Rachel Lerman is a 14-year-old eighth grade student who shows that you don't have to be an adult to come up with a good business idea. She used her own creativity -- paired with an interest in business -- to develop a business concept that she hopes will one day be a success. Rachel tells about her idea below.

One day, sitting at a gas station, I decided I wanted to open my own business. That doesn't seem like an odd goal, except for one thing -- I'm 14 years old and I wanted to open my business now, not when I'm older.

My idea was an after-school snack shop called Wacky Snack. I first came up with the idea a couple of months ago when it occurred to me that having a place to go after school and snack and be with friends would be really fun. Right now, after school my friends and I like to eat and just hang out at my house. I thought it would be good to have a place to go like Wacky Snack because it would allow a big group of friends to meet after school and be together. It would also allow you to meet other people from other nearby schools.

While Wacky Snack would cater to school kids, it could also attract a wider range of customers, including adults. If an adult was on his or her way home from work and wanted a quick, light snack, he or she could stop at Wacky Snack to get something quick and easy.

But Wacky Snack wouldn't be the place to come if someone was looking for a complete meal, as it would serve lighter foods, like snack foods. I wanted my menu to include a variety of items. Some snacks would be wacky and crazy -- like a pull-and-peel licorice wrapped around a pretzel stick dipped in chocolate, or tortillas with peanut butter and bananas -- and some would be just light little snacks, such as crackers, chips or candy.

Everything at Wacky Snack would be kid-friendly -- even the staff. I would need my parents to help me run it, obviously, but I also wanted all of my friends to be a part of it. My friends and I would head over to the snack shop after school and work during the store's busiest hours, from 3 to 8 p.m.

After I first thought of the idea for Wacky Snack I found an opening in a strip mall that I thought could work as a location. I told my parents about my idea and tried to get everyone on board with my business. But after thinking more about the idea of Wacky Snack, I decided the strip mall would not be a good location. Wacky Snack is targeting after-school customers, so it needs to be in an area near schools so that kids could walk there after school. The strip mall didn't really have any schools around it, so I decided that it wouldn't work.

As I tried to think of a better location, I also talked to my parents more about my idea. While everyone thought my idea was a good one, my parents and I realized that this wouldn't be such a great idea right now. I am busy in school and my parents both have full-time jobs, so it would be difficult to find the time to run a business. And if I ran a business at the age of 14, I wouldn’t have time to do other things, like hang out with my friends or play sports after school.

So I've decided that Wacky Snack might be a better idea for the future than for right now. But some day I hope to make it a reality.