To test the waters, aim to buy a vending machine and initial inventory for under $2,000. Of course, those inventory costs will depend on what you choose to sell.

In the quick video, a person walks up to one of several machines at the Milford, Connecticut, Costco and starts inserting plastic bottles. With each bottle, $0.10 gets added to a running total, until ...

You can start a vending machine business with as little as $1,500, but Marcus Gram suggests saving up a bit more to get credit card-equipped machines.