Before you take the plunge into any venture it is both wise and prudent to consider all the factors involved. When I say factors I am referring to things that can affect the performance of your business or influence your decisions. These factors can affect your business in any stage also. You will be dealing with issues from day one all the way through the process of closing up shop or selling out. How you deal with these issues or factor can determine how successful you are.

Here are 10 things to consider before entering into the realm of DVD Kiosks. This list is not an exhaustive knowledge base however it may help you zero in on the mark. The mark of starting, operating and growing a successful DVD Kiosk business.

1. Location, Location, Location: You hear this preached in seminars on business, you see it on business blogs, and we read about it in books … but I am hear to tell you from my past mistakes, there may be no business on this planet where location is more vital. If your kiosks are not in front of people that want to rent movies and rent a lot of them then you are doomed to failure. We will discuss this in better detail in an up and coming article.
2. Income Potential: Do your homework. Don’t rely on friends and family, books, articles, or this blog to tell you how much money you will make. What ever you do, don’t rely on a kiosk vendor to give you a figure. Do your own research. Crunch the numbers yourself and have a good idea of what you income potential could be in both the worst case scenario and in the best case. Will you be able to survive financially on the worst case side? This should also be the time you seek out a good business bank and a competitively priced merchant account.
3. Machine Reliability: Know your vendors equipment. Again, do not rely on the vendor or the kiosk manufacturer to sweet talk you. You should ask the kiosk vendor for the machines specs, warranty coverage, and reliability but talk with other kiosk owners about their issues. If a kiosk manufacturer will not provide a list of references I would be weary of them. If a company is only willing to warranty their $20,000 product for 3 months I would ask why. This is your money and you should not give it to a company without knowing about the quality of the product they are offering you in return.
4. DVD Kiosk Technical Support:Even if you do your homework and are diligent in finding a kiosk from a reputable manufacturer there are bound to be issues. Find a company that hires top notch caring employees that are available for you. You will make most of your profit after normal business hours and on the weekends so make sure you have technical support available to you then.
5. Customer Service Skills: Hone your own customer service skills. While you are not selling products face to face, you will from time to time have a customer call you with a friendly suggestion. Those brief interactions that you have with customers can help your business thrive through customer retention and cultivation or can cause your business to shrivel because your customer pool begins to dry up. I am not saying you should buy books or take classes on your customer service skills, but you should be aware that there will be times when customer interaction is inevitable.
6. Where to purchase inventory: This is probably the least important of all the things you need to have figured out prior to making a commitment. You will probably purchase inventory from multiple sources over the course of your business. However, at first you will need to invest a lot of cash into partially filling the kiosks up with movies. One thing is fore sure, if you do not have many movies to rent you certainly will not rent many movies. With this initial investment being such a big one make sure you shop around and not just take the first deal you see. Call around and read the message boards to see where others are purchasing movies at true wholesale prices.
7. Where to offload inventory:We just wrote an article that included a few ways to offload inventory. Have a plan before you commit to the kiosk business of how to offload your excess inventory. You will not sell through every dvd in your kiosk and the longer you hang onto inventory the less valuable it becomes.
8. Alternate sources of revenue: This should be a factor in the decision process of number 1. location, location, location. If you choose a good location … one with substantial foot traffic statistics and where customers are hungry for new release  movies. If you find locations like that then the added benefit will surely be advertising dollars. Have a plan to seek out those potential businesses who might be able to benefit from advertising on your kiosk. You may quickly find advertising can be a money maker.
9. Cultivating and growing customer relationships:This goes back to number 5 and customer service skills. Be prepared before day one to build the excitement in the community for the kiosk that is coming. Make sure that on day one there will be customers lining up to rent a movie. Be creative in the area of customer retention. It is much easier to get someone who has rented from you before to rent again than it is to get a new customer.
10. Having an out: I was very prudent prior to investing my money and made sure that what ever company I purchased a kiosks from, that I could re-sell the machine should I want out. I suggest that you get something in writing. Something that is legally binding that stats you have the authority to sell your kiosk at any time. The document should also read that any existing warranty on the kiosk transfers. Make sure that the company will provide technical support and software access to whomever you sell your kiosk too. You will find there are not too many people out there willing to purchase a used kiosk with no technical support assistance or back end software access.

Yes, this list of ideas should be known to all of us.  We would never commit to a business without giving this stuff serious thought, would we? I have talked to some, been in business classes with many people, personally know one, and have been guilty myself of jumping before thinking. There is an old saying … Ready, Aim, Fire … well some of us turn it around into Ready, Fire, Aim. If you are about to invest a sizable sum of money into any business, give it some serious thought, discussion, and prayer.

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