Burnett, like thousands of other business entrepreneurs, has made a living off America's spare change in the vending industry. Every time you drop a quarter into a vending machine, Burnett and his compatriots hear a little "ka-ching" echo in their heads. That loose change is paying for their mortgages, their cars and their children's college educations.

THE INDUSTRY

For many, the word "vending" may seem to be too broad, perhaps a little hazy. What qualifies as a vending machine? According to the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), vending is defined as "providing service at an unattended point of sale through the use of monetarily driven equipment." In other words, whenever you drop any type of money into a machine in exchange for a service or a product, you are using a vending machine.

Vending first hit America in 1888 when the Adams Gum Company began dispensing gum in penny machines. Today, it has a grown to a $40 billion industry, encompassing more than 8,000 companies. It is generally segmented into a number of different groups, the most recognizable being full line, bulk, music/game, street, and finally, the 4C's the foundation on which vending was built.

The 4C's are stand alone machines offering single products: coffee, cup of soda, candy or cigarettes. Full line built upon the 4C's foundation, broadening the line of food and beverage options and offering customers everything from canned food to frozen food. Bulk machines are today's candy machines large machines offering a variety of different candies, gums, and novelties. The music/game category is self explanatory; juke boxes and entertainment/skill machines fall into this category. Street vending, a combination of full line and music/game, is NAMNs terms for the practice of placing those machines in public places, such as restaurants and bars.

TurnKey's operation falls under the street segment, since its small vending machines are skill/amusement pieces, found mostly in restaurants. Customers attempt to flip a coin through a hole, with the intention of winning a prize of some sort, usually their meal or a mini vacation.

TIME AND MONEY

Many entrepreneurs are hesitant about jumping into new business ventures, even proven concepts such as vending. Generally, their hesitance stems from one question: "Will I make enough money?"

According to Burnett, vending is a very viable means for many entrepreneurs to meet their financial goals. "The return on an investment in vending is incredible. Often, the cash flow is almost immediate. It's one of the few businesses that works for you 24 hours a day, every day, which allows you to be an absentee owner (passive income)," he says.

Furthermore, vending requires a small initial investment (generally, only a few thousand dollars) relative to some other business opportunity options such as a fast food franchise. A new McDonald's franchise, for example, requires an initial cash investment of about $175,000. Vending is also particularly well suited to be a home based business, Burnett points out. "The overhead is very low. People can start out as small as they want and grow as large as they want. In most cases, they can finance that growth with the profits from their business, which gives them a greater level of control."

This low initial investment encourages many vendors to start out as small, part time operators. This gives them the opportunity to test out the industry and see if it's a right fit for them before quitting their full time jobs. "The time commitment is minimal. It's a business anyone can work part time and can grow into a full time venture. It's a wonderful family business great for teaching kids about responsibility, the relationship between work and reward, the marketplace dynamics of supply and demand, and the importance of budgeting," Burnett notes.

While many vendors do make the transition from part time to full time, especially after seeing the money to be made, others keep it a side job, using it only to supplement the incomes from their fulltime positions.

One of the greatest challenges facing many entrepreneurs in any industry is coming up with the initial investment to launch a business, and vending is not exempt from that issue. However, the comparatively low startup cost of a vending business increases the range of financing options available to entrepreneurs in this industry.

Many of TurnKey's vendors use credit cards to fund the start up capital for their businesses, Burnett relates. "If used wisely, credit cards can be a great tool in leveraging. an investment that puts money in your pocket. It's very simple: put things on your credit card that make you money, not cost you money," he says.

Burnett himself used this seat of the pants financing strategy to start TurnKey as a part time business, relying on credit cards for the initial investment. Today, TurnKey is a multimillion-dollar company, with thousands of its machines in restaurants all over America.

K.I.S.S.

Charles Mingus, the famed American jazz bassist, once commented, "Making the simple complicated is commonplace, making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity." That approach has sometimes been described as the "K.I.S.S. principle," for "keep it simple, stupid!"

Burnett has emphasized simplicity in his development of the TurnKey Vending business system, taking a business that is straightforward to begin with and making it even simpler.

Vending is generally broken down into six key activities:

1. Purchase machinery.
2. Find locations.
3. Stock the machine.
4. Return and restock.
5. Collect the money.
6. Maintain machines.

TurnKey has been able to cut those steps in half, reducing the work of its vendors to just three steps: Purchase machines, find locations, collect the money.

Burnett says that it's every bit as simple as it sounds. Since TurnKey's machines are games of skill, customers are not purchasing merchandise, which means vendors never need to stock the machine. Customers may win a prizes, of course, but most vendors offer prizes of the paper sort. Simple approaches are the most popular, such as "Sink the Shot, Win Your Meal." With that kind of arrangement, the vendor simply reimburses the restaurant for the cost of the meal when someone wins a prize. In many cases, the establishment gives the winner a coupon for a return' visit, and there is usually no need for the vendor to cover those prizes.

Some vendors choose to entice customers with bigger prizes a vacation, for example but that does not diminish the inherent simplicity of this business opportunity. Vendors are still free from the responsibility of stocking a machine with prizes. TurnKey also offers a service that arranges the vacation for vendors through its optional vacation prize package.

Many would be vendors fear they will have a difficult time finding locations for their machines. Some utilize a professional locator, an individual who has experience in vending and knows the locations to look for. Others rely on a personal coach offered by TurnKey.

No special trucks or equipment are required to transport the machines; they all fit in the back of an ordinary car. Maintenance is not a problem either, since the machines contain only two moving parts, both of which are covered by a limited lifetime warrantee.

One of the most attractive aspects of TurnKey Vending as a business opportunity might be its target market. Vending machines typically are located in lobbies or in offices, where people tend to walk right by them, often without even noticing them.

TurnKey's machines, however, are located right on the table in restaurants. Each machine has a captive audience for at least 30 45 minutes. What restaurant customer would not risk a quarter for the chance to win his meal? Or better yet, a vacation? The answer: very few.

FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility certainly ranks as one of the greatest strengths of the vending business. Vendors control the days and hours they work and have direct influence over how much money they make. The freedom provided by that kind of flexibility is what has made vending such an attractive proposition to many entrepreneurs.

"Vending is a very simple and lucrative business," Burnett says. "But, like anything else worth achieving, it takes work. It works for those who work at it. We have seen all kinds of people from all walks of life build successful businesses. Desire is more important than experience or any certain set of skills."