Part 3 of 3

In this part we’ll finish up the steps I laid out and talk about some things that are imperative to your success. Also some tips to make your life easier. Here are the steps that are left.

5. Research machines
6. Make a contract
7. Find a location
8. Get the ATM into the location

Okay so let’s continue with the next steps…

Step 5

Research machines

At this point you should have an LLC tax ID and business bank account. You look up some ISO’s and are ready to buy a machine.

Which one should I get?

It all depends on your budget and what you want from the machine. I needed a small footprint ATM machine.

Because the number one excuse I got from business owners was “I don’t have any room for an ATM”.

Some of them really didn’t have any room while others would’ve had room if they would put away the 10 racks of 2 Litter sodas.

I ended up getting the Palmetto from a company in Florida called Moneytree. They are on the DNS network. The machine is Really durable and very easy to fix.

Everything inside it is modular, meaning if the printed stopped working you would just change that part. There was only like five main components and it has a two year warranty so your covered.

Some other machines I was looking at was the Hyosung 4000 W. It’s a little expensive but you get what you pay for.

For the main “big” machines you can’t go wrong with the Hyosung 1800 SE. This machine is dependable an is the industry standard. One of the best.

Step 6

Make a contract

From what I’ve read if you make a contract up yourself the business owner can get out of it 99% of the time. The best thing you can do is get a lawyer.

They wanted to charge me $200 for them to write me up a contract. I didn’t go this route, instead I went online.

I found every ATM contract that I could find and took the best parts from each one. I then added in my own disclaimers and made up my own contract.

Will it stand up in court maybe not but from everything I’ve read, a contract can just be a paragraph and some signatures.

If your doing just a few places I would make the contract up like this. If your doing a chain of businesses then I would talk to a lawyer and get a real contract.

Step 7

Find a location

Now that you made your contract you are ready to start talking to merchants.

Here’s a few places where to can get started:

Amusement Parks
Arcades
Bars/Lounges
Bingo Halls
Bowling Alleys
Campgrounds/RV Resort Park
Car Washes
Casinos
Check Cashing
Churches
Coffee Shops
Convenience Stores/Grocery Stores
Diners/Restaurants
Dry Cleaners
Farmers Markets
Flea Markets
Gas Stations
Strip Clubs
Hair Salons/Nail Salons
Hotels/Motels
Laundromats
Movie Theater
Retail Stores

It all comes down to foot traffic! How many people go through the business a daily. When more people see your machine the more they are going to use it.

Another tip is to come up with a sales script. A script that has sales points you want to make. So when your talking to a business owner you get straight to the point and not waste any time.

Another tip that saves time is to outsourcing the process of finding locations. Put an Ad on craigslist or similar free Ad source.

Here is an example of what to write:

ATM Locations wanted and locators in the NYC / Brooklyn Area . Top $$$$ Paid for Quality locations in the Industry. Dont be fooled by there other Ads on here that promise you the world.

They Need only provide electricity and the GET 50% of the SURCHARGES.

Once you outsource this process it’ll save you a lot of time. If you pay $250 or $500 for each location it’ll be well worth it because of the time you’ll save.

I remember I went out for two weeks straight looking for a spot and found nothing. I wasted 30 hrs looking for a spot.

I could’ve had an army of people looking at spots for me. Then I can just sit back and pick the spots I wanted.

Step 8

Get your ATM into the location

After you find a prime location for you ATM it’s time to get it there. I’ve been in the construction field for 9 years as an electrician so I know how to bolt something down.

For me installing an ATM wasn’t so far fetched. If you don’t have any experience with this I would leave it up to the professionals.

A quick tip for wall-mounted ATMs. If the ATM your installing has any bolts showing, I would recommend getting some security nuts from a place called Bryce.

They are called Penta-nuts, short for pentagram nuts. Don’t get me wrong if someone is bent on stealing your ATM there is nothing you can do to stop them.

All you can do is slow them down. Hopefully slow enough that they’ll give up.

So that’s basically it. After you install the machine turn it on and load it. You just have to sit back and watch your machines transactions online.

Set your alerts for a low balance so you know when to load the machine. I try to load it for the month so I don’t have to run back and forth every week.

Conclusion

You got your first machine up and running everything is looking great. There are a few things you need to know that no one tells you.

When I started I didn’t know any machine can be programmed to give out $10 bills. Changing this doesn’t seem like much but you’ll notice an increase in your transactions.

Next thing you need to know is something that I should’ve known but no one told me about.

So you buy an ATM machine for $2000. You have a location and it’s making $400 a month. Great! You’ll get your money back in 5 months, that sounds great.

Until you realize you need $6000 a month loaded in the machine. You get this money back and is just floating the transactions.

The problem is now that $6000 instantly becomes dead money. Your not able to invest it in a new machine.

So your $2k investment turns into $8k per location! Your ROI on that $8k @ $400 a month is 20 months.

So it will take you a year and a half before you’ll finally start making money on that location. If you look at it in the long term then this is not a big deal.

Theres another way to look at this. If you had $6k in the bank you won’t make $400 a month on it.

My strategy now is to find 5 people who believe in the selling of the route. The strategy is simple.

Everyone gets two machines with locations and then sell the whole route in one shot. The payout will be pretty big if you do the math.

Then you can use that money to invest in something else or do it over and over again. This is one of my ideas I have so many more.

Take care for now and thanks for reading my blog.