An established vending route is a vending business that is fully functional with vending machines already in locations and a supplier to provide all the required products. With an established vending route, there is no need to look for vending machines, locations or a supplier. An established vending route has to have already generated sales over a period of time for it to be considered as established.When buying an established vending business, there are a number of things that’s you need to be certain about before you put down your hard earned money to buy an established vending route. If you are lucky enough to come across a Planet Antares vending business that has quality vending machines in place as well as a supplier that is providing a variety of snacks and beverages make sure that you secure it as your future vending business. Planet Antares is a company that provides quality vending machines and excellent vending programs, so if you associate yourself with them for your vending business, you are bound to make huge profits. Just make sure that the seller of the vending business is handing you a business that is profitable. There is no point of buying an established vending route that is not making money because it means that you will have to start everything from scratch. There are vending operators out there that have bought established vending businesses that are failing and have managed to pull them out of the pits. These vending operators are people who had effective strategies that they implemented in the vending business. A vending business that is not doing great would of course cost much less than one that is doing well. If you are up to reviving a vending business that needs reviving, you can take up the challenge if you think the strategies that you have will work. A successfully established Planet Antares vending business would be great to invest in because the vending machines are durable vending machines with excellent mechanisms that reduce the chances of mechanical problems. In addition to this the vendor would have been using a Planet Antares vending program, which is considered by many as a sure way of leading a vending business to success. All that you would need to do is pick up where the previous vendor left off. If the previous owner of the vending business had maintained good relations with the location, you would need to continue doing the same. Go round with the seller of the business on one of his routes to see how he has been running his business. Introduce yourself to the location owner and the supplier of the vending business so that you can talk to them about their vending services. Get to know if they are satisfied with the way things are running or if they expect more from a new owner. This would be a great start to your vending business. A vending business is a unique business opportunity that can help you achieve financial freedom. According to statistics, vending is among the most profitable of businesses, so whether you start a new vending business or buy an established vending route, your chances of succeeding are very high so long as you put in some hard work.

In considering how to expand your business model’s delivery of offerings and benefits, you should be guided by what will be easily understandable and desirable by your stakeholders (those who are affected by what you offer) . . . and where the adjustments will provide more effectiveness for nonprofit organizations.

Business model innovation is something that many organizations struggle with. In this article, I’ve broken out the elements and added a nonprofit example to make innovative business model thinking and analysis easier to do. This article’s material will, however, be clearest to those who have already read about continuing business model innovation.

Expand What You Do Now

Unless you are providing a very small percentage of the needs of each customer or beneficiary, growing by 21-fold requires adding beneficiaries. Because so many organizations can expand to provide 21 times the number of beneficiaries, that’s a great place to begin. You should start by considering who you will serve as these added beneficiaries and where those benefits will be delivered to make the expansion more practical.

Who Is Served and Where

Let’s begin considering volume-expanding business models by looking at “who” is served. The lesson is to keep it simple. Change as little as possible while becoming more efficient and effective as an organization for your customers and beneficiaries. The simplest way to do this is to put more of the same kind of volume through an existing organizational structure without adding fixed costs or increasing the ratio of variable costs to benefits delivered.

In a nonprofit organization there’s a savings incentive to provide more of the same offerings to the same recipients. Let’s consider an organization that carries donated food by truck to distribution centers serving needy families. Most such distribution centers provide a small portion of a family’s total weekly needs — perhaps as little as one meal a week. The families may be visiting 10 to 30 different distribution centers weekly to fulfill all their needs. The trucks carrying the goods to a given distribution center are often owned and operated by that center, may be in use for only a few hours a week, and could be operated much more often.

Let’s assume that more volunteers can be found to load the food, and drive and unload the trucks. Both the nonprofit organization and the needy families will benefit economically if 21 meals weekly are delivered and distributed at one time to a distribution center.

See Example 1 for a quantification of this point.

Example 1: Adding Trip Volume for an Underutilized Truck to Increase Food Available to Needy Families for Each Pick Up

When a truck isn’t driven very much, its capital costs (depreciation of its value from the purchase price) exceed the operating costs. Put that truck into use more often and you are able to divide the capital costs over more miles. As a result, your cost per trip of the same distance will become much smaller.

