How to Buy an Ice Machine Business in 2022?

How to start your Ice Machine Business passively for $71k a Year? We got you.

There’s a meme on Twitter about youngsters all leaving their job to go build the “future of web 3.0” or “the next evolution in AI” or “the company that will disrupt XX big life-changing behemoth.”

I too have an announcement…

I am about knee-deep in a deal to buy a carwash, line all my Contrarians up to get sudsy, and add a MF-ING ice vending machine onto it. Is it revolutionary? Assuredly. Will it change the world? Maybe, most definitely, probably. Might they call me Elon Jr after my innovation, I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me?

First step quarters, next step Mars.

Today in < 10 minutes → We’re Going to Dive into:

1. A Contrarian Rant → On Not Being Soft
2. Ice Vending → $25k-$40k a Year Profit
3. Play-by-Play Guide to How to Profit off of Them
4. How We’re Playing this Market Today

BUT FIRST…

Are You Softer than Cream Cheese?

This line makes me giggle, BTS backstory – my bud Sam Parr called my husband softer than cream cheese… which is quite funny if you’ve met my husband. As he is most assuredly…. not softer than cheese. Got me thinking about who is?

RANT:

There is a widening, gaping division in our world today, but I don’t think it’s right vs left or government vs no government. It boils down to one singular question:

Do you want to make yourself strong, or do you want to make yourself safe?

It is a choice between resiliency and protection. A choice only you can make.

Think about our progression:

• “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me,” vs words are “violence.”
• Our children are being encouraged to go play in the dirt, make mud pies, and climb trees vs parents letting their kids walk home from the park and getting child protective services called.
• Safe spaces vs standing up for yourself and realizing not all humans are kind all the time.
• Microaggressions vs social differences and learning opportunities.
• Personal health and clean eating, exercising, and herbal remedies vs big pharma and pills for maladies.

The real question I’d pose is a simple one, are you working to:

• Civilize your mind
• Make savage your body
• Build your bank account

Chögyam Trungpa has a beautiful quote, “It is easier to put on a pair of shoes than to wrap the earth in leather.”

So are you hoping to pave the world in leather to prevent thorns? My preference: why not instead toughen up your feet or throw on some kicks?

The world my dears is not safe. How do I know? I can see the future. Yup. You WILL:

• Die
• Get hurt
• Break something
• Lose money
• Cry
• Get sick

Everyone will. We have a 100% mortality rate as humans as far as I’m aware. But the question is will you cower under the blankets of “protection,” or will you make yourself and those around you more resilient? Just one small step at a time, day by day. Will you become anti-fragile as Taleb says?

Usually, I say there are no right and wrong answers in life but in this case, there just happens to be one.

Here we focus more and more on financial freedom, decentralized wealth, on personal financial sovereignty but we are going to focus on the others going forward. Because Darwin had a discovery many years ago that stands as true today as ever…

Survival of the fittest.

Ice Vending: Selling Ice, Making MFing Margins

“She could sell ice to an Eskimo!”

I’ve had a person or 7 tell me that. I always took it as a compliment although I felt a little underhanded hate in there, whatever. This year I’m about to make them honest men and women. Let’s check out a boring biz that is tickling me to death.

Ice Vending. Yup.

So have you ever driven past one of these?

Well, I did and I got curious. Why? It’s a boring straightforward business, that requires no staff, little input (electricity and water), and can be an add-on to just about any location that is in a high-traffic area. I always try to look for low people high margin businesses and I had this tingly suspicion this was one.

Turns out each one of these makes on average $25-40k a year PROFIT.

AND…

These dudes are all a bunch of the owners.

I mean don’t I look like I just BELONG on this best-of list??

Meet Brett & His Doggo

Besides being a jean shorts aficionado I just wanted to know this man’s story, as it turns out one man’s retirement is another man’s opportunity.

“I’m Brett Gentry, Mena, Arkansas. My ice company is G-4 Vending. I started this just as an extra means of income. I’ve been a lineman on the electric utility companies for 25 years, started when I was 23 and that’s pretty much all I’ve ever done as far as work goes. I’m married, have been married 25 years, got two children, one 19, and one 23. Got my dog, and everybody seems to love him. I love to deer hunt. I love guns. I’m just an old country boy that likes my guns and my hunting and my RZRs. And I ride a Harley and my wife rides her own Harley. And my best friends, they all ride. I just want everybody to know that you don’t have to have a lot of money to do this. I mean, I just took a chance.”

