How Naturals2Go Compares

• Our package of 10 machines costs about $20,000 less than a package from N2G
• They charge an extra 3% on investments made with credit cards – we charge no fee
• Both companies provide a list of owners or operators to talk with. Those we provide know our machine as we have worked with the same US manufacturer for more than 10 years. N2G is on their third manufacturer in four years. Relatively few of their operators know the machine new people are looking at so they can’t answer questions about it if asked.
• We provide a choice of three different machine wraps – new business owners choose the graphics they like best. We also offer custom graphics. A new owner can design their graphic and we will ship their machines with their wrap. N2G offers one graphic – featuring their company name.

Most people attend HYU during their first six weeks. This training is held each month at our corporate office in Utah in our state-of-the-art training center. They not only learn how to operate our high-tech vending machines, but they also receive a great deal of training on how we help them get their machines into great locations, how to maximize revenue, how to monitor their business using e-Manage – which provides reports on their machines 24/7, real time in the cloud. They also hear from a marketing expert and a CPA. They meet the founder and president of the company, the vice president, and all of the members of our support and coaching team that they’ll work with over the years of running and growing their business.

Our coaching team meets weekly to share how we have helped business owners and what we have learned from those growing large businesses. It is a huge advantage to have our full support team working in the same building and sharing ideas. N2G “coaches” are other owner/operators who earn a side income helping a few other operators. These “coaches” are scattered around the country and can only coach based on their own experience. Typically business owners never meet their “coach” in person. All of our coaches have machines as well but work full time in our corporate office.

• We offer two location options. We teach new business owners about both options and they decide which option works best for them. In the Company Option we find the locations and the business owner attends a wrap-up meeting to answer any last questions and arrange delivery. In the Team Option we help new owners get their machines into exactly the kinds of locations they were looking for. Perhaps they have decided to focus on a specific type of location like hotels where they can charge the highest amount of any type of location. Or maybe they want to focus on the biggest locations where they can put two or three machines in each one. Or maybe the closest locations to make it easier for them to stock their machines . Perhaps they want to avoid certain parts of their city because of toll roads or bridges or demographics. Their customized location strategy is all about them and their plans and desires. N2G uses the typical location method followed by traditional vending companies where a ”locator” comes into their area multiple times over the first year to help find locations. This method takes much longer and results in smaller locations, further apart and with no ability of the owner to choose a location strategy. They get what the locator can find.
• Typically we are helping new business owners get their first machine into a location the week after they return from training. They may get several that week. With N2G they are often not attending the training for several months and the locator is not coming into their area until after that. Many people report getting their first location about six months into the business. There is a big difference in money in their pocket in six weeks versus six months.
• Once a location is identified, the machine is quickly delivered from the white glove delivery facility. It is placed where they designate, unpacked, taken off the pallet, and the pallet and all the packing materials are all taken away by the delivery company leaving the machine ready for them to fill and start using. We have found over the years that once a location finds out about a healthy vending option they want to have a machine delivered as soon as possible. They typically will wait about two weeks for a machine. If one is not delivered, they will look for someone else who can bring in a machine. Since we ship machines to the local white glove delivery facility they can quickly be delivered to the location. N2G does not have a machine in the area and it must be shipped from Tennessee. Their contract states that if they cannot get a machine there in 30 days the machine owner can either take a substitute machine or agree to another 30 day waiting period. Since no one wants to learn and try to maintain the substitute machine and the other one when it’s finally available they typically opt for the delay adding 60 days – resulting in more lost locations.

We also pick up additional locations for our business owners because of the ADA compliance issues. If a location already has a healthy vending machine we ask them if there is a name on the side of the machine. If it is a N2G machine we explain the importance of their machine complying with ADA, so that a person in a wheelchair can reach all of the operable parts of the machine under the law. We explain that no operable part may be higher than 48 inches or lower than 15 inches. We suggest they measure the bottom of the coin retrieval door to see how high it is off the floor. Since the N2G machine from China has a coin retrieval door well below 15 inches they are easily able to see that the machine they have is not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Since the fine for having a non-compliant machine is $55,000 the location is typically anxious to have their machine replaced with one that does comply with the law. The non-compliance of the N2G machine is not our opinion but the expert determination of a top forensic engineer and former president of the American Society of Forensic Engineers.

With our location options we help new business owners get their machines into great locations and with no delays. N2G has a HUGE backlog of locations they owe people who started a business with them. They owe approximately 1,000 locations to existing operators. It is not known how they prioritize older operators with newer operators when it comes to getting locations, but it’s hard to imagine new operators getting priority over someone who’s been waiting 6+ months for theirs.

Our optional side units – SmartMarts and Wellness Centers help our owners get their machines into bigger and better locations. The SmartMart allows the sales of microwaveable meals in a corporate office, personal care items in a hotel, pre-and post-workout product in a gym etc. The Wellness Center sells over-the-counter medication in a hotel, corporate office etc. It is especially welcomed in an office where employees are not feeling well but not so bad that they need to go home. They can get allergy medication, cold and flu remedies, indigestion medication etc. without having to leave the office. In large facilities both a SmartMart and a Wellness Center can be added.

