$1000 Start-Ups 60 Businesses for Micro-Entrepreneurs ... and how to start them

Leah Ward-Lee is a serial micro-entrepreneur. She opened her first business at ten after lobbying for and receiving a shoe shine kit for Christmas. She pulled her wagon through the neighborhood, going door-to-door, offering to shine her neighbor's shoes for twenty-five cents a pair. Once her wagon was full, she took the shoes home and polished them. Unfortunately she hadn't tagged the shoes and couldn't remember whose shoes were whose so her dad went with her to retrace the route until every pair was returned. That business was short-lived. Since then she's had businesses developing and teaching college courses, instructing aerobic classes, owning half a plane that was rented to a flight and maintenance school, renting homes, a consignment store, a gift shop, a gift basket business, a consulting firm, hosted The Executive Toolbox, a weekly radio show, and a publishing company. She also spent twenty years in the US Army, served as the Chief Information and Technical Officer for two major insurance companies, and had a second career as a management consultant. Leah resides half the year in Dallas, TX and the other half on Amelia Island with Sammy and Goliath, her two rescue dogs.