Starting Early: Young Entrepreneurs Who've Made It in Maryland

By Carrie Oleynik, STAFF WRITER



Among approximately 2,500 young people surveyed in the U.S. between the ages of 8 to 21, four in 10 have either started their own business or had a desire to start a new business in the future, according to a recent Harris Interactive report. The report, commissioned by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, was conducted not too long before the economic downturn. And, despite the dismal economy, young entrepreneurship in Maryland continues to grow.

Take Derrick Marshall, for instance. The 24-year-old CEO of Life Safety Systems has seven full-time employees and subcontracts out the rest. Based out of Marriottsville, Life Safety Systems, which designs, installs, tests and maintains commercial fire alarms and security systems, started out with a revenue of $25,000 and now has roughly $800,000 in revenue, with $1.7 million in purchase orders.

Marshall said that with lessons learned from an entrepreneurship class he took at University of Maryland Baltimore County and strong support from his family, when he was 21, he took an already existent company run by his father under another name and transformed Life Safety Systems to what it is today.

"We are committed to between 16 and 18 hours a day for business," Marshall explained. "We're able to build and create something, which is an incredible feeling."



College Bound

Entrepreneurship also has been a boon for 23-year-old Amanda Nachman, who "jumped for joy" when she found out that investors were interested in supporting her dream to start College Magazine. Like Marshall, she developed an interest in starting the magazine while enrolled in an entrepreneurship class, only Nachman was at the University of Maryland, College Park.

After graduation, Nachman went on to take on a full-time, 9-to-5 position with a large consulting firm for nine months, working on her magazine from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. She finally began full-time work on the magazine after making a pitch to a private investor. Since, the quarterly publication has grown from a distribution of 5,000 and presence on one college campus to its current 30,000 copies in circulation on eight area campuses. The magazine also can be found online, and readers have the option to receive a regular e-newsletter.

"I work on something different every day," Nachman explained. "I create goals for myself and challenge myself to meet them."

Nachman works from her apartment and said that coffee shops and the local library serve as accommodating spaces when she meets with the production staff of college students that includes up to 30 writers, 13-20 contributing photographers and five editors. With the design team based out of San Diego and the print issues published in Florida, she said that much of the work can be done online.



Virtual Accounting

Joshua Marshall, CEO and founder of Marshall Financial Services, said he does all of his work remotely. Providing outsourced accounting services (and basically serving as an accounting department for small businesses), Marshall Financial Services has six part-time staff members and works with six clients on a full-time basis in addition to five additional clients that are worked with on a consultant basis.



"All of our services are virtual, all staff work from home, we have office space at the University of Baltimore, who have been a huge help," Marshall, who started the company in 2005, said. "It mostly started out as a part-time endeavor. There is a real need for what we provide. There are a lot of businesses struggling to get good financial information and advice."



The Game Trade

The Internet also has provided Jon Dugan, 25, with the opportunity to start and run the day-to-day operations and business development of Goozex, a video game trading company based out of College Park. Working with three partners - two in the U.S. and the other in Italy - since starting the company in July 2006, Dugan said the company has generated revenue every day with roughly 20,000 trades per month, making Goozex.com the No. 1 video trading network in North America.

"Starting your own business can be tough at first," Dugan said. "But if you are committed and don't cheat yourself, then you should be okay."



Junior Achievement

Also utilizing the power of the World Wide Web, Justin Kander, a 17-year-old senior at Franklin High School in Baltimore County, started East Coast Air Soft, an online company that offers airsoft guns and products, along with Bel Air resident Matthew Gabriel, also 17. Before starting East Coast Air Soft, they ran a company called Mr. Airsoft, which followed a similar business model and brought in thousands in revenue. The difference was that then the products were shipped from other companies; now they hold the products and ship them from in-house.

Kander's hard work has led him to receive recent recognition as the 2008 Junior Achievement Youth Entrepreneur of the Year. Part of the award included $1,000, which Kander earmarked to help him with school and in search engine optimization efforts in his position as the company's marketing director.

"I would definitely start the business all over again if I had to; it's been a good learning experience and has provided a nice income for someone my age," he said.



Designing Student

Rob Poole, 21, lead designer and owner of WebZign, had a similar outlook regarding whether he would start his web and graphic design business all over again if he had to. Poole, a resident of Relay, runs his business in between finishing up his final year as a computer information systems major at Towson University.

"The feeling of owning a business is a feeling of importance and knowing you are the person that is taking care of companies that are seeking you out for developing their company. I think it's fascinating to hear other people's stories and to see the passion of other entrepreneurs. Every time I work with a company, I always see a little bit of myself in the company," he said.