Cracking the 100-Machine Barrier
Scaling Your Vending Business
Greg Elisara
Let’s say, you’ve hit a milestone in your growing vending business. You started with a handful of machines – and over time you’ve added more machines and locations to your route, and things are going great. You're excited about what it looks like beyond 50 or 100 machines. But operators who've crossed this threshold will tell you something surprising: some of the key things that got you to this point in your journey will stop you from getting to the next.
Dropping the ball: when you experience Cognitive Overload it can impact EVERYTHING – not just the one-or-two things that put you over the threshold.
The shift from 50 to 100+ machines isn't just about doubling your routes or buying a bigger truck. It's about evolving from an owner-operator wearing many hats, to an organization built on systems. And if you're not prepared, this transition can stop a thriving operation dead in its tracks.
Orrin Huebner is a 30-year industry veteran who's built operations from startups to business with $45 million in annual revenue. He describes the situation perfectly with a simple analogy: "When you’re small – it's like: someone throws you a tennis ball, you catch it and toss it back, and then another person throws you a tennis ball, you catch it, toss it back. But at some point, when there’s a lot of balls coming your way, something happens. You hit a point where you don’t just drop your first ball – you start to dropping a lot of other balls, too."
What Huebner describes is Cognitive Overload: at a certain point – some unknown threshold – performance does not degrade gracefully but instead drops off sharply. Typical cognitive overload is where the orderly accumulation of tasks reaches a point where there is sudden and often unexplained cascading failure, not just a linear decline.
What is more, performance rapidly degrades, not just impacting the new demands but can lead to mistakes across all tasks.
The Breaking Point: Beyond Growing Pains
At 100 machines, averaging $5,000 to $15,000 annually each, you're managing a $500,000 to $1.5 million business. You won’t be just a bigger version of your 10-machine operation—it's different in fundamental ways.
"You're wearing so many hats when you start," Huebner explains. "You're filling the machines, servicing them, running to pick up product from Sam's Club or Costco, keeping notes on a yellow pad, clearing coins and bills. With 10 machines, you can get away with that."
But by the time you get to 100 machines, everything has multiplied. You're no longer just the operator—you're the HR manager dealing with payroll and uniforms, the fleet manager handling vehicle maintenance and insurance, the inventory specialist managing exponentially more product turnover, and the customer service department fielding calls at dinner, on weekends, during your kid's soccer game.
The most painful change? Response time. "Your customers are used to you being the person," Huebner notes. "They used to shooting you a text, or a call. Now, if they give the route driver a note to give to you because you're not there, does the route driver forget to give you the note? Does the route driver give it to you two days later saying, 'Oh, I forgot to give this to you'? Your level of service changes."
And then there's the visibility problem. When you're running routes yourself, you know exactly what went into each machine and what came out. But once you have employees, you need systems to maintain that same level of oversight. As Huebner puts it, you need to ensure you're tracking "monies to sales to inventory" so you can run your business appropriately and identify issues before they become problems.
Three Critical Transitions
From Memory to Systems
When you're running 10 machines, your brain is your database. You know Mrs. Johnson at the dental office likes extra diet sodas, the break room at the accounting firm needs restocking every Tuesday, and the third-floor vending machine has a sticky B4 button.
But muscle memory doesn't scale. "You forget how much you do in a day because it becomes muscle memory," Huebner says. "You know what you're taking in, how you're counting, how you load the truck, where in the machine each item goes. Now suddenly you have to train somebody else and you think you've told them everything, but you forgot 30% of it."
The solution? Document everything now, while it's fresh. Create standard operating procedures for every task—from how to count coins to how to rotate product. Huebner finds the “3-7-27 rule” applies to learning new processes: people need to hear something three times to recognize it, seven times to remember it, and 27 times to trust they know it. Written processes become that repetition without you having to be there.
From Solo to Team
Here's the counterintuitive truth about hiring your first employee: you'll actually have less capacity for the first month or two, not more. "You're taking your time out to train this person," as one operator puts it. "They're only going to be effective after a few months in."
This transition requires more than just training someone to fill machines. Suddenly you need systems for payroll (hello, ADP), processes for handling call-outs, procedures for vehicle management, and methods for tracking whether your new hire is actually following your standards.