Truck Beginning Point — 1 Truck Trip per Week: Annual truck capital costs $52,000 for 5,200 miles per year

Capital cost per trip $1,000

20 Times Truck Volume Increase — 21 Truck Trips per Week: Annual truck capital costs $109,200 for 109,200 miles per year

Capital cost per trip $100

Note: Annual capital cost is higher because service life is reduced by driving more miles a year.

Recipients’ automobile operating costs, by comparison, vary directly with use. Driving 21 times as much results in spending 21 times as much. If they can reduce their driving, however, their operating costs per week go down.

Automobile Operating Costs Beginning Point for Recipients — 21 Pickups per Week

Weekly gas, oil, and maintenance $21.00

Cost per pickup $1.00

Automobile Operating Cost — 1 Trip per Week

Weekly gas, oil, and maintenance $1.00

Cost per pickup $1.00

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions and receive tips by e-mail by registering for free at

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

You’ve just received an email from a local business networking group. They want you to give a talk next month.

Your first thought: “A great way to attract clients for my professional service.”

But your next thought: “How can I make this work?” Speaking engagements can be more powerful than simply attending a networking meeting. You want to make the most of each one.

So you can’t just show up. You have to plan ahead. Talk to the program director, event coordinator and some of the members. Tailor your talk to the group. You know you’re ready when you have answered these 7 questions.

(1) What is the goal of the event where I’ll be speaking? And what do members want?

Generally it’s dangerous to assume you know what a group wants. They may have hated the last three speakers and be ready for a change. Your meeting coordinator will have feedback and will be able to point you in the right direction.

(2) Describe the members. Who are they? What are their challenges?

Now you can organize your talk so they’ll be eager to learn from you. If you’re giving a longer speech or workshop, ask if you can call a few members to get a sense of where they’re coming from.

(3) Am I talking to newbies or fellow professionals in my field?

Tailor this question to your expertise. For instance before I give a talk on website marketing, I will ask, “Do most of the audience members have websites up and running, or are they still in the thinking stage?”

If you’re giving a value-based talk — anything from law of attraction to laws of astrology – ask how the group perceives your topic: serious belief, light enjoyment or outright skepticism?

(4) How long do I speak? Does that include questions?

Let’s say she says 30 minutes with another 15 for questions. Time your speech for 15-20 minutes and leave more time for questions.

About 50% of the times I’ve spoken to lunch and dinner groups, my time gets cut by “announcements” from the group’s officers. Or they start late.

(5) How can I promote my services?

You probably want to bring handouts. And most likely you would like to pass around a list for people to subscribe to my ezine. Maybe you want to offer a special discount to the members.

Some organizations allow you to set up a table in the back of the room. Others will give you time at the end of the talk. But you absolutely need to ask.

I once got invited to address a Continuing Ed class. I was asked to sign a contract promising I would not promote my organization and that I would not do business with any attendees unless I gave the university a piece of the action. Needless to say, I declined the invitation.

You get paid two ways: directly through a substantial honorarium or fee, or indirectly by gaining a platform to promote your products. Otherwise you’re selflessly donating time and energy. Make an informed decision.

(6) Will the group be formal?

Unless you know the group, tactfully ask about what you might wear. Once upon a time you could show up in a suit and be safe. But now you could be marked as naive. Recently I heard an experienced speaker say, “Nobody would show up in a suit – not here.”

Suitless in Seattle? Yeah, I know, bad joke. But we’re almost done…

(7) Will the group be willing to participate in a brief hands-on exercise?

Come up with an exercise that will showcase your talents, get audience members engaged and leave them hungry for more. They’ll remember you because you jogged their kinesthetic senses as well as their brains.

If you’re like me, you’re the one who will get hungry…for more speaking engagements! Each time it’s a new and fun experience.

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is the Copy Cat who helps service solo-preneurs get ready to Pounce on their Profits. See http://www.copy-cat-copywriting.com”
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