At 19, Sarah Whetzel helps run a profitable business, takes classes at Howard Community College and plans to earn a four-year degree in business.

But when she graduated from River Hill High School two years ago, she had none of the above.

"I was working at Subway, I didn't want to go to college," she recalled. "I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life."

That's where Clarksville resident Bob Antelman, 57, came in.

Whetzel, of Ellicott City, had worked for Antelman in high school, helping him restore old pinball machines. Antelman had noticed her potential.

"She was what I would call a little bit of an underachiever," he said. "She wasn't going to class all the time, she really wasn't motivated."

Antelman is a medical doctor who did undergraduate work in engineering. Besides his medical practice, he has refurbished old cars and pinball machines.

Antelman helped convince Whetzel to register for classes at the community college and, in a business venture, they each put $1,800 into buying exercise bicycles from a dealer in Philadelphia, which they then refurbished and sold at a profit.

They used the money they made from that deal to buy more exercise machines. Eventually, they borrowed $15,000 to buy even more equipment.

In July of 2008, they started their own business -- Profitness Wholesale of Maryland -- which buys used commercial exercise equipment, including treadmills, stationary bikes and elliptical trainers, reconditions them and sells them to individuals.

In January of this year, the business moved into a storefront on Hall Shop Road, in Clarksville. Today, they have a staff of four part-time technicians and do between $20,000 and $25,000 a month in sales, Antelman said.

As Whetzel puts it: "We started off in a garage and now we're at a shop with $50,000 worth of inventory."

A niche business

"We happened to find a niche that nobody else in this area was really doing," Antelman said. "With the recession, people were dropping out of the gym, but they liked the equipment."

High-end gyms across the East Coast, he explained, routinely sell working gym equipment after a few years use.

"Despite the recession, we're making a profit," he said.

As manager of Profitness, Whetzel has learned Internet marketing, how to manage payroll and employees, how to order supplies and keep track of inventory.

"She's only 19. She makes mistakes," Antelman said of Whetzel. "She's learning from her mistakes, though."

Whetzel's mother, Bonnie Whetzel, of Ellicott City, said Antelman had been a good influence on her daughter.

"He thought she had what it took and really wanted to see if she wanted to go into this partnership," she said. "It's given (her) a lot of a feeling of self-accomplishment.

"It's great for her, she's doing very well."

Antelman said he also coaches youth basketball and has advised other young people. When he retires as a doctor in three years, he said, he intends to devote most of his time to being a mentor for young people.

As for Whetzel, she wants to continue to grow the fitness machine business and is thinking of transferring to Towson University, where she plans on majoring in business.

"I want to see this business become successful. I want to continue with that for awhile," she said.

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