Entrepreneurs Demonstrate What it Takes in 'Making it Here'

Bryn Davis wanted to create a healthy fast food eatery to help shed the 65 pounds he packed on during college. 

Christopher Blum of Winning Products sought a business venture to pick up where his police career would leave off following his retirement from the Horsham Township Police Department.

Bryn and Davis were just two of the nearly three dozen local entrepreneurs and student innovators on hand during Hatboro-Horsham High School's second annual Futures Fair. A joint effort between the Greater Horsham Chamber of Commerce and  the Hatboro-Horsham Educational Foundation, the four-hour event showcased various businesses, ranging from accounting and engineering firms to a greeting card creator, several sales opportunities and more. 

"The idea is that it really transcends all economic conditions," said Laurie Rosard, Hatboro-Horsham Educational Foundation executive director. "Students need to start planning now."

Seniors Anthony Mumenthaler and Mike Sciandro got a jump on their future career endeavors by way of their senior project, which involved collection efforts for an Army unit stationed in Afghanistan. In all, the boys amassed supplies valued at more than $3,000, as well as cash donations during the three-month project.

Mumenthaler said they coordinated with the Horsham Township Library, as well as the UPS Store on the effort. The library served as the drop-off site for donations. Mumenthaler said he was able to persuade UPS into providing $250 in cash and supplies. The funds came in handy for shipping the 15 boxes to troops overseas. 

"If you try hard enough it will come through for you," said Mumenthaler, who aspires to "do something" with athletic training and the Marines.

Adds Sciandro, "Perseverance, that's all you need."

Joanne Zapata, Greater Horsham Chamber of Commerce co-founder, said the career fair is a great avenue for showcasing opportunities available to students locally.

"They have to be aware that they can make it here so they can make it, literally, here in Horsham and make it, be a success," said Zapata, a 1965 Horsham-High School graduate. 

Davis, 26, knows full well the ingredients to making it locally. He's the mastermind behind Horsham-based "Bryn and Dane's" healthy fast food restaurant, a business he started in March 2010 with literally $16,000.

The economic downturn helped fuel the significantly reduced startup costs in terms of rent discounts and his ability to buy food service equipment at bargain prices from businesses that were closing. In addition, Davis said he succeeded in letter-writing campaigns to companies like Jack Daniel's, which gifted old barrels now used as tables. 

"A lot of it is stuff that would never happen again," he said.

So who's the "Dane" in Bryn and Dane's?

"Dane's my 10-year-old brother," he said of the Simmons Elementary student. "I like the idea of names because then you can be your own mascot."

For student innovator Abby Wang, her mascot - at least for Tuesday's career fair - was a wooden violin that she made by hand, with help from her mentor and stepfather, Xiao-Wei Zhou.

In all, the project, which involved intricate drawing, sawing, sanding, filing chiseling, glueing and drying, took her 200 hours to complete. 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the aspiring engineer's project: "I don't know how to play violin," Wang said with a smile.

While the Futures Fair offered insight into various professions, students certainly are not pigeon-holed into working in a specific field throughout their entire lifetime. Blum, for instance, will be celebrating his 25th anniversary with Horsham Township Police in March. 

But, before that milestone was even in sight, Blum was already planning out his next profession for when he retires in 2014. Since October of 2008, the patrolman has been working 10 to 15 hours a week as an independent distributor for Market America, which sells everything from healthy supplements to Web solutions. 

The referral business affords distributors flexible schedules and commissions ranging from 30 percent to 1,000 percent. The upside for would-be Hatboro-Horsham distributors is that the business provides resources for young entrepreneurs to make it here. 

"I would get them set up to be their own boss," Blum said. "You start out in your own community."