NORTH EAST – Andrew Aspden is the owner and sole employee of a business that was started as a sideline in December 2020.
Aspden makes high-end stone and wood pens, wooden cocktail smokers, wooden “flight boards” that hold drinks and other items that he sells online and in stores in the North East.
Aspden & Company earned $5,000 in 2020-21, doubled that in 2022 and is on track to earn between $30,000 and $40,000 this year. It’s growing so fast that Aspden is considering hiring part-time help this coming summer. He also considered bypassing college.
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Andrew Aspden is 17 and a junior honors student at North East High School. Between school commitments and games and practices with the Grapepickers baseball team, he works filling orders in a corner of his family’s barn.
“When I first started, the business was just a side hustle making a couple bucks here and there. And that’s all I thought about,” Aspden said. “But it grew into a daily thing. Every day I was making pens at home, working on the website or just doing maintenance.
“Some days, when I’m full, I’m going to work because of school and baseball. During vacation, there are nights when I work until midnight or 1 a.m. on school nights. But that’s some days and times are busier than others.”
Aspden got the idea for his business when he was 12 or 13 years old, from a cousin who made pens and sold them to a winery in New York.
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“I thought it was a great idea,” he said. “I got a lathe one Christmas, but it kind of sat there for a while. Then when COVID hit, I went to school online and didn’t have a job for a neighbor. I had some free time. So I ordered some parts kits online.”
Aspden started making pens, then got a job at re.FOUND.ry antiques shop in the North East, where the owner allowed him to sell his wares.
“After that, I started going around the North East and selling to different businesses,” including Driftwood Wine Cellars and Courtyard Winery. “I’m selling left and right.”
Much of what she sells now is through Etsy, an online marketplace for crafts and other unique merchandise. His ballpoint pens start at $34.99, and cartridge fountain pens at $77.99. His business has a five-star customer rating for workmanship and service.
Aspden found the site through online research. This is also how he found wood, stone, pen parts and other supplies, mainly from Penn State Industries in Philadelphia.
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He bought marble, jasper and other stones in roughly rectangular prisms.
“I drilled it, processed it on the lathe to get the cylinder shape, and then polished and pressed the pieces together,” Aspden said. It takes about 40 minutes to make each pen.
Aspden’s expertise in production, purchasing, marketing, sales and shipping is mostly self-taught, again through internet research.
“I also watch a lot of YouTube videos,” he said.
In-person sales and marketing is Aspden’s favorite aspect of the job.
“I love meeting people and teaching myself how to communicate and do business with real business owners,” Aspden said. “It’s not something I can learn in school or that you can go online and learn. You just have to get yourself out there and do it. It’s one of the hardest but most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned. learned.”
Online marketing, not so much.
“I don’t like interacting on the internet, and I don’t like social media,” he said. “The problem with trying to make money is that you have to use the tools to do it. I found someone to do that for me, and that was a great relief.”
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Aspden met Jason Drohn during North East High School’s Entrepreneur and Finance Week this school year when the two were invited to speak about their businesses. Drohn, also of North East, is a marketing professional and founder of several businesses, including Leveling Up LLC and DoneForYou.com.
Drohn is developing an online marketing strategy for Aspden and creating an Aspden & Company website that is expected to launch this summer after Aspden turns 18.
In the meantime, his young client has done what some entrepreneurs and business owners have – create products and find a market for them, Drohn said.
“Because Andrew tapped into an already established audience on Etsy and was able to start building a customer base, he shortcut his way to success in a big way.
Etsy is a great platform for business, but at a high price, Aspden said.
“Etsy takes a ton of money for transaction fees,” he said. “Every time I sell, a lot of money goes to Etsy and not a lot to me. I plan to keep Etsy but I’m going to focus more on my own website. in transaction fees, it’s less. And it’s going to be more productive.”
Aspden plans to study business in college, and may.
“If I make money from my business, I won’t go to college. If not, then I will,” he said. “The bottom line is whether I’m making enough money to do it full time.
“It scares my parents when I say I don’t want to go to college.”
Aspden’s father, James Aspden, worked for Penelec. Mom Emily Aspden has her own physical therapy business. Andrew’s sisters, Kyla, 13, and Eva, 10, make wire-wrapped stone rings that they sell through her Etsy shop.
“They do a great job. They’re very smart,” Aspden said. “They handle their own end of everything. I just let them sell on my site.”
Many young entrepreneurs could be inspired by Aspden’s talk during the school’s Entrepreneur and Finance Week, said Dawn Coletta, a counselor at North East High School who organized the career exploration event for 10th-graders. .
“Hearing from someone so close to their age really inspires students,” Coletta said. “If someone like Andrew was able to get a business up and running, other students could see themselves doing it.”
ccontact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.