Two young entrepreneurs hit the slopes for profit

Snow sports are a great money-making niche for enterprising collegians, two Saint Michael’s students have independently discovered.

Ski enthusiast Matt Benedetto ’12 and snowboarder Matt Wolfe ’11 run campus-based businesses for considerable fun and profit. Benedetto markets an original line of edgy and stylish apparel for youthful skiers including hats, gloves, scarves, shades and more from a North Campus office that he rents from the college. Wolfe sharpens and waxes, or “tunes,” snowboards and skis in his dorm room, raffling sporty and popular merchandise to attract customers.

Though their styles and specialties differ and they don’t know each other personally, both are smooth and practiced professionals and business majors.

As a middle-school student growing up in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, Benedetto got the idea to hand-crochet ski hats in styles he liked and sell them to friends and fellow skiers.

When they were a hit, he did research online and learned how factories in China could make his original-design products inexpensively and in bulk. In high school he’d often stay awake until the early-morning hours to call during Asia’s business day and arrange with for hats to be made at just a few dollars a piece.

He used profits from his early hats and money he’d earned as a lifeguard to get the company he named EC Headwear off the ground. Overseas factories mail him boxes of products that he sells affordably to young skiers (under $20 a piece) while still making a good profit per item. Each year his volume has increased, and he had about $50,000 in sales last year. He does all the mailing himself from his campus office.

The indirect profits are substantial too: Benedetto was one of several U.S. teen entrepreneurs to win $40,000 college scholarships ($10,000 per year) from Monster.com founder Andrew McKelvey. His outline of his business also earned him a trip to St. Louis before college to meet the nation’s other leading young business innovators.

In another coup, Benedetto arranged to make vinyl promotional stickers for a leading freestyle skiing magazine, receiving in exchange advertising worth thousands of dollars for only a few hundred dollars in production costs. He taught himself Web design online and designs most of his products. He also manages to ski about four times a week at Stowe by rising early enough to ski and get back for noon classes.

Though on a smaller scale, Matt Wolfe’s snowboard and ski tuning business has profited exponentially from the skillful phone negotiations he initiated with manufacturers in the action sports field.

Wolfe learned his tuning skills at Attitash Resort in New Hampshire, which he frequented with his family since he was a toddler, and where he worked in the on-site shop. “I did my own stuff and my brother’s and had a tool kit before I came to Saint Michael’s,” he said, explaining that his deep love for the mountains motivated his college choice.

Wolfe charges $25 for a “full tune,” $12 for a wax and $20 for a wax and edge. “I do the work in my dorm room — I just put up two sawhorses. I’ve got a single room in Founders so it’s perfect this year, and my first-year roommate was a friend who was good with it. I clean and vacuum afterwards.”

To promote his business, he e-mailed about 75 companies and 20 or so responded with $4,000 worth of products for raffles. “I told companies if they were interested, I’d promote their company and advertise on campus,” he said, adding that his best connection probably was to Hawaii-based OluKai sandal company, a brand popular with students. The tuning business has turned a profit of over $1,000 — enough for spending money at least, he says.

Wolfe said he may scale back a bit on the business next year with all his other activities, including Campus Ministry retreats, a philosophy club that he just started, rugby and his planned study abroad in Latin America.

Benedetto felt Saint Michael’s would be the perfect place to expand his business in the heart of ski country and he already knew the school because his older brother Peter just finished his junior year.

“It will be interesting to see where it goes in the next couple years, whether it continues after college,” Benedetto said. “But I know I want to stay in action sports, clothing and marketing and I think it’s a good platform for my resume so other companies know what I’ve already accomplished.”    :

—M.T.