"Too many people are flying by the seat of their pants," Huebner warns, "even with something as basic as how do you count the coin? How do you apply it to each machine? How do you track service calls? There has to be a process."
From Reactive to Proactive
When you're small, you can afford to be reactive. Machine breaks? You'll fix it. Customer calls? You'll answer. Need product? You'll swing by Costco.
But at scale, being reactive kills growth. Instead, you need to document, forecast, plan, and anticipate. Huebner recommends starting with 4-6 month planning cycles rather than annual budgets for smaller operators. "Things can change so quickly. You get a huge account that does $30,000 a month – suddenly, you've blown your budget out. You could lose a $30,000 account—now your whole forecast is thrown out."
This means planning for seasonality (when schools close, that's when drivers take vacation), preparing for equipment failures before they happen, and building contingency plans for losing major accounts.
The Technology Multiplier
The operators successfully running 200, 500, or 1,000 machines aren't working proportionally harder—they're working systematically smarter. Technology becomes your force multiplier, but the key is matching the tech to your specific growth challenge.
"Technology from day one helps you," Huebner emphasizes. "But most people are scraping just to buy equipment, get product, pay for product until they start building revenues." The key question isn't what technology to buy, but what's stopping your growth right now? That's where you invest first.
When you're drowning in data
Your yellow pad system is failing. You can't track what's selling, what's profitable, or whether money is missing. First priority: VMS system for inventory and revenue tracking. ROI: Pick-to-light systems can transform route efficiency from 4-5 location stops per day to 10-12.
When customer service becomes a bottleneck
Your phone never stops ringing. Customer issues get lost between drivers and the office. First priority: Customer service automation like ZippyAssist. ROI: Cut customer service time by 50% while actually catching more issues.
When growth stalls due to operational chaos
Everything feels broken at once. Routes are inefficient, you're losing accounts, and you can't track profitability. Look at your biggest revenue leak first. Losing accounts? Prioritize customer service. Routes taking too long? Invest in route optimization. Can't see your numbers? VMS becomes critical.
The $5 Million Milestone
There's light at the end of the tunnel. Huebner identifies $5 million in revenue as the magic number where "you can finally afford to hire some managers to take some of the load off, and focus on just managing the business instead of the business managing you."
At this level, something magical happens: collaboration. "You're going to start to brainstorm and collaborate and get better ideas," Huebner explains. "You're going to hear about ways to improve your services and be a better company overall. The business actually improves if you allow it to."
Your Action Plan for Scale
Document everything NOW:
Before you need it, create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for every process. Start with the ones that you would delegate first. Update them when processes change. Your future employees will thank you.
Build your advisory network:
Find three types of mentors—someone who recently grew past your size, someone currently at medium scale who can guide you forward, and a seasoned veteran for long-term perspective. "Having a coach, a mentor, somebody who reminds you of your successes when you don't feel like you've had any—that's needed," Huebner says.
Forecast in chunks:
Forget annual budgets at first. Plan in 4-6 month cycles until your business stabilizes. Consider potential scenarios – both positive and negative events, like gaining or losing a major account – and devise a plan to address the most impactful scenarios.
Invest in the right tech at the right time:
Don't buy everything at once. Identify your biggest constraint and solve that first. Customer service killing you? Automate it. Routes inefficient? Optimize them. Can't see your numbers? Get a VMS.
Plan for seasonality and setbacks:
If your cashflow is seasonal, plan for it. Have staff take vacations over summer. Build cash reserves for losing accounts. Create backup plans for equipment failures.
The Roller Coaster Reality
"It's a roller coaster," Huebner admits. "Every time you get to the top, you think, 'Yes!' only for something to force you straight down the other side."
But here's the thing: you're not unique. Every successful operator has faced these same challenges. The difference between those who make it and those who burn out isn't talent or luck—it's systems, planning, and the wisdom to get help before you need it.
Breaking the 100-machine barrier isn't about working harder; it's about working differently. It's about transforming from an owner-operator who does everything, to a business manager who runs systems. And while that transition can feel overwhelming, remember Huebner's advice: "What you're going through is normal. It's okay. Start your day fresh tomorrow."
Most importantly, the view from the top of that roller coaster? It's worth the ride.
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