Yellowknife (July 30/04) - If you think finding a student summer job is hard, try starting your own business.

"It's a lot of work" says Erika Wallbridge, who started the "creative camps" summer camp program last year.

"Some weeks you make money, some weeks you run a deficit. It doesn't have to work; you can fail."

Wallbridge, 20, runs the camps Monday to Friday with her friend Kelly Cumming, 18. Both are university students. The camps are for kids aged 8-13.

Although Erika's father is a lawyer and her mother is an accountant and she has their support, difficulties still arise.

Cumming says that the biggest problem is promotion.

The partners have made pamphlets, are located in a trailer in the YK Inn parking lot, and have done some advertising, but customers aren't easy to come by.

Numbers appear down from last year.

"We have a really great camp, but it's hard to tell people about it," says Cumming.

"If you just see an ad, you don't get the sense of fun, the sense that the people care."

The emphasis of the camps is on creativity and being outdoors, explains Cumming. Each week has a theme, and at lunchtime on Fridays the kids do a theatrical production they've prepared, from the script to the costumes.

Campers recently did a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"It was a really good feeling to make Shakespeare fun for the kids," says Wallbridge.

Wallbridge decided to start the camp after running a drama program for another company.

She operates without grants or funding. The camps are held at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, where the girls rent space.

Wallbridge says that she made a worthwhile amount of money last year, and has no regrets, despite the difficulties of business ownership.

"It's worth it to get the experience, and for the kids. You may not make money, but it's worth it," she says.