(FORTUNE Magazine) – IN FEBRUARY this Long Beach, California, company liquidated its assets, having paid shareholders a 224% return in just 12 weeks. Impressive, no? Here's the key. Two principals, President Nicole Woods and supersalesman Jesse Richardson, found a new way to make money: Keep costs low and quality high, and make teamwork a priority.

You say that strategy doesn't sound new to you? Well, it sure was new to Jesse and Nicole. That's because Jesse is in tenth grade and Nicole is in 11th. Until recently Nicole was on court probation for riding in a stolen car. Jesse, who had been recruited by a Los Angeles gang called Insane Crips, was headed in that direction. Now, thanks to Vision of Dreamz, Jesse, Nicole, and 11 classmates have learned that starting a business makes a lot more sense -- and cents -- than starting trouble. As an adviser, Chuck Hubbard, a financial manager at McDonnell Douglas, told them: ''If you pick the right product and stick by the rules, you can make money every time.'' Vision of Dreamz was born last November, when Junior Achievement and McDonnell Douglas sponsored an evening ''Company Program'' for at-risk kids who normally don't get to participate in Junior Achievement. In this program, high school students create and operate a minicorporation. They elect officers, sell stock at $1 a share, make and market a product, pay wages and taxes, and distribute a liquidating dividend if there's any profit. Vision of Dreamz bought teddy bears for $2.95, spent under $1 to add ribbons and stuff them with candy, and sold them for $8.50 each for Christmas and Valentine's Day. The kids sold hard. Jesse, who's still smarting over the fact that the No. 1 salesperson, an eighth-grader named Lisa Ryman, beat him by a bear, explains his technique: ''I bother people. You know how they give you the runaround. You have to keep bugging them.'' This taste of success changed his attitude. Says he: ''When I got to about ten bears and found I could do something I was good at, I kept going.'' Now Jesse has raised his grades from F's to B's and dreams of starting his own clothing store one day. ) To boost profits, the kids voted not to give raises. Instead, they rewarded performance by increasing sales commissions from 10% to 25%. They also decided to lift their returns by leveraging the company. Instead of selling 100 shares of stock, they sold only 53 and raised the rest of their capital by borrowing $300 from McDonnell Douglas -- a loan they paid back in full. But the real secret, according to Nicole, was teamwork. Given the group's diversity -- black, white, Vietnamese, Samoan -- solidarity was not guaranteed. ''At first none of us really liked each other,'' says Nicole. ''We had to learn who we could trust and depend on to be there to make the company a success. Once we did, we got on a roll. It was great.'' So great that after paying the bills, the company had enough money to donate $40 to Geneva Presbyterian Church, where the students and their advisers met every Thursday night from six to nine. On sales of $1,897, the net profit, after taxes, was $119, which was paid out to shareholders in dividends of $2.24 per share. Vision of Dreamz paid an even bigger dividend in the self- esteem and sense of purpose it gave the kids. In April, Nicole plans to open a basket and gift booth at the Del Amo Swap Meet in Long Beach. She hopes to get a loan to lease the location and is already looking for discounts on merchandise. ''I think I can do it,'' she declares confidently. In fact, Nicole's now giving advice: ''When you do business, pick something you like. Then, if it doesn't work, at least you tried it.''

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: VISION OF DREAMZ