My friends and parents have called me a "wheeler dealer" for as long as I can remember. I've always been a business woman, selling my old toys and clothing rather than retiring them to the basement. I began in the fourth grade when I started a business getting all the kids to bring in their old junk and trade with each other for new junk. It became quite a fad. The kids would bring in things like pads they bought from the school store and erasers that were in the shape of cartoon characters; things only a kid could appreciate.

I've always wanted to have my own business. About a year ago I came up with a drawing of a little guy on a snowboard (his name is "Bubba" ) and made stickers out of it. They were very homemade at first, but people seemed to like them. I brought them to every snowboard shop I could find in attempt to market my product. One store in Colorado bought a few and inspired me to pursue my idea even further.

My next step was to have "Bubba" printed professionally on high quality stickers in several colors, rather than the old black and white versions. These sold like hot dogs in a ball park!

The snowboard shop on the mountain where I'm employed as a part time snowboarding instructor bought a bunch of these new "high quality" stickers. I knew I was finally being taken seriously when they asked for an invoice. I was very impressed.

The encouraging support I've gotten has pushed me to expand my business. I ordered a sample T-shirt with my logo printed on the front, and I have been frantically searching the yellow pages for a company who can embroider "Bubba" on a hat.

This small start in the business world has had a world of meaning to me. I see myself with a huge company in the future and kids begging their parents to buy them "Bubba Paraphernalia". My snowboarding students admire my stickers, it's exciting to walk into the snowboard shop and see these kids pointing out my sticker to their parents hoping to buy one. It feels great to know that you've started something, without help from anyone, that could actually become a big business one day.

I'm glad that I acted on my ideas as soon as they came to me. People seem to do their best when they're excited about something. Anything involved with snowboarding excites me, that's how I came up with the idea of making snowboard stickers. There are plenty of businesses based around snowboarding, and now there's one more to add to the competition. They better watch out, because "Bubba Inc." is ready to take over!