MV Student Entrepreneurs 

At Mount Vernon High School entrepreneurship goes far beyond the class offered in room 122. Entrepreneurs in our school offer their talents to the community around us using ingenuity to develop their businesses based on their skill sets. Three student entrepreneurs have utilized their ideas and abilities to benefit the Mount Vernon community.  

Win the Details Car Detailing

 Win the Details Car Detailing is a Mount Vernon-based car detailing company co-owned by sophomores Seth Rushford and Stratton Ellyson. The pair started working together in the summer of 2024, looking for a way to make money and seeing that there was no detailing competition in Mount Vernon. The business has two employees, sophomores Luke Rushford and Josh Macchione.

Though Win the Details Car Detailing is a new business, its owners have been able to reinvest $10,000 into their company; buying new and better equipment, which includes a company truck. Since this summer, owners Rushford and Ellyson have expanded their market, earning around 150 jobs from the surrounding community. This means in the last couple of months Win the Details Car Detailing has been able to provide detailing service to clients that include teachers or classmates. 

The business has grown by word of mouth because Mount Vernon is a small town and word travels fast. Win the Details Car Detailing is also active on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

The owners say they have big plans for the future. “With this being our first major year, we have invested in a company truck and a lot of equipment and we plan on hiring another employee next year,” said Rushford.

Though the company has experienced growth since this summer, they know they will have some issues. Rushford said, “It’s going good; with winter it’s slowing down but will pick back up in March.”

Win the Details Car Detailing has also had issues with both dry weeks and weeks where they had way too many jobs to do. It’s obvious that a lack of business would be a problem, but due to the company’s small workforce, and the fact that all the workers are students, it can be difficult for the team to get to all the jobs. So far they say they have been able to make it work. 

Colin’s Coffee 

You may remember Colin’s Coffee from last year,  a business operated inside MVHS that offered many different types of coffee and boba teas. Sadly, owner Colin Boehler shut down his business earlier this year after some disagreements with the school. Colin Boehler didn’t have any staff, but  Kevin Murray, the former business teacher in the high school, helped when he was in class. 

Boehler decided to start Colin’s Coffee after taking accounting and entrepreneurship business classes. He chose to do those classes because he wanted to learn how to make money. Interestingly he was the only student who was interviewed who took advantage of the school’s business classes. Currently, he is enrolled in a class that works with The Stable, a school marketing program designed to involve students in the business side of creating, marketing, and selling school spirit-related merchandise like t-shirts, hats, and collectibles.

Boehler built the most successful school business and learned that a school was an ideal place to find his target market. “My biggest money makers were students and teachers who were tired,” Boehler said.

Startup costs seem steep. Boehler spent $2,000 on equipment and ingredients before he poured his first cup. He said if he had scaled

up, he would have invested in a coffee trailer to sell at games or other school events.  

Wes’s Lawn Care 

Wes’s Lawn Care is a mowing and lawn care business created by sophomore Wesley Amthauer. He started the company in 2020 and says it has doubled in size every year since. Amthauer says he was interested in a lawn care business after learning how much money he could make, but he also says, “Starting a business is not as easy as it looks.”

Which makes sense. Amthauer has worked in concrete in the past. He has not only experienced how hard it is to start a business but has also seen it by working with his father and family in their shop.

Amthauer plans to scale his business in the future by entering concrete landscaping. He says this makes sense because his current biggest clientele is commercial properties. The addition of concrete landscaping would allow him to not only maintain businesses’ lawns but also help plan outdoor spaces. 

Amthauer didn’t take advantage of any of the school’s business programs. He doesn’t plan to go to college for anything related to business—he doesn’t even plan on going to college. Rather, he wants to continue his career as an entrepreneur. Maybe in the future, he could own a business that does landscaping.