The Koerner Office: How a 'Boring' Ice Machine Side Hustle Prints Cash

0:00So Chris Kurner just covered something in the Kurner office that sounds almost too boring to be interesting. But hear me out. A guy named CJ in Fort Worth is running ice machines as a side hustle. For locations, no employees, and it's throwing off serious cash. Ice machines? That's the business. I mean, I've seen those roadside kiosks, but I never thought about who owns them or whether they actually make money. That's what makes it brilliant. CJ calls it a cash cow, and the margins back that up. The bags cost around 7 to 10 cents. Total overhead is about 15 cents per bag, and he's selling 10 pounds for $2 and 20 pounds for $350. We're talking 90% profit margins. 90%? That's incredible. But who's buying ice regularly enough to make that work? That's the key. CJ targets tradespeople like pull service providers, electricians, and land scapers who

1:04need ice every single day. The best locations have heavy car traffic and space for trailers to pull in. Convenience isn't a bonus here. It's literally the entire business model. So location is everything. How does someone even get started? Do you buy land or lease space? Most of his sites are leased through revenue shares, usually between 20 and 32 percent, with owners of places like self-service car washes. Some use flat rate leases, and CJ even rents extra space to food trucks to offset utility costs. Smart, but what about getting into the business yourself? I imagine new machines are expensive. Here's where it gets interesting. CJ says networking is the real entry point. Contact local independent owners. You can find distressed machines for as little as $500 to $1000. He recommends buying existing locations, rather than building from scratch, because you get

2:07an established customer base and avoid the lengthy permitting and construction process. That makes sense, though I'm guessing it's not completely passive, right? Correct. Remote monitoring handles some tasks through a smartphone app, but jams, cleanings, and cash collections still need attention. CJ pins a technician $600 to $1000 monthly for onsite work. The bigger point is that scale happens gradually. He believes there's still room in the Fort Worth market, despite hundreds of machines already operating there. Start small, avoid financing, and reinvest profits, because debt becomes a burden in slower winter months. What kind of returns are we talking about? If you buy machines at 2-3 times annual profit, you can recover your investment in 1-3 years. After that, it shifts from side income into nearly pure profit. Not bad for something that sounds this boring on the surface.