Vending Machine Business Plan - Sample Layout With Section Titles

The preparation of your vending machine business plan will be the most important thing that you do prior to launching your new venture.

A business plan will be a crucial resource that will help guide your business in the right direction. A business plan sets out what has to happen in order for you to reach your goals, outlines how you will do it and sets out alternative plans in case things change further down the line. It forces you to do the research that is necessary in order to find out if there really is a market for the vending machines and locations that you have in mind.

It may be necessary to have a plan written in a formal, professional style if your aim is to use it to convince bankers or investors to support your idea. However, even if you don't have anything to prove to anyone, your business plan will help to confirm the viability of your ideas in your own mind.

Keep a copy of your plan on your PC as well as in a file or binder in case of emergency. Don't forget about your business plan once you have opened your doors for business. Refer to it regularly to make sure that you are on track to meet targets. Don't be afraid to make changes to the plan where necessary.

Every entrepreneur or business consultant will have different ideas about how a business plan should be structured. There are many different templates available online and some sites even have samples relating directly to the vending machine industry. Below we offer an example of a suitable outline with section titles that you might consider including in your own vending machine business plan.

Cover and Contents Page

Start off with a cover page with a heading to let people know what the report is about, who the author is and when it was written. If you will be presenting the report to many different people then you may consider including a personalized cover letter with each copy of the plan. Start out with a table of contents so that readers can easily find their way around the report.

Executive Summary

Summarize the other sections of your business plan. Present some brief information on the opportunities that you see in the market and summarize what it is that you intend to do with your business to capitalize on these opportunities. Try to entice readers into reading the whole report.

Background

Offer the reader some background information on yourself and your reasons for starting a vending machine business. Provide details of any relevant experience or competitive advantages that you have.

You can also include a vending industry background showing national industry data as well as information about the local industry that you plan on entering.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is usually a phrase or a couple of short sentences that summarises what your business is all about, what it does and how well it does it. It is a good way to remember the basic goals or philosophy of your company aside from the profit motive. A good mission statement could mention something about the standard of your machines and products or how you strive to be better than your competitors.

Goals and Objectives

State the goals that you wish to achieve in the short and medium terms. Goals could include placing a certain number a vending machines or reaching a certain income level per machine.

Startup Requirements

Set out a list of startup costs and calculate the total amount of capital that will be needed for the company to get started. Report on some of the funding options that are available to the owners.

In this section of the report you can also mention some of the other things that must happen in order for the business to commence trading legally and professionally. Mention the processes and the fees involved with applying for licenses, permits and other paperwork under the laws of the region where the business will be operating.

Ownership and Management Structure

Note who the founders of the company are and the particular ownership interest that each has in the business. For those who will be active in the management of the business it is important to outline what role they will play and their responsibilities. Will the business be registered as a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation?

Business Operations

This section of a business plan should outline the details of how you plan on running the vending machine business. Include information on where your business will be based, administration, any plans that you have to hire employees and how your business will run on a day to day basis.

Include details on vending machines, maintenance, products, distributors, route planning and how you will record and manage sales data. What systems will you put in place to maximize productivity and efficiency?

Try to come up with solid reasons why you are choosing a certain vending machine, product line or system. Wherever possible include some supporting evidence from research that you have done.

Market Analysis

Using data from your market research you can report on the current state of your target market and identify some of the opportunities. Here you can include demographic data as well as information that you have gathered from surveys and other investigations.

Provide information on the competition in your target area and examine their strengths and weaknesses. Look at ways of delivering products and services via your machines that are distinctly different from what your competitors are offering. Get ideas from them about what is working well and what isn't. Look for a competitive edge. Don't forget to also mention indirect competitors such as convenience stores, in-house cafeterias or food vans.

Marketing Plan

Outline a strategy for creating a vending brand that will meet market needs. Based on the market opportunities that you see, set out a strategy for meeting customer needs in terms of locations, vending machines, product lines and pricing.

Provide details on how you plan on getting new machine locations, arranging appointments with 'decision makers' and selling your services to them. Your marketing could mostly be done by approaching decision makers directly or you could rely on advertising to generate some enquiries.

