Happy & Healthy Products Inc.

For Judy Clark, a family trip to South Carolina in 1999 provided a respite from her high-stress job as chief nursing officer at an Indianapolis-area hospital. But it also introduced her to a product that would ultimately allow her to spend more time with her family while earning a living: Fruitfull frozen fruit bars.

Clark's family had spent most of its vacation at the beach. For fun, Clark decided to take a break from soaking up the sun and took her husband and four kids to a nearby plantation that had been transformed into a sculpture garden. "The kids were bemoaning the fact that we were spending all this time looking at sculptures," she explains, "but they found a little refreshment stand on the map."

What they found at that refreshment stand has turned into a successful business for Clark and her family. Back home in Indiana, Clark launched her Happy & Healthy Products Inc. franchise in late 1999, filling up freezers near Indianapolis with Fruitfull bars. Today, the business has truly become a family affair, with everyone helping to fill the walk-in freezer Clark installed in her back barn and load Clark's truck each night before she makes deliveries. In the summer, Clark's children go on deliveries with her, cleaning freezers while Mom unloads the truck.

During the rest of the year, Clark's open schedule lets her chaperone her children's school trips and avoid the stress of her former nursing career. Says Clark, "Now I have the flexibility [to] mix the [family] things that I need to do with what I need to do with my [business]."