Planet Antares

Inputs to make your vending business work. A special insight on Planet Antares Vending solutions

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Earn Easy Profits With Planet Antares Vending Products

Vending machines can hardly make customer happy by themselves. You will need to make sure that you place them strategically, stock quality products and do regular machine servicing. Still, it isn’t hard to make money through vending machine business. Almost every company needs a vending machine in their premises to keep employees satisfied and reduce time spent away from the work desk.

If you choose a reliable vending machine from a reputable vending machine provider like Planet Antares Inc, you can reap the various benefits of vending business. But as I said before, there’s more to the success of your vending business than just buying a vending machine.

Here are some tips for earning easy profits through vending machines:

1: Product Suppliers
You may have a soda, snack or other vending machine but it needs to be well-stocked to fulfill customer requirements at all times. It is best to purchase products from a reliable vending company like Planet Antares or bulk supplier. This enables you to price your products reasonable and induce higher sales.

2: Product Pricing
Check the prices charged by competitors and then decide the prices for your products. However, you must be able to recover your costs and earn a decent profit in the process.

3: Refilling
Set a regular schedule for refilling the vending machines. This includes restocking of popular products and replacement of outdated or low-performing items. Offer a variety of products to keep customers happy and enable larger orders than a single product range.

4: Maintenance
A vending machine which doesn’t work when a customer is waiting for his/her order will have a negative impact on your business sales and reputation. You should keep your machines in workable condition and ensure that technical service is available as and when required.

5: Customer Opinion
Your customer’s happiness is the key to earning higher profits. Analyze customer feedback and preferences to choose the products stocked in your vending machines. For example, there has been a rising customer preference for healthier products. this can be an opportunity to build brand loyalty by offering healthy food items and target new customer segments too.

A vending operator focusing on these aspects of the product will definitely get good returns. Customer satisfaction is as important as creating sales and profits. This will ensure that your vending business booms and proves to be a lucrative venture.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Vending IQ: License Issues

Setting up a vending business involves more than just buying a vending machine and installing it in a good location. Even though it is essential to buy a reliable, good quality machine from reputable vending machine providers like Planet Antares, there are other important elements for the success of your business.

Most of the time, people ignore the legal aspects of this business which may create problems for their business later. There is not much awareness about such issues but it is important for you to be familiar with every factor involved in the vending business before you actually start one.
You must know the license and permit requirements of your state or region. If your business is spread across different states, these provisions may differ accordingly.

Licenses are available at different levels such as:

Town
If you are operating in your local area, you will need a local business license. Moreover, every machine in different towns may be charged an annual fee. This is a legal provision for the food and service industry.

This may be quite expensive for you and it is better to take this expense into consideration before starting the business rather than paying for unforeseen and avoidable expenses later on. For small businesses, it is very difficult to pay charges on every machine and so, they should cover a small area initially.

State
As a state resident, you may have to pay sales tax on a portion or the entire vending income earned by you. Moreover, you will have to pay:
1. fees for locating your machine with an entity in the form of corporate tax
2. Income tax on revenue generated (if levied by your state)

These charges, especially the income tax may vary from state to state and with time also.

Federal
At this level, you won’t have to pay anything to the government in form of taxes. You just need to disclose your vending income. If you open a savvy account, you can even save your profits by showing losses or setting them off against taxable income.

After taking these factors into consideration, you can select the vending locations for your vending machines. You also have the option of hiring a vending locator or taking the location services provided by good vending machine suppliers like Planet Antares Inc. ask them about the various licensing fees in different regions before deciding to install your machines.

Remember that a little more prudence will help you save a lot of money and effort later on.