Also outline your plan for marketing directly to your customers or end users. These could include 'point of sale' promotions on the machine front or how you or your staff will build relationships with customers when you visit the premises where your machines are located.

You should also mention how you plan on maintaining vending accounts and customer satisfaction in the long term. Customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition.

Financial Planning

Use a spreadsheet program to set out forecasts of cash flows in and out of your vending machine business over a hypothetical two year time period. If you have done your research you should be able to anticipate monthly income and expenses going forward. You will thus be able to determine future levels of profitability and a break even point.

Run a variety of different scenarios that consider a conservative growth rate, an expected growth rate and an optimistic growth rate. Things don't always happen like you expect so it is important that you plan for a variety of outcomes.

Appendix

Lastly, you should attach an appendix to the report that includes any reference letters, documents, vending machine pictures or other supporting material that has been referred to in the contents of the plan. Try to back up all of your assumptions with proof wherever possible.

How a Sample Business Plan Template Produces a Professional Business Plan

When you need a professional looking business plan, you no longer have to worry hard how to do it or where to get it. All you have to do is to download a template that takes away all the difficult part in creating a professional business plan.

Here's how the template allows you to produce a professional business plan:

• The business plan template comes with all the sections and subsections needed including guide questions to put order into your plan.

• It tells you what information to include in your plan making your plan specific, focused, and organized.

• It comes with a layout that prearranges the sections and subsections for continuity and fluidity enabling you to come up with a more solid and sound business plan.

• It helps you create your financial projections and figures easily as it automatically computes and updates the figures.

• The template enables you to come up with financial statements as accurately as possible notwithstanding your level of expertise in accounting.

• It comes with sample texts that illustrate and clearly defines the narrative that goes into the business plan.

Most of these sample templates are created by the experts themselves. Using the template dramatically reduces the time you will otherwise have to spend creating it to get the professional results that you want.

Why waste your precious time when there is a specific plan template waiting for you to download? There are plenty of places to find templates online. If you are looking to start a business or improve your business, then you must consider what others have done already. Why reinvent the wheel? It is much smarter to use a template where you can simply adapt the content to suit your business.

A plan is going to give you something to aim for. It is a document that you can give to your employees or investors so that these people know where you are heading. Having a goal is going to make a big difference to the results you achieve over the short or long term.

It really does make sense if you are going to achieve something with your business. Every good business has a plan to stick by, so if you are considering creating a business plan then get hold of a template and save yourself time and stress.

Business Management Consulting Can Make the Business Path Less Rocky

Business management consulting is very beneficial to any company. A consultant can assist with many areas of the business, making it more productive. The owner or manager of a business has many different things to take care of within the company, and sometimes this means some things are neglected.

If a company is having difficulty with profit and loss, business management consulting can implement cash-flow planning. There are different definitions of cash-flow, but there are three main types that business management consulting can help with. The first one is operational cash-flow. If a company wishes to stay in business, this cash-flow has to remain positive. This area can consist of money that is gained or lost due to the company's activities. The second one is investment cash-flow. This is normally the cash received from life-long assets or money that is spent on things such as acquisitions or investments. The last one is financing cash-flows. This includes money that is brought in from debts or equity, but also includes money that is spent, such as share repurchases and debt repayments.

Getting assistance with advertising is another one of the many business management consulting services that are available. Advertising a company is very important. Some business owners may not know how to effectively advertise for their company. There are so many outlets when it comes to advertising, and a business management consultant will know exactly where to start. There are many forms of advertising such as, television commercial, radio broadcasts, fliers, and even the internet.

Another good thing about consulting is that they can provide help with internal issues. Employees may have a hard time understanding what their job really is. This may be caused by the owner or manager not having enough time to really explain the duties to the employee. A consultant can come in and do things such as employee training. An owner may not have the time to organize this type of training, but business management consulting can help get all of the workers on track. The company relies on its employees to keep production up. If workers are confused about their duties, then the production of the company slows or stops completely. If the production fails, so does the company.

