Case Study: How One Teen Makes His Business Tick Juggling a business and school isn't easy. Here's how Lefty's Auto founder Mike Wilson does it.

(YoungBiz)- Log on to www.leftysauto.com, and you'll automatically feela need to fasten your seatbelt. A car revs its engine and a pair ofheadlights moves toward you as Lefty's high-performance sloganappears: "Welcome to Lefty's Auto, where it's yourparts at my cost."

Eighteen-year-old Mike Wilson of Overland Park, Kansas, foundedLefty's Auto two years ago with a simple purpose in mind: toprovide performance parts at reasonable prices for do-it-yourselfcar buffs like himself. Wilson had just acquired a 1987 blackCorvette that "needed some work." He was shocked at theprices auto supply stores were selling parts for and decided tolook for an alternative.

"My parents offered to help me start my own auto partsbusiness as long as it didn't interfere with my studies andafter-school activities," Wilson said. He made contacts withparts wholesalers, the companies that sell parts to auto supplystores, and signed agreements with a few that didn't requirehim to pay a fee to work with them and were willing to educate himon their product lines. The next item on his list was to get aplan.