A head for business

Alum entrepreneur celebrates success

For alumnus Daryn Ross ’89, a lucrative business that now boasts annual revenues of $3 to $4 million began with a sweatshirt, a basement room in Browning and a pay phone down the hall.

“I had made up my mind to start a part-time business selling apparel to fraternities and sororities in the spring of 1987,” Ross recalls. “I knew that the Spring Fling was coming up, so I contacted the College Union Activities office and got my first order.”

Ross grossed about $400 on that first order for $4,000 worth of Spring Fling sweatshirts. Working from his Browning residence hall room and the pay phone just outside his door, he began to build the business. He recruited his recently retired father and mother, Don and Teresa Ross, as financiers and “go-fers,” and the enterprise began to take off. At the end of his first year, Ross had racked up $30,000 in revenues.

“Once I started the business, I never looked for another job,” Ross says.

Ross published his first national catalog in 1990, which led to a significant bump in revenues. As the business grew, Ross moved his offices to a private apartment, then to a duplex and a rented house. He later acquired a 1,000-square-foot building on a former pig-raising farm outside Liberty, then moved to a larger 6,000-square-foot facility. His new manufacturing and printing plant is located in a 25,000-square-foot building in Excelsior Springs.

From a base made up primarily of college fraternities and sororities, Ross’s business has expanded to include schools all over the country. His product line includes apparel, drinkware, coffee cups and mugs. About 23 employees are on the payroll.

Ross, a communication major, credits his experience at Jewell for building a skill base that served him well in his entrepreneurial efforts. He is also grateful to his mom and dad, who were the business’s first employees, and to his wife, Toni, for her unending support. The Ross family now includes three daughters ages eight, six and two.