When it comes to making a company successful but an owner is not quite sure of how to make that happen, business management consulting can help by offering the company new ideas. The consultant can possibly put a new spin on an old idea. A business owner looks at their business differently that a business consultant would. Ideas can be generated on many different topics such as, making a product greater or developing an elaborate marketing plan. Business management consulting covers many different things allowing the company to find exactly what they need in one place, which can actually save on costs.

Every business in the world today has one goal, and that is to be the most successful. That is the ultimate goal for any type of business. You will never hear a person who is starting a business say that their goal is to fail. To be a profitable company, it takes patience, knowledge and perseverance. It is nice to know that there are people out there who specialize in business and can take a company from possibly closing to getting ahead and staying ahead. Competition grows daily, so being in the lead is very important.

Complete Business Management Software

Searching for a business management software with integrated accounting, inventory management, sales force automation, purchasing, and more? It is important to find a software solution that is fully customizable and can suit your exact data needs. The right business management software will help improve productivity by centralizing business processes such as contact, job and time management, budgeting, scheduling, order processing, inventory, invoicing and employee management. The purpose of utilizing the right business database software is to ultimately manage your sales, customers, employees, vendors, inventory and all the paperwork associated with your business in a complete and easy to use business software

By implementing the correct data management system, it will help you better manage your business, and get more profit for your organization. Your employees and contractors submit time sheets over the web and you download the data instantly into all in one system. Businesses that opt to use a business database solution software soon see the benefits of doing so in terms of increased productivity and lowered inefficiency. Business management software is the key to business efficiency and will hold your business together at the most critical times. By integrating all your businesses current customer contact, quoting, invoicing and document storage applications into one software solution your business will save a money each and every year.

Now all of this is can be done via the internet and because all of your software needs are connected to one centrally located server, it is easy to access and maintain the much valued information. Your sales staff can now have the ability to locate client information, warehouse inventory and send a PDF quote right from their mobile device.

If you are interested in purchasing business management solution you need to understand that all software systems are not the same. Some types of business management software's do not have a great amount of flexibility and that is an important aspect for your business. Every business is different and having the ability to customize your software to fit your needs 100% is vital to the success of your application.

Works Extraordinarily Well - Auto Recovery

I was returning after just taking Sunday off :D. That night, as I sat at home in my easy chair with my feet up and my review journal, I closed my eyes and remembered my day. Beginning from the time my feet hit the carpet to where I was now. It wasn't a productive day and my critic was trying to justify it away with, "Its okay, nobody has a productive day after coming back from vacation."

This was an eye opener for sure. I spent too much time fooling around with e-mails as I figured where I left off. During my review, I felt that lost feeling I was experiencing that morning that I kept pushing away.

A few days passed. Then another Monday and I began to experience this again. This time I knew it needed to STOP before I got deeper into the day. "But how" I asked myself. I sat quiet and listened.

"Index cards" my mind answered.

"Index cards?" "Oh, okay," my mind responded but just because there isn't something better coming up.

Kindergarten Planning Works: And Works Extraordinarily Well

By Catherine Franz

I went into the supply cabinet and pulled out a stack of index cards. Back at my desk, I sat staring at them. What’s next? "Shhh...quiet...listen!" So, I did.

"Write one project on each card." I obeyed.

"Okay, what’s next?"

"Wow, you sure are impatient!"

"Yep, my parents complaint too."

"An hour or before you leave for a vacation, or even a weekend, write down where you left off and what was your next step," was the next message.

"Okay, gottcha. But...but...but this seems so rudimentary. This feels like returning to kindergarten planning! I have all these other methods that do this."

"Shut up; wear your Nike’s, just do it."

And so I did. To my surprise it works. It works darn well too. In fact, I have given this suggestion to many clients. Yes, they too rolled their eyes because it seems so ridiculously simple.

I went on to use this on a daily basis. Every night before I went home I updated my index cards. I crossed out the previous message, no new cards until there wasn't any more room on the card, and wrote in the last thing I did on that project and the next step to begin with tomorrow. To this day, I continue this process and my productivity is always high. Yours will be too when you begin.