Cash money photo record

The secret to my success: you want those speakers for your iPod, but where will you get the money? Or maybe you wanna stash some cash for college or a

TIME TO TAKE THE DONUTS

The Donut Delivery Service was supposed to be a short-term school project. Amber, 12, and her four buds dreamed it up as an extra-credit assignment. Amber cut a sweet deal with a local bakery to buy donuts wholesale. Then, the girls asked neighbors if they'd like to order donuts ($3.50 a dozen, plus $1 delivery charge) to be dropped off on Saturday mornings. The first week, everyone they asked placed an order, bringing in sales of $170. Amber's dad drove the route, while the girls delivered the goodies and collected the money. By week four, sales were up to $500. That was last year, and now Amber is the only one of the original group still in business. She's renamed it Amber Delivers!, added Sunday service, and expanded her menu to include other baked goods and drinks. Amber now also delivers to businesses, like auto repair shops. Watching her clientele grow from 30 customers to over 500 has given Amber major confidence. Her advice? "Find something you'd like to do, and just start doing it! Work hard, and it'll pay off. I learned that if you treat every customer like they're your best ... they will be."--Michelle Pratt

PILLOW TALK T-SHIRT SLOGANS

It doesn't hurt to have a mom who runs a mail-order catalog. "My mom helped me out a lot---she inspired me," says Harlie, 19. Harlie's mom owns Femail Creations, a company that sells products designed by women. And at age 12, Harlie wanted in. She had a brainstorm for Girls Rock, a business to create a line of products--pillowcases, T-shirts, hats, stationery and jewelry--with girl-empowering slogans printed on them. Harlie first met with artists to draft artwork for her ideas, then had to locate manufacturers to make the products. Most of the people Harlie approached were shocked at how young she was but took her concept seriously. It took a while to get things moving, but that was seven years ago and now business is running smoothly. Harlie sets aside a large block of time every couple months and travels to Las Vegas, where she packages her stationery sets. It takes awhile, since each piece of the set comes from a different vendor. Harlie didn't think she could make big money from something so small, but she pulled in $12,000 last year. She saves most of her earnings, and spends some of it on snowboarding competitions. "I've learned that anything is possible," says Harlie. "It's not as hard as you think." Get her products at femailcreations.com.

DEEJAY THE NIGHT AWAY

Not only does she get to go to fly parties, but she's the one who makes them rock! Julia is a 15-year-old deejay who saw her future in the reflection of her dad's old disco ball. He had been a deejay in days gone by, and when he got a request to work a fall dance at Julia's old middle school, Pops passed the responsibility--plus his stereo equipment and record collection--over to his daughter. Julia was totally thrilled to get her moment in the spotlight and went right to work, compiling a series of songs to "get a crowd on the dance floor and keep them there." She browsed the top-40 charts on billboard.com to compile a song list. What she didn't already have in her collection, she downloaded from walmart.com for 88 cents a track. After getting all the music together, she makes it flow with MixMeister, a computer software program that blends the songs together seamlessly, no breaks in between. Julia has done several school dances and birthday parties since that first gig. Her secret? "Get the word out--tell everyone you know that you have a service to offer! Plus, doing a job and doing it well will lead to referrals for other jobs." And you can't beat the pay! Mad Hatter Deejays rakes in $250 for two-and-a-half hours of non-stop dance beats. That said, Julia has invested about $8,000 into her music collection, updated sound equipment, speakers, lights and fog machines. Julia's motto? "Thou shalt not let the music stop!"

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Just about every girl at Courtney's school loves Lilly Pulitzer's sensationally bright fabric. That's why Courtney, 15, decided to make photo boards decked out in Lilly--and they've been a huge hit! But success didn't happen overnight. "I started small, with handmade hair accessories," Courtney says. "I glued ribbons and buttons to hair clips, and sewed ribbon and elastic together to make headbands. Those were my first products." After seeing how well her hair accessories went over, Courtney thought big: "I take a lot of pictures, and the photo boards in stores were too plain for me. So I decided to take some of the Lilly fabric, and some of the ribbon and buttons I use for my hair accessories, to make photo boards." Courtney dishes out her own money for supplies but admits it was hard getting up the confidence to charge enough to cover costs: "The fabric is $20, the board is $10, ribbon is $4, buttons $2. That meant I had to price them at $50 just to break even. It seemed like so much! But I knew I had a quality product and the response has been amazing. I set up a table at craft fairs, and moms buy them as gifts for their daughters, even for themselves!"

KEEPIN' THE SHOELACE PACE

Melissa looked at her dad's shoes, saw the words "Steel Toe" and politely told him what she thought: "That's stupid." Melissa, 11 at the time, informed her father that the tag ought to say something fun about the person wearing the shoes. That thought got her on the road to developing what has become a pretty cool way to express yourself---Shoetalkers. Sort of like mini license plates for your laces, Shoetalkers snazz up your shoes by showing off your name or revealing a bit about your attitude. You can grace your lace with a name like Princess, Sk8ter or Hottie, complete with funky artwork. It took over two years to develop but, with Dad's help, Melissa was able to find an artist to draw up her design ideas and a manufacturer to turn those ideas into reality. Knowing the best way to sell her Shoetalkers would be online, Melissa and her dad had a friend set up the site for this profit-packed business venture. Now 14, Melissa spends several hours leach week conjuring up new messages for the lace plates, which go for $3.99 a pop. (If you can't find a message you want at shoetalkers.com, they'll make it for you!) Melissa says her inspiration comes from her friends and asking younger kids what slogans they'd want to have on their shoes. Her advice to girls is simple: "If you really believe in an idea, just go for it and don't let anyone stand in your way." Now, how is she going to fit all that on her laces?--MP