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.

Naming Your Blog – Good Blog Titles

Deciding on a good blog title and selecting a domain must be based on target keyword placement. With both Domain and a Good Blog Title you want to include at least one target keyword, but what is the target keyword?

Well that will depend on your Niche and there is a rather large list of options. But that will depend on you to decide on the niche, preferably something you love doing. Then simply think of the One Word that will best describe your blog. And then you also have to establish the search volume and level of competition for that keyword. Because any blog title must contain keywords with a high search volume and low to medium competition.

Therefore it is of utmost importance you create a free Google account and be able to use the Google Keyword Planner tool. Which is a free tool inside Google Ad-Words but you have to activate the Ad-Words account by funding it. No need to place any adds just yet because you merely need access to the arsenal of tools. Later on your blogging journey you will use many tools only accessible through your Google account. Like the Google Search Console and Google My Business, but that is a topic for another article.

The title must summarize the content which will decrease the bounce rate of your visitors. It immediately tells the visitor exactly what the blog is about. And it is also easy to remember with no exclusion to your domain name. It should not exceed 60 characters and must be as short and precise as possible. This is important for both title and blog post display window in Search Results.

Place that one target keyword with a high search volume as the first word in both blog title and domain name. That way when search engines crawl your blog the target keyword is clear. And they can categorise your blog more targeted.

But it must always be within context. Just cramming a bunch of keywords together is how Not to rank in search engines. The title of your blog is your chance to attract search engine visits or spider crawls. The blog title is mentioned first in the site map to any blog.

Try to avoid stop words like (the, and) but this may seem more challenging than is often anticipated. Although it is more of a rule when it comes to the URL slug of a Blog Post. Just a personal preference and SEO tactic I’m currently testing. So no, it will not influence your blog SEO. Providing stop words are not present in post URL slugs or the Primary Blog Domain.

With a good title also comes the tagline which must be equally short and objective. A tag line is not a site description which is why it is called a “Tag” line. Therefore it is usually no more than three words. Always remember that later with SEO you are going to need space for your Blog Post Title. A search result normally show the following;

Blog Homepage – (Blog Title / Tagline)

Blog Page – (Page Title / Blog Title)

Blog Post – (Post Title / Blog Title)

A good title is your chance to not only attract more visitors. But more importantly having them want to stay on your blog. This is where the quality of your content plays its part because a good blog post must have great content.

When your visitor reads the title they must immediately know this is what they have been looking for. Which is why along with your blog title also comes the First Impression. Base that on your own first impression by seeing your blog through the eyes of your visitor.

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