tonight, in our series "pumped up prices," diane eastabrook introduces us to a pet sitter who's been forced to re-evaluate how she does business. >> reporter: professional pet sitter kelly moore spends much of her day behind the wheel of her honda c.r.v., crisscrossing chicago's western suburbs and visiting the homes of out-of- town clients whose cats need care. >> hi, buddy. >> reporter: fuel is moore's biggest operating expense, so when gas prices headed north of $4 a gallon last month, she was forced to add a fuel surcharge. >> just based on this time last year and now, it's like 30% more i'm spending on fuel because of how far i do travel still. >> reporter: even with the surcharge, moore says she's had to completely rethink how she does business. >> i used to send out a quarterly newsletter through the mail... and now i have a website. instead of being out in my car making three different trips a day, now i'm out twice a day. i was thinking to myself, "if i only go out twice a day, that is definitely going to cut down on my time and, of course, be more efficient if i could do my

in tonight's all in the family segment, diane eastabrook says treating franchisees like family is spring green's green thumb. >> reporter: franchisees are the face of spring green lawn care corporation. and company chairman tom hofer can tell you something about each one. the pictures of all 75 franchisees grace a wall at spring green's headquarters outside chicago. >> jim richards has been with us a long time. his brother-in-law actually bought a spring green franchise in 1979. >> reporter: hofer ran spring green for more than 20 years before turning over the reins to his son ted last year. father and son know what it's like being a franchisee-- both have been there, done that. >> as a franchise owner you do everything, so when i was a franchise owner with spring green i got my hands dirty every day. >> reporter: tom hofer bought one of the first spring green franchises back in 1977. his college fraternity brother started the company. a decade later hofer became chairman and c.e.o. in 2002, then 26-year-old ted bought a ups store franchise. he sold it in 2005 to work for his father. the

diane eastabrook reports many teens will need to get aggressive and creative if they want to pick up extra spending money during their break from school. >> reporter: for the past couple of months, 18-year-old melissa godar has been pounding the pavement, looking for a summer job in retail. so far, she's found nothing. >> a lot of them, they're either not hiring because they just hired already, or they're not looking for anyone new because they already have people. >> reporter: getting a summer job, whether it's making burgers, lifeguarding or working a cash register, could be a lot harder for teens this summer. in fact it's been getting tougher over the past decade. about half of kids between the ages of 16 and 19 had summer jobs in 2000, but last year only about a quarter of them did. the situation isn't expected to improve this summer. outplacement expert john challenger studies job trends and says several factors are conspiring against teens. first, many small businesses are still tightening their belts and holding the line on hiring. second, many local governments don't have mon

midwest bureau chief diane eastabrook reports dyson is now trying to convince young people to follow in his footsteps. >> reporter: at chicago's miles davis magnet academy, a visit by inventor sir james dyson... >> hello, everybody. >> reporter: ...was like a visit by a rock star. >> making mistakes is something to be proud of especially when it comes to engineering and science. >> reporter: dyson, a british design engineer-turned- entrepreneur, was here to lead a workshop for 30 middle school students. they hope to follow in his footsteps by building the proverbial better mousetrap. alicia brown was among the star struck. >> i want to start off in mechanical and work my way to design and then technical. but, i just got hooked on this. it's fun. >> at dyson we think about what's wrong with things and literally go back to the drawing board. >> reporter: t.v. commercials promoting his products, like a hand dryer, fan, and vacuum cleaner have made dyson a household name around the world, and a billionaire. the dyson empire came out of his bad experience with a conventional vacuum cleane

. >> susie: as diane eastabrook reports, the shift to more fuel- efficient cars, combined with a recovering economy, is good news for u.s. auto makers. >> reporter: it's taken a few years, but u.s. consumers are finally in a car-buying mood again. guggenheim securities' john casesa credits an aging vehicle fleet and an improving economy. >> incomes are finally growing, unemployment is diminishing slowly, and consumer confidence has bounced back. >> reporter: the robust demand is helping auto companies make a lot more money. in april, vehicle transaction prices were up 1% over march, while incentive spending was down 4%. but industry watchers warn the recent buying spree could run out of gas, and higher fuel costs are part of the problem. in many markets, pump prices are up over $4 a gallon, and casesa says consumers on a tight budget could get sidelined if gas goes higher. >> it's hard to say at what price higher gas prices will choke off auto demand, meaning prices have to get so high that people don't have enough left over for discretionary purchases like an automobile. >> reporter: highe

diane eastabrook looks at the technologies driving motorola solutions and talks about its future with chairman and c.e.o. gregory brown. >> reporter: at motorola solutions innovation center, product marketing specialist anatoly delm shows me new ways the company is trying to make communities safer. at this mock command center, video analytics help police dispatchers zero in on potential problems. >> for example, in the upper left hand corner there is a gentleman who's about to leave a suitcase at the bottom of the stairs at an airport. >> reporter: another new technology is a belt that monitors the vital signs of firefighters when they're on the job. >> the incident commander will often know that a firefighter is in trouble even before the firefighter knows they're in trouble. >> reporter: motorola solutions is also inside some of the nation's largest retailers, with handheld bar code scanners that let workers take inventory in a matter of seconds. >> i can tap on each of these individual tags and maybe find out what the size is, what's the style, is it on sale? that kind of thing. th