Let There Be Light
What: Online retailer of LED products
Who: StreetTags.com's Jake and Jared Peters
Where: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
When: Started in 2002
How much: $1,000

Brothers Jake and Jared Peters had years of entrepreneurial experience when they started their web-based retailer of LED products, StreetTags.com. But their budget meant they could start with only a few products, including LED name badges and license-plate frames, to save on manufacturing costs.

The brothers made sales through guerrilla marketing and word-of-mouth advertising. To minimize costs, Jake, 27, and Jared, 28, kept inventory low, using what Jake calls "just-in-time inventory tactics" to plan purchases.

In 2004, LED products lit up the club scene and proved popular with the young-adult crowd. Now customers worldwide purchase LED phones, caller IDs, clocks, toys and electronic signs from the website. The pair still saves money by using cost-effective pay-per-click affiliate programs, selling directly to dealers and manufacturing products overseas.

Extra cash might once have been hard to come by, but Jake and Jared look forward to six-figure sales in 2005. And success keeps coming: This year, they produced the Bling-Bling LED Belt Buckle for R&B group Pretty Ricky to sport in a music video. Is the future bright? Says Jake, "[LED fashion is] kind of a fad right now. We hope it lasts a long time." --Genevieve Jenkins