Most of us are guilty of spending our weekdays dreaming about quitting the rat race and finding an alternate way to bring in the cash – although it’s unlikely to become a reality anytime soon.
But for Megan Healey, she was able to make this dream a reality and now earns a pretty hefty salary while only working three days a week.
Megan Healey has come a long way since selling snacks at school (Collect/PA Real Life)
Making the switch from the 9-5 grind to managing an empire of vending machines didn’t come out of nowhere for Megan, with the former finance worker having a long history of getting in trouble at school for selling snacks to her classmates.
This means that owning vending machines is a natural progression for the 26-year-old. She also spent around nine months researching the business venture, making sure she knew everything there was to know about vending machines before purchasing her first one on eBay for £700 in 2022.
Megan now makes thousands a month from the venture – so how did she get there?
“I thought (it) would be a semi-passive income which would make me money while I worked another job,” she explained.
“It also took me back to selling snacks and drinks at school. It was a full circle moment, but more professional, advanced and didn’t require me operating every single sale.”
Coca-Cola is her best seller and allows her to make £1.20 profit per bottle (Collect/PA Real Life)
The first machine – which held 40 drinks and 250 snacks – was located outside a card shop in Barnsley ended up making just £30 a month, but Megan wasn’t deterred and persevered with until more money began to roll in.
After selling the first machine for a profit she bought a second inside a care home in Manchester and investigated which products were the most popular among her customers, it turns out cans of Coca-Cola are in high-demand, and now makes a whopping £7,000 a month.
This is a long way from the £27,000 a year she made working in finance.
“It took me a while to get to that; don’t get me wrong,” Megan said, adding that the care home location can make up to £1,500 a month alone.
Megan would now like to hire someone to stock the machines, saying: “I’m only small, so it can be quite tiring.” (Collect/ PA Real Life)
“But I like to think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime location because despite it being so small, it makes so much money, which just makes no sense.”
She now spends two or three days a week restocking her machines, which gives her plenty of time to focus on a second business venture selling trainers as well as researching how she can grow it further.
“I’d like to grow so I can focus on the logistics side. If I could do that, then the sky’s the limit,” Megan added.
