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Taking a Look at How Modern Entrepreneurs Work & Live!

Christopher Rosica graduated from Johnson & Wales University with an Associate's degree in culinary arts. At the age of 19, he started his own restaurant consulting company called Hospitality Consultants, Inc.

He worked with restaurants on menu planning and helped to lower their costs. Rosica then went back to school and graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management. He worked in marketing for the hotel and restaurant industry, gaining a solid foundation that  would help him with his future endeavors.

Christopher's father, John Rosica, had worked in public relations and promotions for years. He was responsible for making entertainers such as Hall & Oates, David Bowie, and Jefferson Airplane famous. He then went to work with Wally Amos and Famous Amos Cookies. Christopher's mother, Marilyn, joined his father and went to work as Amos's publicist. It was in 1980 that the couple decided to start their own PR agency and asked Famous Amos to be their first client.

The agency grew under the sole direction of John and Marilyn Rosica until four years ago, when son Christopher left his job in marketing with a technology company. He then had the honor of taking over the family business. Chris Rosica says that it was not an easy transition because he brought his own set of ideas and style to the table. Since he has been with the agency, however, the company has grown an average of 40% per year. When Rosica first came aboard, the agency had five employees. Currently, there are fifteen full-time employees.

Now called Rosica Mulhern, Inc.- Strategic Public Relations, the agency is number 2 in the state of New Jersey. Rosica says, "Growth has been very positive. We have had to move into larger locations twice since I have been with the agency. This is the third location I have been at in four years."

Rosica and his agency handle various promotional tasks for their clients, as well as full-scale PR campaigns. Rosica's culinary background compliments his ability to promote the agency's food industry clients. Some of these include Keebler, Uncle Wally's Muffin Company, Eggland's Best, Big Bear Supermarkets, and S&H Greenpoints, formerly S&H Greenstamps. Other clients of the agency include Weekly Reader, Quest Communications, and Revlon.

Rosica Mulhern competes against the top ten PR agencies in the U.S and worldwide. What differentiates the agency from others is that they penetrate 80% of every market that they go in to. Thus, the "strategic" part of the agency's name comes in to play as clients' stories are told through as much print and electronic media as possible.

When a company is looking at a potential PR agency to work with, Rosica says that they often look first at the agency's team. The average employee in Rosica's agency has twelve years of experience in PR. Next, a potential client looks at the past successes of the agency. Success is evident with the work Rosica Mulhern has done for Famous Amos. Finally, potential clients want to see top-notch ideas and a representation of how creative the agency can be.

Rosica says that landing the S&H Greenpoints account was probably one of his agency's greatest successes and most creative pitches. For the pitch, one of the employees agreed to be painted green. The prospective client was so impressed that they cut the meeting short and offered the account to the agency that very day.

There are a number of other items that stand out in Rosica's memory. One of them involved installing a sign in the cement sidewalk on the corner of Sunset and Formosa in Los Angeles. The site was where the first Famous Amos cookie store opened twenty-five years ago. The sign reads "Famous Amos Square. The mayor and national media attended the event.

Another of Rosica's more memorable campaigns was with Arcnet, an architectural and engineering firm in New Jersey that gave a new BMW to each of its employees. The company saved $600,000 a year by giving cars to its employees. The company gained national media coverage on networks such as CNN.

Rosica says that a typical workday involves a variety of tasks inlcuding strategic planning, overseeing operations, new business development, client relations, crisis management, and cause-related marketing. The last item is one of Rosica Mulhern's strengths. When John and Marilyn Rosica were working for Wally Amos, they aligned him with Literacy Volunteers of America. In turn, both entities were brought to the attention of the public.

Today, Rosica Mulhern matches each of its clients with a non-profit organization for mutual benefit. Clients are involved with causes for breast cancer research, hospice care,and a number of other causes that they are passionate about.

Outside of the office, Rosica is involved in a number of activities. He is an interim teacher at Seton Hall, Fordham University, and Montclair State University. He  also attends the Sedona Round Table each year to interact with other PR professionals. He credits some of the people in attendance at the conference, along with his father, as role models.

In terms of business affiliations, Rosica is on the board of the New York City Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO), is a public relations advisor to the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and is a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). He even has a personal mentor that came through YEO. A former member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), the mentor meets with Rosica monthly for coaching.

Rosica says that he enjoys his involvement in YEO and the ability to be creative immensely. "The educational aspects, the idea- generating aspects, and being able to reinvent myself and my company at any given time is satisfying to me."

In his free time, Rosica enjoys traveling. In fact, he claims to be as passionate about travel as he is about business. Rosica recently spent time in Italy and visited twelve cities in twelve days. In addition, he enjoys scuba diving, motorcycles, especially his Harley, and life in New York City. In the end, Rosica reaffirms that the most important thing that has been afforded to him as a successful entrepreneur is creativity.

Ironically, one of the things that Rosica says his company neglects is its own PR. The story of how theagency made Famous Amos a success without any real advertising budget has not been formally told yet. "It has been too sporadic. We need to be more consistent. Cause- related marketing was a powerful tool in not only getting him the original exposure, but maintaining the brand identity.