Clair Roth confesses to putting too much salt on her food.

But she says she can’t help it.

“I oversalt everything, it’s as simple as that,” Roth said. “But it is really hard to tell how much salt you’ve put on something.”

And from that simple problem an idea was born.

“What about colored salt?” she said. “Since you can see it, you use less.”

Now she is designing a business plan, working on marketing techniques and structuring, from the top down, exactly how she can turn her idea into reality.

Not bad for a 13-year-old.

Roth is just one of nearly 100 teens who descended on Central Iowa last week to attend summer business camps held both at Simpson College and at the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center. For the kids, it’s an opportunity to learn from those who have already succeeded in business and gain the tools they may need for the future. For the organizers, the hope is that these camps will spark the kid’s creative spirit, and also, that they will decide Iowa is the best place for that creativity to prosper.

“We want to retain our young in the state,” said Wade Den Hartog, development director for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry Foundation, the sponsor of Business Horizons, the camp at Simpson College. “We give our students a survey at the beginning of camp asking them a little about themselves as well as what their school plans are and what the likelihood of them staying in Iowa is. At the end of camp, we give them the survey again, and in the more than 20 years, there is always an increase in those who are now considering staying in the state.”

And Den Hartog would know. He went through the camp as an 18-year-old student in 1992.

“I had no intention of staying in Iowa,” he said. “I had several colleges I was looking at and all of them were out of state. But the camp was held at Drake [University] that year, and I enjoyed it so much, after a lot of consideration, I ended up at Drake.”

At the Pappajohn Center, the University of Iowa sponsored camp was primarily for middle school students. Dawn Bowlus, the camp’s organizer, said the campers participate in traditional classroom work with a specially designed curriculum that teaches business basics to kids. They also play games, participate in group activities and meet with several successful Des Moines area entrepreneurs for inspiration. The hope is that, once inspired, the campers will stay in Iowa and build new businesses in the state, Bowlus said.

But the main event of the week is a competition among the campers for seed money to actually start their business.

Jordan Wilmes, a 14-year-old from Carlisle, won the competition last year with his idea and business plan to do magic shows for area day-care centers. He came back again this year with another idea he hopes can turn into a reality.

“I invented an iPod accessory,” he said. “It’s a stuffed-animal iPod case.”

Wilmes said the speakers at the camp have been very helpful because they were once in the same place he is now.

“Not all rich people started off rich,” he said. “Most of them had an idea and turned it into something bigger. That’s what I want to do.”

At the Business Horizons camp, things ran a little differently. Kelli Gettings, a 16-year-old from Ankeny, said the campers arrive on Sunday, are divided into groups and then put in a room full of junk.

“They hand us a roll of duct tape and say, ‘Make something,'” she said. “It’s kind of hard, especially since you just met these kids.”

Campers have 10 minutes to put their “something” together, and whatever they create is their product for the week.

“We have to develop a business plan, make an infomercial and at the end of the week, pitch the idea to actual investors,” she said.

And the more outlandish the better.

“They absolutely don’t have to be based in reality,” Gettings said. “That’s part of the fun.”

That is important for 17-year-old Des Moines resident Shannan Archer’s group. They “invented” the Canoodle, which is a boat that, once on dry land, can be turned into a tent.

“It’s even powered by a jet engine,” she said.

Den Hartog said the key is to allow the students to learn while they are having fun.

“Some students attend to learn about the business world; others come to seek a career direction,” he said. “Some come just to meet new friends or experience life on a college campus. No matter what the motivation, Business Horizons is a fulfilling experience for any high school student.”

manda Eikenberry, 18, is a recent high school graduate attending Drake this fall. She came to the camp because she thought it would be a great opportunity to meet some new people.

“It’s been a lot fun,” she said. “I’m networking and getting a lot of valuable information.”

Gettings, who is in her second year with the camp, said when she tells her friends she is going to business camp for the summer, most react the same way.

“No one believes that is can be a good time,” she said. “They all ask me if my mom made me go. But it is so much fun. I hope I can come back again next year.”

Den Hartog said with competition for kids’ attention over the summer being so intense, with sports and music camps and family vacations, the camp must be enjoyable in order to keep them coming.

“You really have to make it fun for them,” he said.