Jordan Renda has always loved Halloween, not so much for the trick-or-treating, but for the opportunity to scare family, friends and now, complete strangers.
The Jacksonville Business Journal reports the 16-year-old Creekside High School junior and now Haunted Productions LLC president is experiencing his first year in the professional haunted house industry as the creator and owner of the Night Terrors Haunted House. While he admits it’s been a steep learning curve, he’s already making plans for the future.
Deep down, I probably never actually thought it would happen,” Renda said, but “the ultimate goal is to make it a career.”
Although always interested in the macabre and things that go bump in the night, Renda presented his parents with reams of research and a business plan for his haunted house idea when he was 14. Impressed with their son’s entrepreneurial spirit, Shari and Phil Renda started to take the idea very seriously, attending haunted house trade shows with Jordan, investing the family’s savings and eventually hiring two industry veterans, Dan Faupel and Nate Mitchell, to help them through the learning process.
Photo by Jacksonville Business Journal.