Jerry ZurekA young entrepreneur at Cabrini has jumpstarted his own business titled, “aB yourSelf,” by utilizing the education he received at the school. Anthony Bennett, a senior computer science major, is the mastermind behind the budding aB yourSelf clothing line and website.
Started in Aug. of 2005, aB yourSelf is a small-scale clothing line that promotes creativity and originality of the mind. The website, aByourSelf.com, was developed when Bennett received inspiration from an electronic commerce class explaining how to successfully form business on the web.
Through this knowledge, he discovered just how easy it was to initiate his own business. Bennett stated that working for other people’s gain was not the road he wanted to take.
“I was at work, doing various jobs for my boss when I realized that I didn’t want to work for someone else anymore,” Bennett said. From there, he took his knowledge from his classes and decided to become his own boss.
AB yourSelf has what some call a unique look and a different approach to design. The “aB” in aB yourSelf stands for Anthony Bennett. The company’s main objective is to inspire originality. Bennett is aware of how easily influenced people are by the media and wants his message of stressing individuality to grow.
Every t-shirt conveys an inspirational message such as, “Shine with originality and brilliance.” Also noticeable on every t-shirt is the trademark logo, the turtle. The turtle logo is inspired by the age-old tale of the tortoise and the hare race.
“The tortoise knew what it was, used creativity, and never gave up,” Bennet said. “Plus I liked the design.”
The actual development of starting the business has gone slow and the copyright process is still being settled with his lawyer. Bennett claims all the details of copyright and ownership will be worked out by the end of the semester.
Bennett gives the utmost appreciation to the previous classes he took at Cabrini. He feels they helped him understand the process of starting his own business.
“Cabrini has allowed me to do things like form aB yourSelf through its classes, if it were a bigger school, it would have been much harder because I would have gotten less attention from teachers and fellow students,” Bennett said.
Growth in the popularity of aB yourSelf has already been noticed. Bennett has received requests from students at other schools and even from people in his church. With his friends providing him with such a large support system, it is possible for aB yourSelf to prosper into something much larger.
Once the copyright issues are settled, Bennett will be able to sell the t-shirts and other apparel through aByourSelf.com. He believes this will generate a greater deal of popularity and profit. As of now, products available are t-shirts and womens tank-tops. For the winter season, Bennett is adding hooded sweatshirts to the clothing line as well.
Starting a business at such a young age is rare, but there is not as much risk when one has their youth. The normal college student suffers from job anxiety while they wait to graduate and enter the frightening real world. Bennett, however, is not intimidated and definitely has not wasted anytime sitting around and worrying.
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Posted to the web by Shane Evans
