Meet Benjamin Smith and Joseph Pough of Friendship Vending Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Smith and Joseph Pough.

Benjamin and Joseph, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Doubling as graduate students by night and millennials entering the workforce during the day, reality set in – we need more money. As young and ambitious brothers, we knew that other avenues to obtain income were a necessity. This is where our journey began. Ben works full-time as a Senior Financial Analyst and Joseph works full-time as a certified Physician Assistant. We both knew that increasing our income was the key to financial freedom. Seeing that we both have full-time careers, we wanted to increase our chances of financial freedom as passively as possible, with the low start-up costs and high returns.

In our search for passive income, we have tried it all. Ranging from driving Uber, to reselling sneakers, to digital marketing services, to running a blog, to trying our hand at drop-shipping… but nothing gave us the returns or freedom we were looking for. Although nothing seemed to bring the income, we knew what we were working for, we kept at it and never stopped searching.

We finally came across some social media posts discussing vending. What really caught our eye was how passive the business was. Only needing to work a few hours a week, and collect on average $300/mo. per machine; that’s all we needed to see. We researched for a few months, and we hit the ground running soon after.

Our research of vending included watching hours of YouTube videos and interacting in numerous FB groups. We bought eBooks and online courses as well. We were self-taught and motivated. Knowing that if we fully immersed our free time into vending, we could create the financial freedom we all are searching for. We all have the same 168 hours in a week and we knew, “if not you, then who”?

We began our journey with the purchase of a vending route consisting of two snack machines for $2000. The locations were a hotel and a nursing home. We found this route on Craigslist and after a few days of negotiations, we sealed the deal.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth, not at all but definitely enjoyable. A great poet once penned, “there’s beauty in the struggle and embrace the journey.” So where there have been times we have been strapped for cash, lost a machine because it didn’t fit in our storage unit, and almost dropped a machine when moving it; those times made us into who we are.

Now one of the struggles we are facing is learning how to maximize online platforms and sales in order to share who we are, along with helping those who are interested in vending. It teaches us so much about ourselves daily learning algorithms, what will attract traffic, and many other things but each day, we wake up looking forward to how we can improve.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Friendship Vending Company – what should we know?
Friendship Vending Company is our vending machine services company. We offer drink and snack machines free of charge to local businesses in Middle Tennessee. We aim to customize every customer’s experience and meet all of their product needs. What sets our vending business apart is that we are a small startup company that is more accessible than some of the larger vending companies in our area. We are able to offer a wider variety of products and services because of our flexibility. We are most proud of being able to provide vending services to over 10 locations and owning 15 vending machines and growing. We have turned this into a lucrative and legit side hustle, while both are working full time.

Vending University is our online platform where we teach other entrepreneurs how to make passive income by starting their own vending business. Our platform consists of various informational social media outlets (@vending.university), as well as an ebook, vending business documents, and an e-course to help you get started right away. We are very proud of this platform because we have helped numerous people start vending businesses of their own.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Perseverance, hands down… Vending is a long-term grind. Yes, you can make passive income and set up your family but you also must know, it takes time and will not happen overnight. There have been weeks machines did not make the money we wanted, there were times when our machines took people’s money, and there were definitely days we wanted to just give up and say we tried. Despite how difficult it got, We Just Didn’t Quit! We persevered through the tough times and understood what we were doing is larger than us. We feel we are teaching and helping the masses and this is what many people need, a push. If not you, then who will change the financial future for your family? If not now, when will you start setting yourself up to retire? Having one income is too close to none.

Pricing:

• How to Start a Vending Business eBook – $10 (Promo Code: voyage)
• How to Start a Vending Business eCourse – $25 (Promo Code: voyage)
• Complete Vending Business Documents Bundle – $15 (Promo Code: voyage)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gumroad.com/vendinguniversity
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vending.university/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vending.University
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ceobsmith
• Other: www.friendshipvendingco.com

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.