Our proprietary vending management software we designed specifically for our business owners, is a competitive advantage. It allows a 24/7, real time, in the cloud view to what is happening with each of their machines – and across their whole business. N2G includes NAYAX credit card reader software. It is a generic vending software that does a pretty good job of tracking what is in a machine – but it does not look at the whole business.

N2G,like most vending companies, uses planograms – a list of the products you should put in each type of location – a gym list, a school list etc. eManage helps our business owners go way beyond that. Over time, trying and tracking different products and flavors, the owner determines location by location the optimum product list. Two gyms across the street from each other should have different products. Planograms yield an ok business but who wants to go into business to just do ok?

Our business owners are able to purchase products directly from United Naturals Foods Inc. UNFI supplies Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Sprouts and other healthy grocers. We also provide other product suppliers – and we don’t keep a penny of that. You buy at the best prices – another way to help you maximize your profit. You basically get to piggy-back off of the nationwide buying power of so many other customers of ours, that we have referred over many years to UNFI and other wholesalers.

We focus on shelf stable drinks, snacks, meals and medicines/wellness products that have a long shelf life – typically 3-12 months. N2G highlights perishable food like sandwiches and salads as a differentiator from our company. Some important points on perishables:

• The shelf life of these products is 2-5 days. The expiration date is right on the front of the product. Having an expired product in a machine comes with a hefty fine (and puts people’s health at risk). This causes the machine owner to visit the machine 2-3 times/week instead of once/week like our machines. This is 2-3 times the work for the same or less revenue. Many people choose vending because it’s NOT a high touch, every-day business. If you go the perishables route, it’s a different model of business activity.
• The machine they sell is not certified to vend perishable food. The law requires that any machine selling perishable food (know as “potentially hazardous foods” in state food codes) be cooled to 41 degrees at the top of the machine. They may get close but do not hit that number.
• They are cooling the snacks as cold as the drinks. Snacks, especially chips, do not like cold. Cold in a vending machine means moisture and chips do not like moisture. The N2G machine comes with a heated glass so that it does not fog up – but the moisture is still there. We cool our drinks to 35 degrees, the temperature recommended by Coke and Pepsi. We only cool the drinks. We are cooling about a third of the area that N2G is cooling. Our machine is one of the greenest in the industry. The N2G machine is very energy inefficient. Our machine is energy certified. Theirs is not.

With N2G, their income projection spreadsheets say their operators should expect to pay 20% of “net profits” to locations for each of the machines. Since the general rule is to sell products for double what they pay for it, that is basically like paying 40% of their gross. Our business owners rarely pay any commission back to their locations. With our experience and expertise, we have cracked the code and are literally bucking the trend, so our business owners get to hold onto that 20% commission. Helping get “rent-free permission” and therefore have “rent-free locations” is a HUGE distinguisher between us and other companies, and obviously is a huge and direct increase to business owners’ bottom line each and every month. And as made clear in the Cease and Desist Order from the State of Maryland these unsubstantiated N2G income projection spreadsheets violate consumer protection law.

How do people typically grow their vending business? It is by getting additional locations which were referred to them by one of their existing machines. Here’s a good example – We help an owner place a machine at a busy gym. A hospital administrator working out at the gym sees the machine and thinks “Wow, healthy vending. We need that at our hospital.” He sees the name of the machine owner on the machine and also sees a QR code with a message that says “Scan this code to discover how to get a FREE Healthy Vending Machine in your workplace”. The hospital administrator scans the code which links him to the web site we built for the machine owner. When he gets back to his office he reads about the benefits of giving his employees and visitors a healthy vending option. He then calls or emails the machine owner to learn more.

The machine owner then meets with the hospital and lands a deal for three more machines and orders machines 11,12 and 13.

How would things be different if the machine was a N2G machine? The hospital administrator would take a picture of the side of the machine with the Natuarls2Go name on it. When he got back to his desk he would look up N2G and call them. They could sell a machine directly to the hospital, use it as an incentive to get a prospect to buy machines or give it to someone in that area – hopefully the machine owner but perhaps someone else. The point is that N2G controls the referral rather than the machine owner.

Most people starting a business with us grow a few machines at a time winning new locations from machine referrals. We believe that the owner of the machine should get ALL referrals from THEIR machines.

And what if someone sees a machine thinking about getting into the business themselves? With the N2G machine they call the company and now there is someone in your area looking at getting started. With our machine they call the machine owner and have no contact with us. The machine owner controls the narrative.

As people grow their business they run into more complex location scenarios – a school district wanting machines for all of their high schools, a medical care company wanting machines for all of their clinics etc. And they want to meet with the machine owner to work out details before machines are purchased. How do our owners win the more complex deals? With our MAP System the business owner already has a great deal of experience working with locations and can talk to a coach who has years of experience and is part of a team of coaches. With N2G they are talking to a “coach” who may never had been asked the question and a “locator” who will not assist them until more machines are purchased.

Not only is our machine referral process geared for growth but so is our pricing. After ordering 10 machines future machines with our company are purchased for just $7,000/each. We lower the price as our costs go down – we are not training a new business owner any longer but supporting an established owner. With N2G the cost is still $12,000/machine.