"I used to do a lot more paperwork when the company first started, but now I have a guy for that."

Kris Pepper shrugs one shoulder and glances around his work space with the casual air of an owner. He's ready for bigger things -- like college.

Kris, of Verona, began his Internet-based business, Kokopelli Music, when he was 16. A friend complained that his iPod wasn't working, so Kris offered to take a look at it.

"I had the battery and the tools and I just opened up his iPod and just messed around till I figured it out," he said. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to fix it because it was a hard-drive problem. But I fixed the battery, so I considered it a success."

Two years later, that "success" has become a business in Oakmont with an income of $250,000, thousands of customers and a guy to handle paperwork.

Kris' work space is two large desks in an L-shape. On one is a soldering iron, several small cardboard boxes labeled "mini-battery," "nano mini-screens" and the like, a magnifying glass, pliers and a tiny electric drill. On the other desk are about 10 Ziploc bags. They contain iPods, handheld computerized music devices of various sizes, colors and stages of disassembly. Next to them is a large cardboard box filled with hundreds of broken iPod liquid crystal display screens.

The business is largely family-run. His father, Jeff Pepper, is Kris' financial adviser and helps manage the paperwork. His sister, Katelyn Pepper, is a graphic designer and came up with a logo for the Web site. Kris does the repair work, fixing 15 to 20 each week. His mom, Kathryn Pepper, must occasionally remind him that schoolwork comes first.

He just graduated from Winchester-Thurston School and will attend Philadelphia University, to study industrial engineering.

On the Web site, customers can order parts they need and try to fix their iPods themselves, or send them to Kris. An LCD, which Kris says is the part that breaks most often, costs $15 to $35. Batteries run about $15. A logic board, or hard drive, costs $180. The battery and LCD screens come with a lifetime warranty.

When he first began, a battery or screen replacement would take about 30 minutes. Now, either can be done in five. A tiny Nano, however, is giving him some grief -- and a few gouges, as the Band-Aid on the tip of one finger indicates.

"The problem is, every time [Apple] comes out with a new iPod, I have to learn how to repair it," Kris said, adding that the new models aren't vastly different from the old ones.

Repairs and keeping up with technology aren't Kris' only worries. Kokopelli Music's advertisements were pulled from Google after Apple complained. "We had to go talk to the Apple people ... and ask permission. Surprisingly, they gave it to us," he said.

His business savvy recently earned him a $40,000 entrepreneurial scholarship from the McKelvey Foundation, which awards scholarships to high school students who have started their own businesses or nonprofit organizations.

Despite the company's success, Kris doesn't plan to continue working for it. His dad will manage the business and Kris will hire a replacement for himself. But that doesn't mean he'll stop repairing iPods.

"I'll just be doing repairs out of my dorm room."