Learning The Ropes Entrepreneurs-to-be get a jump start.

Wanted: Bright, hardworking kids
For: Business training
Reward: Possible entrepreneurial future

If you were to compose an ad for the youth business programslaunched by KidsWay Inc. or Taller San Jose, it might very well runsomething like that. Take, for instance, Chamblee, Georgia-basedKidsWay's youth-operated retail store, which sellsenvironmental and educational products. "They're doing agreat job," says KidsWay chair and CEO Steve Morris of theeight high school students who've run the company'sAlpharetta, Georgia, store since it opened last fall. "We putthem in there and basically said `Figure it out.' And theydid."

As the self-proclaimed first store in the country to be runsoley by kids, the enterprise follows a school-to-work curriculumdeveloped by KidsWay. Observes Morris, "Kids would ratherlearn by doing."