It is an obvious fact to say the recent Covid-19 pandemic left a toll on the lives of many individuals and their businesses. So if you are thinking of a way to start your own business right now or looking to increase revenue for your existing business, you are thinking in the right direction. And starting an ATM business is a great idea. It is a profitable business that will never go out of trend.
An ATM business doesn’t require you to get an office space or a huge capital to start, you can start with little investment. The business can make a steady stream of income for business owners and individuals. However, whether you are starting it as a part-time job or going into it fully, this guide will keep you on course and help you start an ATM business.
But first, let’s answer some questions you might have in your mind concerning the business.
Table of Contents
How Much Money Do You Need To Start An ATM Business?
Let’s learn about “How To Start An ATM Business” in detail:
Starting an ATM business is not capital intensive and doesn’t require you to get an office space or a lot of supplies. You can start the business with anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000, depending on how many machines you choose to start with. Each ATM machine costs between $1000 to $10,000 and you will need about $2000 in cash to stock up the machine. You will also need to spend a few hundreds of dollars on insurance, and setting some other paperwork.
How Do I Make Money From An ATM Business?
When anyone uses your ATM machine to withdraw some cash, a convenience fee or service fee is applied to their withdrawal. That fee is yours and can be as high as $3 per transaction. If you have your business in a good location where lots of transactions are made on your machine daily, it will sure accumulate to huge profit at the end of the day. Now imagine if you have two or three machines in good locations. That’s cool money, right?
Who Is Your Target Market For An ATM Business?
Concerned about who your target market will probably be? With this business, you have a wide range of people to patronize your business. In fact, anyone who needs quick and convenient access to cash is your customer. Strip malls, restaurants, convenience stores, bars, and shopping malls are all great places to start.
How Much Money Can You Make From An ATM Business?
Well, like we earlier said, this depends on how many machines you have and what locations they are placed. However, you can earn thousands of dollars annually from service alone running an ATM business.
How to Start an ATM Business
#1: Secure the startup capital
The business is one that requires much investment. However, whether you are running it as a part-time or full-time business, you are going to need a few thousand dollars to get it off the ground. So secure a reliable source of startup capital for your business. This can be from your personal savings or a soft loan from your family and friends. You can also obtain a loan from your bank or private lenders. But you will need a good business plan to obtain a loan for the business.
#2: Find a perfect location for your machine
Finding a location for your machine is very important to your ATM business. You have to take this step very seriously. However, you don’t have to own the business before you put your ATM machines there. Many business owners will be glad to have you have an ATM machine in their business premises. That will not only draw more customers to their businesses but will also cause them to see more cash and reduce credit card costs. So you only need to find a good business and approach them for the approval of having your ATM machine around.
Ensure the location you are choosing receives a substantial amount of walking through daily. If you can get to have an average of 20 people use your machine daily, that will be around 600 a month. If you surcharge an average of $2 on every transaction, that will be around $1,200 profit every month.
#3: Find out what the business owner will be willing to take as commission
While some business owners will be contented with the several benefits they get from having your ATM machine around, some will still demand a commission. That is not uncommon, so prepare for it. but seeing that the business has so much to benefit from the idea gives you enough ground to negotiate the commission.
To make things easier for you, you can suggest paying on a sliding scale. That is, for instance, you can negotiate for .45 cents for 201-400 transactions or .50 for 401-700. That will keep your business protected regardless of how many transactions the ATM does eventually.
#4: Take care of the paperwork
Like every other business, an ATM business also requires some paperwork. You will need to get some permits and licenses for running the business. So contact your state secretariat to know what you need to get your business registered and run without offending the law.
#5: Buy your ATM machines
Once you have your paperwork settled and you have a perfect location for your business, the next thing is to purchase your machines. There are different types of ATM machines and you will need to buy one based on the traffic of your location and also on your budget. You can either go for stand-alone ATM machines or thru wall ATM machines.
If your location will only have a few walking traffic, you should go for a stand-alone machine. It will be enough to satisfy such a business. But if you will likely be having very high traffic most of the time, a thru wall machine is your best fit. However, the thru wall machines are more expensive.
#6: Install Your ATM Machine
Once you buy your ATM machine, it will be directly shipped to your locations and a technician from the manufacturer will come to install it. Some manufacturers will require an additional fee for the installation. The technician will program the machine with all your banking information and what message you will like to have on your receipt and ATM screen.
The technician will also help set the surcharge amount you selected and show you how to operate the machine after the installation is done. Installation of your ATM machines will only take a couple of hours.
#7: Stock Your Machine with Cash
Once your ATM machines have been installed, your ATM business is ready to open to the public. So you need to stock it with enough cash for people to withdraw. The amount of money to stock in the machine, however, depends on much traffic your location receives and how often you are willing to go and restock.
Remember the money is going back into your bank account and will be available for you to withdraw in about 24 hours. So if you stock enough money in the machine, it will reduce the number of times you will have to go to the bank to collect money and restock in the machine to keep your business running.
#8: Sit Back and Enjoy Your Profits
Once your ATM business is up and running, you only need to relax, sit back and enjoy the profits. You will only have to monitor when the machine gets low on cash and go to restock it. When you start getting enough income from the business, you can think of having more machines in other locations to increase your annual revenue!