“Hi. My name is Lance Tossell, and I consult in business development for skilled nursing facilities throughout Illinois, so I work from a desk, a computer. I travel around the state, and I live in Peoria, Illinois.

My wife and I recently got married in October, so we’ve been thinking of other revenue streams, financial security. What can we do to set ourselves up to be successful? We’re talking about trying to have kids this year, so we have a lot going on, but we want to have that financial stability. I recently graduated from Bradley University with my MBA, so I’ve been using that skillset to research other opportunities in the industry.

It all started when my family and I were gator hunting in Louisiana and we seen these ice machines that were outside. We thought, “What is this? This is pretty cool.” We used them while we’re down there to put ice in our coolers, so a curious mind started searching on Google and on the internet and came across Kooler Ice. Did more research, and I submitted an inquiry and talked to Matt Myers who’s my sales rep at Kooler Ice. That’s kind of where it all started.

The decision to buy from Kooler Ice, a lot of it had to do with they were able to provide us references as soon as we asked. The other manufacturers we asked for references for, it was a real challenge to try to get those, and some of them just didn’t give them to us. That was a red flag to us because if you don’t want to share your references, that tells me that you know your customers aren’t happy.

Yeah, the experience has been great. Customer service with Kooler Ice is fantastic. The bottom line is is, if you need help, they answer the phone. Their technicians and employees are very knowledgeable on the equipment. They have a lot of pride in what they do. They stand by their equipment. It’s a high-quality piece of equipment. When I think of Kooler Ice, I think of quality.

I like to ride motorcycles. I do that on the weekends, in the evenings, so that’s important to me especially when the nice weather’s around. Riding’s important. If I need to stop at these machines to pull money out because they’re full or to put bags in them, I can do that on my motorcycle. That makes it kind of fun.

We market our machines a lot on Facebook. We have nine machines, and every machine has its own Facebook page because the customers like to post pictures of themselves buying ice onto the page. We’ll give rewards to customers for who posts the funniest picture buying ice, lots of little things like that. The coupons that Kooler Ice offers that are specific to their machines are a big hit, so we give out a lot of coupons for people just to try the machines.

Probably the most exciting thing about the ice vending businesses is it’s disruptive technology. It’s changing the way that ice is delivered to the consumer. That’s exciting because ice has been delivered to consumers since the creation of ice, I guess, and now you can buy it out of the machines strategically placed around town. It completely eliminates all the trucks driving around delivering ice. It’s a cleaner product. It’s more cost effective. It just makes sense to do it. It’s the Redbox of the ice industry.

Choosing to get into the ice vending business with Kooler Ice was a great decision. My family and I couldn’t be happier. It’s very fun. We watch the sales grow on our phone. It’s all remotely monitored, so it’s exciting to watch how much more successful the machines are every month that goes by. It was a great decision to supplement our income.

If I were to give somebody advice, if they were looking to get into the ice business, it would be to check your references, take your time, figure out what size of machine you want it to be, and go visit the manufacturing plant. I think that’s important too, to see where they’re being built, who’s building them, and do they stand by their equipment? What’s their customer service like? Those are all important things, and Kooler Ice does a great job in meeting all those needs.”