Largo resident Derron Scott Jr. turned a $100 check from his grandmother given to him 5 years ago into a thriving T-shirt business, Rizon Esthetics, with profits of more than $5,000 per month during the fourth quarter of 2007.
Scott, 17, a Largo High School senior, started selling the T-shirts from the trunk of his mother’s car and has spent a majority of his time since growing Rizon Esthetics by creating new products, designing packaging and a logo and networking.
His T-shirts are bright and colorful creations, mixing stenciled-on found objects such as spoons, forks or cups with a dose of freestyle art.
‘‘I started this business in 2003 and I’ve just been moving all the time ever since,” Scott said.
In addition to all that he does as the man behind Rizon Esthetics, his family and school obligations and his social life, Scott takes time out to speak to his peers about the positive impact that entrepreneurship could have on their lives.
His business teacher at Largo, Patrice Bailey, said Scott frequently speaks to his classmates about his business venture and about how they should take pride in their class work.
‘‘A lot of kids will just make up a business to try to pass the class, but I try to tell them ‘This can really help you. You should take it seriously. It could really help you in the long run,’” Scott said.
Last summer, Scott, who talked to them about the importance of developing a business plan, visited students at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville and Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C.
For his efforts on behalf of his school and his community, Scott was recognized as the winner of the 2008 Freddie Mac Youth Leadership Award at the Greater Washington Community Service Awards on April 2. The award ‘‘recognizes outstanding leadership by an individual under the age of 21 whose service positively impacts young people and the quality of life in the community.”
‘‘It made me feel like I won an Emmy or something,” Scott said. ‘‘It was heavy. It was a crystal with my name engraved in it. The whole experience was great. I met a whole lot of people who can help me out school-wise and business-wise.”
Scott is no stranger to accolades, though.
In 2007, he competed in the finals of the second annual National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge held Oct. 3 in New York City.
The competition required entrants to submit a business plan and explain how it would be carried out from start to finish. Scott used the business plan he knew best, the one he had been working with for the past four years: Rizon Esthetics.
Though he did not win the national competition, just to get there was an impressive achievement considering Scott had defeated his Largo classmates as well as all the other school winners from the mid-Atlantic regional competition.
At first, Rizon Esthetics consisted of nothing more than Scott making shirts at his home and selling them one-by-one to family members. But, he said, the business began to grow and grow by word of mouth.
‘‘I started making them for family members at first, then their friends bought some and I started selling them in school and before you know it, I’m making $200 [per] week,” Scott said.
Scott has two different lines of T-shirts, a silk screen line, which has six different designs, and a hand art line, which features one-of-a-kind pieces. The silk screen shirts go for $35 each and the hand art ones go for $45, Scott said.
He uses everyday objects to make the shirts: cups, forks, spoons, items he finds around his house.
‘‘I just get creative with it. I want to think outside of the box and make it that much more unique,” Scott said.
Scott said he has a support group of people who have helped him establish his business: his mother, his father, his mentor Shonika Proctor and Bailey.
Scott said his mother, Sharonna, serves as his manager, helping him with organizing all of the various components of Rizon Esthetics and offering daily words of encouragement. His father, Derron Scott Sr, does his part by being an important source of inspiration for his son.
‘‘My parents are the most influential people in my life right now,” Scott said. ‘‘They give me words of encouragement all the time. They tell me all the time ‘I’m proud of you son,’ and that makes me happy.”
Proctor, a Clinton resident, is a volunteer with NFTE and has mentored Scott for the past year. Proctor said she spends 10 to 12 hours a week helping Scott with his business endeavors, describing herself as a presenter of potential ideas.
‘‘My job is to just give him ideas and he does whatever he wants with them,” she said. ‘‘He handles all his own logistics.”
Proctor said the only technical aspects of the business that she helps Scott with are creating order forms and helping him to establish consignment agreements.
‘‘He’s a very stellar individual,” she said. ‘‘I’m very proud of him.”
Bailey, who has been teaching at Largo for 10 years, helped Scott develop his business plan and put it in writing. She said having a student like Scott makes her job much easier.
‘‘He’s a real go-getter,” she said. ‘‘He serves as a good example for the other students.”
Scott transferred to Largo in December 2006 after his family moved from Riverdale to Largo. Before transferring, he attended Bladensburg High School.
He lives with his mother and two sisters in Largo.
E-mail Jonathan Stein at jstein@gazette.net.