From a mom of two running 16 machines in Las Vegas

Build a vending route that pays you every month.

Vending Mom teaches you how to find locations, negotiate contracts, and run a profitable route on your own schedule, without working more than 12 to 14 hours a week or giving up your family time.

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Photo: Madison at a machine, kids in tow

Meet Madison

A mom of two in Las Vegas running 16 machines in 12 to 14 hours a week.

I'm Madison. I built my vending route from one machine to $21,000 to $29,000 a month in revenue in a year and a half, with my kids in tow the whole time. My garage looks like a 7-Eleven and my three-year-old supervises my restocks.

And here's the part that matters: I built it to a number I'm happy with, and then I stopped chasing. That was the whole point.

My story

I've had a business own me before. I built this one so it never could.

I spent four years in timeshare sales making over $200,000 a year. I also clocked out at 11 p.m. and walked barefoot to my car crying, worked every holiday, and missed every friend's wedding because they always land on a Saturday.

Then I built an event rental business that owned my weekends the same way. When I ended up on strict bed rest while pregnant with my daughter, I discharged myself from the hospital against medical advice at eight and a half months pregnant, because a wedding I'd committed to a year earlier still had to happen. Three weeks later my daughter was born and spent 12 days in the hospital.

That was my breaking point. I realized that if your business falls apart every time life happens, your business owns you. I loved being home with my kids after that, and I was also losing a part of myself I really liked. I was buying my husband birthday gifts with his own money, and it ate at me more than I can explain.

Vending gave me a piece of myself back. That matters more to me than the income.

Read my whole story →

Why vending

I researched everything else first.
Everything hit a wall.

Amazon FBA, laundromats, self storage, car washes, franchises. If it had recurring revenue, I spent hours on it. Every single one had the same problem. It either took a crazy amount of money to start, needed employees from day one, or depended on me being there constantly. I had already lived that last one twice.

Vending was the first business where I thought, wait, I can actually do this. One machine. Small mistakes. Learn as I go. No warehouse, no team, no six-figure loan. And if I want more income, I repeat the same process. One machine pays for the next machine, and that machine pays for the one after it. The only thing that changes is how fast the snowball rolls.

Here's the part nobody tells you. The competition is weaker than you'd think. I once walked into a manufacturing facility where the current vendor had left a machine broken for 60 days and the food in the working one was expired. Around 70% of vending operators run fewer than five routes, and everywhere I go I see empty rows, handwritten out-of-order signs, and no card readers. The industry doesn't have a machine shortage. It has a shortage of operators who care.

Show up, keep your machines full, and answer your phone, and you're already ahead of most of this industry.

"One machine buys the next machine. That's the whole business model."

The business today

From a handshake on New Year's Eve to 16 machines and a six-figure income.

My husband and I got married on New Year's Eve. At our anniversary dinner, I finally made him shake on it. January 1st was day one.

My first machine humbled me fast. I paid $3,800 for a smart cooler and put it in a luxury apartment complex because I was excited someone said yes. It did about $300 a month. I eventually pulled it, and it taught me the most important lesson in this business: the location matters way more than the machine. That one mistake probably saved me from making it ten more times.

machines placed and running

$21–29k

monthly revenue

35–40%

typical margins

12–14 hrs

my work week

$5,500/mo

best location: one cooler in a 225-employee warehouse

18 mo

from first machine to here

Every machine after the first one was paid for with money the business made on its own. My rule now is simple. If a location can't pay for its own machine in 12 months of profit, I don't do the deal.

Work with me

Want my help starting or scaling your vending business?

I'm putting together a small cohort where we go step by step through the whole process, together:

Identifying and qualifying locationsUsing the same checklist I run on my own route, so your first machine goes somewhere that can actually pay for itself.
Pitching locations and handling objectionsWith the exact scripts and follow-up approach I use, because most locations don't close on the first conversation.
Buying your machinesWhich machines to buy, where to buy them, what they should cost, and the manufacturers and suppliers I already work with.
Pricing your productsWhat to stock, what to charge, and how the margins actually work.
Operationalizing and scalingSetting up your route so it runs in a few hours a week, then repeating the process machine by machine.

And you're doing it alongside a group of women working through the same steps at the same time, with their own kids, jobs, and lives.

The free training walks through exactly how I can help and how the cohort works.

Watch the free training

Is it for you?

This works really well for some people.
And honestly not for others.

It's a fit if you're...

Coming from sales or corporate. You're tired of building someone else's thing. You already know the hardest 80% of this business, which is talking to people, following up, and handling objections.
A stay-at-home parent. You love being home and want to keep it that way, but you want something that's yours. My route takes 12 to 14 hours a week and my kids come with me.
Working a demanding W-2. You don't want to quit yet, but you want to build something in the background that could one day let you.
Done with fragile businesses. You want something that doesn't collapse when a kid gets sick or you finally take a vacation. That's exactly why I built mine this way.

It's not a fit if...

You think passive income means zero work. The beginning is parking lots, conversations, no's, and hauling heavy things.
Rejection destroys you. You will hear far more no's than yes's.
You want a lottery ticket. This is a math business. We sell sodas and chips, and it compounds slowly before it compounds fast.

Questions I get every day

The short answers.

Can I do this with kids?

Mine have been with me since day one. My daughter eats the inventory. It's part of the deal.

Can I do this with a full-time job?

Yes. A lot of women start while working full time. The early work is landing locations, which happens in pockets of time, and once your machines are placed, restocking fits around your schedule. It's a great business to build in the background before you ever think about leaving your job.

How much time do I need?

More in the beginning, when you're learning and landing locations. I put in 10 to 12 hours a week starting out. Today my whole route takes about 12 to 14 hours a week.

How much money does it take?

My first machine cost $3,800 plus shipping. You don't need a warehouse, employees, or a huge loan. You need one machine and a good location.

Isn't vending saturated?

I thought so too, until I started walking into buildings. What I found were broken machines, expired food, and operators who stopped showing up. There's plenty of room for someone who actually takes care of their locations.

Want to learn more about starting your own vending business?

It all starts with my free training. My real numbers, my mistakes, the exact scripts I use with locations, and the steps I'd take if I were starting from zero today. Watch it, and by the end you'll know whether this business fits your life and exactly how I can help you build it.