Today we’d like to introduce you to Joel Hastings.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up middle class in Littleton, Colorado, a suburb south of Denver.
I was raised by a “garage sale dad” who always haggled for the best deal. I learned to look for sterling silver jewelry at garage sales, and learned negotiation from my father. I began to “know enough to be dangerous” as my dad once told me about numismatic coins at these sales.
At age 12 I began my first part time job, gardening and mowing lawns. I ran the neighborhood paper route, which paid 150$/month. Serious money for a 12 year old kid.
One summer, I worked for a very kind lady down the block whom I won’t mention by name. I mowed her lawn and took care of her pool. One day, I forgot to walk the lawn to make sure there was nothing in the way of the mower. I ran over her dog leash and busted two sprinkler heads. I went home without asking to be paid, after I finished the mow of course.
She called my mother, asking why I left without payment. I broke down in tears when she asked me about it, saying the dog leash and sprinkler head she would have to purchase could come out of my paycheck.
Although I did eventually accept payment, I didn’t want to. I do my best to this day to maintain this sense of integrity.
At age 16 or 17 I began to show interest in the stock market. My father would let me invest my cash I earned from whatever odd jobs I was doing, plus money earned working at Texas Roadhouse. I became obsessed with making money, and letting it work for me.
Then, the Covid crash. Crazy market volatility, DJIA down 2000 points in one day, up 2000 the next. I invested more, worked harder. Texas Roadhouse almost wrote me up because I would pick up shifts to get to 40 hours a week while I was still in high school. One day, I had to clock out of a six hour shift two hours early because I was going to hit overtime.
I worked for a family friend that summer too, helping with construction projects as an independent contractor. I met a real estate investor who had me help work on his properties. I was then interested in real estate.
Then I found vending on YouTube. I’’m still interested in real estate and stocks, sure, but vending looked very enticing. Low cost of entry, relatively quick returns in the correct spot, physical asset you can control.
I was all in. I cold called about 15 places one day, and George, a local laundromat owner, allowed me to host my machine at his business.
I was ecstatic. The next day my father and I drove out to Aurora, and I purchased a four hundred and fifty dollar machine. I didn’t know it yet but I got a great deal. I put the machine in the laundromat, and it was a flop. George still had his older snack machine in there and my prices were higher. I wouldn’t admit defeat though, and for awhile I convinced myself that 10-20$/week was good. But I wanted more.
Then I got the call, the laundry was closing. I went and picked up the machine with my friend Shaun and we brought it back to my Dad’s house, a look of disapproval crossing his face. “I told you it would end up in my garage” he said.
So I sold it, for 750$. A roughly 300$ profit. The guy I sold it to got a great deal also, since I now sell that model refurbished for double.
I decided I wanted to try my hand at small gumball machines. Sure the big one didn’t work out so well, but smaller machines means less time invested, easier transportation, and less space used by whatever establishment is hosting you.
I saw a route for sale. 1200$. Well I’ve got about that in savings at this point, so I drive around to all these stops, I speak with the managers.
One place changed my entire life. One manager at one les schwabb tire center said “well, we don’t like that little gumball machine, but we want some big vending machines, do you do those?” Without hesitation I jumped at the opportunity.
I picked up a redbull machine in the back of a Golden Corral for 500$ on Facebook marketplace. It barely worked, and I knew nothing about fixing them. I delivered it, then fixed it on site with the help of another vending company in the area.
Not my proudest moment in business, delivering something that has issues right off the bat, but that tire store manager bet big on me, and I delivered. I sold out in a week. 150$ in energy drinks purchased from Sam’s club.
I eventually replaced that machine, and I began buying and selling other machines to finance my expansion to other tire centers.
I got more locations, learned to market myself, got more scrappy in negotiations for purchasing machines, and found a few reliable people to purchase equipment from.
I started college at CU Denver in 2022. I also rented my first small warehouse in Aurora for 750$/month. College was fun, and the social life was good, but I lived for vending. I partnered with a retired vendor, Jim, and he mentored me. He helped me learn how to fix things, and solve problems other people couldn’t.
I sold my machines at the tire centers, eventually moving on to more profitable locations. I continue to keep my route small in order to provide the best service possible for my customers.
Recently, I have opened a second warehouse, geared more towards selling equipment. It’s what I like to do most with my time. I love this business and I love seeing others get started in this business.
What began as a simple way for me to make some extra money on the side turned into something I love and have a passion for, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else.
I’’ve done well in vending, and much of that is luck, meeting the right people at the time, putting myself out there, and just being too dumb to quit.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Losing my first location was a struggle. Learning to go outside my comfort zone to cold call, email, and just walk into places to market my services has been the biggest struggle. Door to door is hard enough, B2B door to door is a whole other ball game.
Learning to repair equipment is probably the most important thing in this industry. You have to know every machine, I can look at a picture of a machine and let you know if it will be easy to repair or not. You learn brands, models, parts. My parts area of my shop is so disorganized, but if you pick up a part from the pile and ask my what it is, I’ll answer without hesitation.
I’ve had to adapt to this, and learn by trying, and failing, and trying again until I get it right. Every day customers come to me with new issues, and I get to learn how to solve those as well. Over time you get good at it, vending repair and refurbishment is a specialized field, and I’ve had to get very good at certain repairs very quickly.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I offer vending machine services, repairs, and sales to the greater Denver metro area.
I specialize in helping new businesses get started though machine sales, and satisfying the needs of hundreds of customers daily through my vending route.
I am most known in the industry for being someone other vendors can call when they need help with a problem, whether it be a machine malfunction, a new location they’re getting, or an RFP they’re putting together, I pride myself on being able to help guide them through the nuances of vending.
What were you like growing up?
I kind of mentioned this in the first part, but I was always a hard worker, I began working at age 12 and have almost always had some kind of job. My parents were very frugal, and my dad would take him with me to garage sales to work on negotiation skills. When I began becoming interested in the stock market, I would save the money my mom gave me for lunch and invest it in my custodial account. Not really sure if she knew that was happening, but if she reads about it here I don’t think she’ll mind too much.
I was very focused on academic achievement, and I actually wanted to become a doctor for a time. Life had other plans for me I guess. I still occasionally read medical literature or watch videos on subjects that interest me, like medicine or biology. My GPA in high school was a 4.2 and I got a 1360 on my SAT. I only applied to one college.
I was always fascinated with personal/financial success. I saw how hard my father worked when I was little. He worked for AT&T and he would work nights. He was always on call, trying to provide for his young family. That really sticks with me I guess, and I think it’s part of the reason I work so hard now. I would try to go in his office when he was on a call, and I was sad because I couldn’t talk to him, but I understand it completely now. Love you dad.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Denvervendingservices.com
