Client Corner

This client was featured in May 2003. The information in this profile was accurate at the time of writing. Please contact us if you believe something should be changed.

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Darcy Bush
Vending Connection, Inc.
Waterloo, Iowa

Good listening skills, customer service, and follow-through are the three characteristics Darcy Bush believes are most important to a successful entrepreneur. And it's these things that have gotten her through what most believe to be the hardest stage of business development - the first six months.

Darcy's business, Vending Connection, Inc., is a full-service vending broker for large businesses. Her services include brokering between vender and client, consulting, break-room design, and complete research of a territory's vending services for each individual client. She finds the best pop, snack, and coffee machine quality and deals available. The real value in her services though comes from the personalized attention and service she provides her clients. It's a natural skill for Darcy, and it's what she believes makes her business model unique. She's picked up sales tips from seminars over the years, but as she aptly puts it, "you either have it, or you don't."

Darcy has always felt the entrepreneurial drive, and brokering vending machines isn't her first foray into business ownership. She owned and operated a day care center for 12 years, and she attributes her listening and follow-through skills to that experience. "You have to make the parents confident and comfortable with your skills," she says. Before you can sell the parents, you have to understand their needs and concerns and show them that they can trust you - a perfect warm-up to the vending business that is centered on customer service.

Although the sales and service come easily, it's the other aspects of business management that led Darcy to the UNI RBC. First and foremost, she used SBDC Counselor Avriel Davis as a sounding board. It wasn't too long, though, before she moved into the RBC's Business Accelerator Program and found the center's resources and mentoring to be a catalyst for Vending Connection. "Know your strengths and focus on those," she says. "Outsource your weaknesses." The RBC helped her to recognize those weaknesses and have in large part helped her to overcome them. "I couldn't have done it without them," she says.

The vending industry has a promising future, and Darcy plans to stick with it as long as she can. She's lucky to have the support of her family, and she loves the freedom that comes with owning her own business. Like many successful entrepreneurs, she views her work more as a hobby and career than a job. "I look forward to Mondays now. Weekends just get in the way."

You can contact Darcy Bush at Vending Connection, Inc., 212, E. 4th St., Suite 111, Waterloo, IA 50703. (319) 226-3000.