Uhhhh I love Brett already. I bet his dog is lovely too.

You see, Brett and his wife were trying to figure out a way of making some extra money closer to retirement. He was thinking about a feed store (for you city slickers that’s a store where you go for food supplies for animals like horses, cows, etc). Thing is that takes a lot of time. He kept researching and found ice vending instead.

What Happened:

• In a town of 500 people w/ a local state park 10 miles away sells 900 bags a month on average
• Revenue: $1,350 a month in revenue at $1.50 a bag
• Profit: $1000-$1150 a month (per machine)
• With 4-5 now we’re talking $5-6k a month in dang close to purely passive income

I Wanna Be Like Brett

So off I go in search of the same opportunity. Here’s the simplified business model, you need:

1. A piece of land (or to lease someone else’s)
2. A least 10,000 car count (people passing by it)
3. A water hookup and electric access
4. A water machine to place on it
5. Cashflow

How I’m looking at this space:

#1 Show Me the Benjamins

How much money can I really make with these? And how much is it going to cost me? Aka what’s the opportunity and the opportunity cost in frozen water land?

A good machine they say will sell 75 10-pound bags per day.

• It’ll cost you .25 per gallon on the high end for water
• This means you’d make about $195 a day
• Monthly profit of $5,861.67
• Yearly profit of $71,322.50

Want this editable financial template? Click here to download your FREE ice vending profit model!

How do I know? Our deal calculator!

#2 What are My COGS?

I talked to a slew of owners and ice machine vendors and here’s what I found out.

First, it does not cost very much to make a bag of ice. Thus, your margins are pretty wild.

• Cost Breakdown:
• Utilities vary, but water and electricity typically cost about $0.25 per 100 pounds of ice
• So a 20-pound bag of ice might only cost $0.05.
• Not everyone takes a bag, some coolers do, but for the customers that use bags, each costs about $0.10
• So the cost of a 20-pound bag of ice is $0.15.
• If you charge $1.75 for a 20-pound bag, your variable profit is about $1.60 per bag.

Look at what a 20lb bag would cost you to get delivered in Austin. Yikes.

Or hell even Sam’s Club charges $2.28.

#3 Can I Afford a Machine?

Ice vending machines vary from about $20,000 up to $100,000 or more. On top of that, there will be some site work in placing the machine on the parcel and having parking blocks or barriers installed around it.

Machines cost anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000

You can finance them through equipment purchases with the actual vendor like IHA (Ice House America – the largest ice vendor machine).

The interesting part is if you finance that, a $35,000 machine that has a life of 10 years ends up costing around $300 per month.

#4 Additional Costs

So let’s take our model:

• So $300 per month in capital costs (machine and site work)
• $300 a month in rent (if you don’t own the land)
• $100 per month per machine in other permits, maintenance, repairs, and other costs
• Profit of $1.60 after COGS
• Your break-even point comes up to about 14 to 15 bags per day.

Even more interesting the machine essentially pays for itself in under two years. That’s solid. Sounds pretty doable. What to watch out for and what secrets do the pros know?

#5 What you need:

• A traffic count of 10,000 cars per day or more is probably a good starting point.
• Good ingress and egress, street-level visibility and adequate parking, and easy access
• Typically located in high-traffic locations, perhaps next to a gas station, convenience store, or dollar store.
• Freestanding and allowing someone to drive up and fill up one or more 20-pound bags or even a cooler full of ice.
• Read reviews and testimonials of varying machines
• Talk to salespeople at each company
• Make sure they do install and go over every piece of equipment with you
• And that the ice machine company you buy from helps with maintenance

Now there’s never such a thing as a free lunch but, just another boring business that doesn’t take a rocket scientist, but just might make you more money than the average rocket scientist makes.

I mean this is just a hypothetical butttttttt…..

Average Rocket Scientist works 40-50 hours a week & makes $66k- $172k a year.

My ice vending machine: Makes $71k a year and I work 10 hours a week on it?

How bout them apples? Btw – this is just a joke, take it easy rocket scientists.

Question everything & get your hands dirty,

Codie