Woman give up finance job to purchase machine off eBay – now she makes a fortune with it

Megan Healey, 26, from Manchester, has 27 vending machines across 18 sites in Manchester, Liverpool and Rochester and pockets more than £7,000 a month from her business

A savvy ex-finance worker is now coining it in with her vending machine venture, raking in £7,000 monthly while only clocking in three days a week. Meet Megan Healey, 26, is the Manchester woman who’s turned her knack for flogging snacks into a tidy profit.

Back in her school days, she was already bending the rules to sell cookies and energy drinks. Fast forward, and she’s now the boss of 27 vending machines scattered across 18 sites in Manchester, Liverpool, and Rochester.

Her first machine, snagged off eBay, was a slow starter, earning just £30 a month. But with some solid research and sheer grit, Megan’s turned that trickle into a torrent.

“I was working in finance but my manager was just awful and I’ve always wanted to make my own money,” she spilled to PA Real Life. A break up with an ex was the kick she needed to switch gears and dive into the vending biz.

With ambitions to expand her empire and start hiring, Megan’s mantra is “that the sky is the limit.”, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Hailing from Tameside, Greater Manchester, she ditched Wright Robinson College and dabbled in photography in 2017, rubbing shoulders with local fashion brands and modelling agencies. But after four years in what she saw as a cutthroat industry, she realised her true passion lay in the business game.

“I think I just preferred making money,” she confessed. This led her to a finance gig in 2021, pocketing £27,000 a year. But it wasn’t her cup of tea. “I really hated it though,” Megan admitted. “My manager there was awful, and I think I’ve always wanted to make my own money.”

Driven by the lure of being her own boss, she spent her free time delving into the world of vending machines. Megan shared: “I thought (it) would be a semi-passive income which would make me money while I worked another job. 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.”

But Megan wasn’t just winging it – she made sure to do her homework first. She revealed that nine months of solid research went into this venture, even studying up on vending machine repairs and the business side of things. She explained: “There was no one in the UK doing it online, so it was difficult to find any information but I stumbled across an American YouTuber and fell into a bit of a rabbit hole.”

A tough breakup turned out to be the trigger for her vending machine adventure. She confessed: “I think that’s what drove me to change my life and buy a vending machine.”

Come June 2022, Megan splashed out £700 on eBay for a second-hand Necta vending machine, capable of housing 40 beverages and a whopping 250 snacks. With its slots filled with Pepsi, Aeros, and Polos, Megan admits she was initially clueless about what to do next and didn’t even have a spot lined up for the machine.

Her determination eventually paid dividends when a Facebook advert helped her lock down a location outside a card shop on Barnsley’s buzzing high street. In hindsight, she reflected on her less-than-ideal choice: “It was so bad,” adding, “I didn’t have the experience I have now – I definitely wouldn’t put it there though.”

Megan, a vending machine virtuoso, started off pocketing a modest £30 a month but refused to let that dampen her spirits. “I don’t know how that didn’t put me off, to be honest. But I was so driven to do more and make more money, I just carried on,” she declared.

With determination as solid as a Mars bar, she flipped her underperforming cash-muncher for a breezy £300 profit, and reinvested in a golden ticket – a new machine parked in a cosy Manchester care home, raking in £300 monthly. Megan cracked the sales code, finding out residents had a serious Coca-Cola crush.

“I did some sales analysis from the card reader and I was able to work out what people actually wanted. They were just drinking so much Coke, so I then bought another machine exclusively for Coca-Cola,” she explained. Hungry for the hottest news tidbits?

That care home turned into a jackpot joint for Megan, sometimes bagging £1,500 during summer sizzlers. “It took me a while to get to that; don’t get me wrong,” Megan confided. “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.”

As for the cherry Coke on top, Megan spilled that Cola is her machines’ MVP, flipping 80p bottles into £2 treats like magic tricks.

Depending on where the machines tick away, different thirst-quenchers lead the pack – warehouse and factory units are buzzing with energy drinks as shift workers battle the yawns.

Right now, Megan’s grafting a fair chunk of her week – two or three days to be exact – making sure her vending machines are chock-full, but it still leaves her bags of time to hustle on the side, flogging trainers. She’s even whipping up a course to pass on her vending wisdom to help wannabe entrepreneurs get their own coin-guzzlers up and running.

She’s got her eyes set on hiring a helping hand for the restocking grind. “I’m only small, so it can be quite tiring,” she admitted.

“I’d like to grow so I can focus on the logistics side. If I could do that, then the sky’s the limit.”

Check out her TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@meganhealeey.

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