DR. WALLACE: My best girlfriend and I are both seniors in high school and we have three or four decent ideas to start a small business. We're not trying to set the world on fire; we simply want to make some money for the rest of the school year and throughout the summer before we each head off to two different colleges.

The plan is to find a way to get this off the ground relatively soon and then hopefully be able to maintain it at a moderate pace, depending upon how much free time we have once we enter college. We each have a younger sibling who could help us to manage inventory and shipping from our hometown if we can manage the rest of the business from our laptops at college.

Rather than bore you with all of our specific ideas, what do you think are the main things we should be thinking about, no matter what type of business we ultimately try? — Two Female Entrepreneurs, via email

TWO FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS: Take each of your handful of ideas and sketch out at least a moderate plan. Literally write out the steps you plan to take, what cost you will incur, how much you're selling your product or services for and what you think might be realistic.

Once you decide upon a specific idea, you can adjust and correct your original plan as you learn valuable information via trial and error. Also, take inventory of what each of your particular skill sets is and decide in advance what role each of you will have within the business structure. It's far better to decide this up front, rather than to try to figure it out on the fly. You'll need to be flexible, of course, but carefully thinking about each of your roles as a starting point is a valuable exercise.

Finally, if your selected idea requires supplies, take inventory of what you might be able to reuse from each of your family homes and also perhaps talk to non-competitive businesses to see if they may have any extra items they can give you, loan you or sell to you at a discount at least through next summer. It's always best to be thrifty and keep your expenses down to an absolute minimum. However, don't skimp on the service or the quality of the final product you deliver to customers! That's paramount as you want to not only receive future orders, but referral business via positive word of mouth.

IT TAKES SO MUCH TIME HANDWRITING EVERYTHING SEPARATELY!

DR. WALLACE: I recently had a "Sweet 16" birthday party, and everything went according to plan, and in some cases even better than I had expected.

We celebrated at my aunt's house, who lives about ten miles away from us, as she has a much bigger backyard than any of our other relatives. Several family members helped me set everything up, including aunts, uncles, cousins and even a few grandparents.

I'm at the stage now where I need to thank everybody for their assistance and involvement, so I asked my parents if I could get the email addresses of some of our older relatives, like my uncles and grandparents. My mother interrupted me and told me that I should mail out handwritten thank-you notes to as many of my relatives as possible, rather than sending out emails. Later, I told my dad that this would take a lot of time and I could do it much quicker by sending out a mass email. To my utter surprise, my father, who is a very modern businessman, agreed with my mother!

At least my mom went out and bought me a box of thank-you cards that were all blank inside, but now I have to sit and handwrite each one out. My parents told me they will pay for the stamps to put them in the mail. Don't you feel as I do that this is a complete waste of time? I could have easily completed this task all in one afternoon if I simply had everyone's email address. — Doing Double the Work or More, via email

DOING DOUBLE THE WORK: First, let me start with a brief explanation to you as to why I think your parents made this suggestion. Older people from previous generations are more used to receiving thank-you notes in the mail rather than emails. Not only that, but some relatives, perhaps like your grandparents, might truly treasure a handwritten note from you so much that they would save it, put it in a drawer and take it out and refer to it often.

I realize this may sound old-fashioned and perhaps corny to you, but in this instance, I do agree with your parents here. Since your older relatives all chipped in to help you out and make your big day a rousing success, I suggest you take a few deep breaths and think carefully about what you want to say to each individual and write them all customized thank-you notes. I trust they will be very well received, and once you're done completing this task, odds are you'll feel good about it too.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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