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It's time for me to stop action faking. -Starting by expanding my toy vending machine business-

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

bbar97

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I'm probably the king of action-faking and procrastinating actual action. I'm in a stage of my life where I recently graduated from college, and I'm working my first job. I work in marketing, and I chose marketing specifically because I figured it would give me the most valuable experience since I want to start a business. So far I'm learning a lot that I can definitely apply to a business in the future.

I've been business-oriented all the way back since my middle school days, when I sold candy to my classmates. I am constantly coming up with new ideas for businesses and products, but I am very slow to actually act on an idea. This is due to my very strategic and cautious nature. I try to think of every possible outcome based on every possible direction I could take an idea, and that leads to paralysis. I think this is both good and bad, in that It prevents me from rushing into a business without thinking it out fully, but bad because if an idea has even the slightest hiccup or difficulty in implementation, I won't pursue it.

Despite this, I have actually made a few moves to start small business ventures. I've created a niche blog, but It's hard to motivate myself to create content because of the magnitude of content that needs to be created before the blog actually can create value for people. I've kind of pushed the blog to the side to be more of a hobby for the time being so that I can focus on my main business venture.

My main current business venture is a small toy vending machine business. I currently only have one machine located, and its in a mexican restaurant in the town where I went to college. I now have to travel about 45 minutes each way to service it since I moved after graduation. For those unfamiliar with vending machines businesses, the (arguably) hardest part is locating the machines, which means finding a business that will allow you to place your machine there. To locate that machine that I have placed, I went to three or four different restaurants and when I finally got a "Yes" it was a HUGE relief and boost to my confidence. I'm definitely introverted, so going up to a business owner/manager cold and asking for something (for nothing in return especially) was very hard for me to get up the willpower to do. Success is an amazing feeling when it finally happens. Since then I have purchased three more machines, but I have been procrastinating for a LONG time. I've probably had these machines for 1 or 1.5 years. I know, you're probably cringing at all the lost potential revenue. I've made excuses for why I can't actually get up and go locate, such as not having my script prepared, not having my handout materials prepared, etc. I'm tired of being lazy and I know I need to act. I'm going to my list of leads this saturday to pitch and hopefully locate my machines. Hopefully writing this down will give me accountability so I can't weasel out of it when the time comes. Also I know this business isn't fastlane, but its a low capital and low time investment business that provides semi-passive income so I figure its a good place to start while I'm paying off my loan and gaining experience at work.

If all goes well I'll update after this saturday
 
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BellaPippin

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I am constantly coming up with new ideas for businesses and products, but I am very slow to actually act on an idea. This is due to my very strategic and cautious nature. I try to think of every possible outcome based on every possible direction I could take an idea, and that leads to paralysis.
giphy.gif



So how's the first machine doing so far?
 

bbar97

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giphy.gif



So how's the first machine doing so far?

I missed the question the first time I read your reply, sorry about that.

I don't have a whole lot to compare it to but I think it does pretty well. I need to start doing better record keeping because I'm not exactly sure when I placed the machine, maybe 1.5 - 2 years ago?

In that time I think I've gotten about $300 gross from it, and the machine costs around $160 with shipping (I wasn't able to find that machine again, it may be discontinued) The product costs me about .25 each, and I give 10% of the profit to a charity so I net about .225 cents each.

Nothing crazy, but with scale it may be worthwhile.
 

bbar97

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Update:

So I followed through and actually executed, but I executed poorly. On saturday I went to four different businesses, but I only went inside 2 and talked to the manager at 1.

One of the ones that I didn't even go inside already had machines, so I decided not to encroach on the territory. Not sure if that was the right decision or if I was making an excuse to not go in there. The other one I did actually go into, but I saw they had machines so I used my escape plan and just asked for a menu, looked at it, and left.

At the one that I actually talked to the manager, everything seemed like it was going well, but the guy was extremely unexpressive, I think he caught a whiff of solicitation and decided to say no before I even pitched. He didn't even say why, he just said "no I don't think so..." and then we had about five seconds of awkward silence and I said "ok no problem, thanks anyway" and left.

I'm proud of myself for actually following through but I'm struggling with the likelyhood of successfully placing another machine. I think the part that makes it the most difficult is that I'm not offering them anything of value other than feeling good for helping out a good cause, and that isn't enough for some people. I've considered giving a gift card to them if they agree, but then theres no incentive to keep the machine there, so I don't know. I could also offer a commision but the amount that they would get would be laughable and not even worth collecting.

So thats where I'm at. I'll try again in a couple weeks, maybe it's just a numbers game.
 
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