Kiplinger: To become a success in high-tech Silicon Valley, Alan Aerts used low-tech skills and hard work. He slung crates of produce for a grocery store and sold bread to restaurants while launching a vending-machine business that sells soft drinks and snack foods to workaholic computer engineers.

In 1980, on his route as a bread salesman for a bakery, Aerts ran into the owner of a Pac-Man game console who was servicing his equipment at a restaurant in Oakland, Cal. Aerts, who always wore a shirt and tie on sales calls, was impressed by the other fellow’s jeans and T-shirt and resolved to branch out on his own.

But capitalism requires capital, and Aerts had little money to spare. Living paycheck to paycheck with his wife and newborn son, he worked days at the bakery and nights at a grocery store to pay the mortgage. During downtime between jobs, he developed his business strategy. “I’m sure I did every wrong thing you can possibly do,” says Aerts. “But I knew that with enough hard work, it would all make sense.”

To get his business off the ground, he relied on a second mortgage and credit cards, sometimes paying rates as high as 19%, to buy video-game and vending machines. After purchasing several machines at retail price, he realized he could buy them directly from the manufacturers for less. And he learned that vending machines were more profitable than video games, which needed to be replaced frequently to keep up with the fickle tastes of gamers.

Aerts used the contacts he made through his bakery job to prospect for new business. To hedge his bets, he put in ten years at the grocery store to earn a modest pension.

Today, Aerts’s company, Custom Vending Systems, is the largest privately owned vendor in the region. He says business is booming as the Valley’s economy blossoms after its 2000 bust. In 2005, Aerts and his wife donated $2.5 million to fund scholarships at the local community college. He’s still busy 24/7, but now he dedicates evenings and weekends to charity work and local politics instead of a second job.

Photo by Custom Vending Systems.

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