Should I Start a Summer Business I want to start a business this summer, but my schedule is always packed. I'm worried it will take up too much time once school starts again. What can I do?

If you're the type of teen who is heavily involved inextracurricular activities--things that take up a lot of your freetime during the school year and leave little time for anythingelse--starting a seasonal business might be just the thing.Seasonal businesses are those that are only active during certaintimes of the year, such as during the summer or over the holidays.This way, in the "off season," you'll still have timeto complete your other activities and schoolwork while maintainingyour business only occasionally.

Since you said you want to start a business over the summer,first you'll want to decide on a business that will bring inprofits over the summer and can lie dormant during the school year,easily resurrected once summer rolls around again. This can be assimple or complex as you like. Things like car washing, child care,lawn care and pet care are easy enough to get started and can begreat ways to bring in extra money. But you can always take thingsa step further if you so desire. If you're tech-savvy, forinstance, you could add a Web component to your lawn care business,making it easy for customers to get information about your serviceand book appointments. Create some business cards and othermarketing materials that include your Web site address, and soonyou'll have people from all over town visiting your Web site.This theory would work for virtually any kind of business youwanted to start.

You can create excitement for your service, too, by the factthat it's a seasonal business. If people know your service istop-notch and is only available for a limited time each year, theymight be more eager to book appointments in advance--especially ifyou were to offer coupons and other special discounts. Forinstance, you could start a referral program whereby customers geta discount for each new customer they refer to you. And newcustomers could qualify for a special discount as well.