without additional work. That’s one of the more passive ideas I’ve explored, but it takes a current commitment to recognize future returns…And it’s also a long shot, because there is so much competition in the book biz.
Unrelated topic: You have your car lot, could you combine your sales with a car rental agency? It’s not passive, but it could fit into your automotive vertical.
Good luck with your continued quest for the perfect passive opportunity.
Cheers,
Matt
The machines hold up well enough for the most part, but many times a person will put a soaked dollar bill in, and the bill acceptor will eat it, and it will be down. It’s not the machine’s fault but that is just one of the problems. We pulled the plug on the 5′O clock…It was underperforming big time! We had it in there for four months or so…We know we need to place machines before we take them out of bars, but it was not in our normal route, and if it were to break it would cost us more than to fix it, than it was bringing in on a monthly basis…
We looked into books as well, that is a goal of ours, we just need to realize it…
We looked into the car rental agency, very very briefly…We’ll have to take a closer look…
For the machines that are under performing, does Knockout Vending find new locations for those?
OJ,
No they don’t, the locators do replace one free machine, but we already used all our free redo’s. We are doing the locating ourselves now. We’ll let you know how it works out.
Sounds like the boxing machines are at least something you are not going to invest in any more. Why not pursue something like massage chairs? No inventory and if you can place it right sound like a good idea. Car renting sounds like a big hustle to start with, and a lot of competition.
We have two massage chairs. The numbers aren’t strong enough to support more purchases. Each chair cost around $1,800 including the locating and delivery fee. We need around $350 a month to sustain our numbers.
Ren Men-
Thanks again for you candid feedback on Knockout Vending. When I saw this opportunity initially it sounded like a great passive opportunity. When I dug further and further into it, I just couldn’t make the numbers work to make it attractive enough not to mention the potential headaches. Your feedback as well as the feedback of others helped me finalize the decision to not move forward so thanks. I sincerely hope it proves profitable for you guys in the end. I am still chasing other opportunities!
Sure, not a problem…thanks and good luck with your other opportunities…
Been a while since I’ve had time to come by the site. I think I’ve only watched 1 vid since the SxSW ones. Had a free moment and thought I would stop buy and see what’s up.
And what do I get? I get my favorite part about you guys, transparency and honesty. I love these pieces as you are being “real” about what’s going on with the numbers.
Had a question though about the 4k number you are using on ROI. Is that your averaged/estimated yearly cost for 1 machine? How are you handling the cost of machines that are just sitting and therefore not really working into the average (well, you could put a 0 in a column to get it to adjust right I guess) or was this just more the desired income level you wanted from any machine? Did you take loans on the machine or straight up bought? Been a while since the episode where you explained that part, thought took loans but wasn’t 100%.
When I first saw those I figured they might be a bit of maintenance because any machine with mechanical over electrical parts seems more prone to breaking (especially with the force being put on it.)
Here’s the real question, What’s the deal with Pops Saloon? Why is it going gang busters? Maybe trying to find more places like that is the key.
The 4K is the cost of the machine. We were hopeful to pay for the machine within 12 months of purchase. We took no loan, bought these machines cash. Sad news, about Pops Saloon, it was going gangbusters, so they decided to buy their own machine and keep all the profits. We can’t blame them, it just sucks. Finding kick ass places is the key to the boxers.
Yeah that has to be one of the big draw backs because any place that does do really well with it will probably end up getting their own once they see the price. Looking at what you were making on your split the machine will be paid for in around 3 months with them taking it all.
Have you thought about some sort of agreement in the future so they can’t do that? Basically you are taking all the risk and if the big upside you want happens then these places can just break out on their own, removing the upside from you.
Also, they were by far your biggest moneymaker and losing them drops your averages from the last 2 months about $50 which is like 15-20%. Are you still positive about the biz or are you just hoping to break even at this point?
We don’t know where we are with this business. We wouldn’t say we are positive about it, but we wouldn’t say we are negative about it. That’s why we haven’t given it much attention. That’s not a good thing to do. It’s like having a job/marriage/any relationship and it’s just ok. You can be stuck in the job for 30 years without giving much thought. We need to do something quickly. Yip, we need to move our a$$e$! Thanks for bringing it to our attention…