John Martincic Engineers Award-Winning Company
Forest Scientific Corporation Vies for National Small Business of the Year Title
TIONESTA, Pa. – John Martincic bet the family farm on his upstart business. The wager paid off.
Fulfilling a childhood dream of residing and owning a business in Forest County, the Canonsburg, Pennsylvania native bought a local farm and started Forest Scientific Corporation. Its success and growth led the president and founder to compete for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Small Business Person of the Year.
Thursday, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman will announce Martincic and all other state and territory Small Business Persons of the Year, and crown a national winner during National Small Business Week. The event, held each year during the first week in May, honors the nation’s 32.5 million small business owners. A free virtual summit, chock-full of informative workshops provides entrepreneurial attendees with information to pivot, grow and seize new opportunities.
Martincic’s path towards national recognition began at the local level, when he was selected as the SBA’s Western Pennsylvania District Small Business Person of the Year. His nomination package then was forwarded to the regional SBA office in Philadelphia to compete with the Eastern Pennsylvania winner to represent the Commonwealth.
“I am practically speechless with such intense gratitude and I’m still wrapping my head around it,” Martincic said. “I feel this is made possible with support on all different levels from my parents allowing me to do things at an early age, to my education, dedicated hard- working employees, mentors, our global network of dealers, suppliers and bankers.”
Generating niche manufacturing equipment, such as lathes, milling machines, plasma cutters and routers – and selling them to businesses and educational institutions are providing opportunities for Martincic and his growing team. Sales have doubled in the past year and he’s hiring more employees to place his products in schools and businesses across the country and internationally.
SBA Western Pa. District Director Dr. Kelly Hunt said business owners like Martincic are shaping entrepreneurship while growing the country. “He’s helping revive and drive our manufacturing sector with imagination and jobs,” she said. “His award-winning company is showing today’s students how to combine ingenuity and machining resulting in endless opportunities.”
“What we make is the heart of manufacturing and I demonstrate the complete process,” Martincic explained. “I’ll have a student use a search engine for a picture of an animal and download it. I demonstrate how to convert that image into a format the computer can understand and the CNCs (computer numeric control) machinery produces that animal in wood or metal in under five minutes.”
Amy Keth, of the Clarion University Small Business Development Center, who nominated Marantic said “John is very passionate about his equipment being used to further educate and engage youth in the skilled trades. It’s nice to see a business in such a small, rural community be recognized and thrive.”
Martincic stated his component combination can be used in any manufacturing process. “Just think, if a company has the concept of building a unique drone, it will need the parts and controls to move it,” he added. “We build machinery that enables manufactures to mass produce items like signage or kitchen cabinets to parts for yachts.”
The SBA honor is a dream come true for Martincic who started his first business when he was just eight years old. “I’ve always had an interest in electronics and started repairing televisions. My parents helped and bought me books and television tubes, but I also shoveled snow and cut grass to pay for parts,” he stated. “I got a lot of word-of-mouth business and after high school studied electronics engineering at Bob Jones University providing me with engineering knowledge and hands-on experience.”
After college, Martincic entered the workforce and made a lot of connections. Experience and contacts in hand, he set up shop on that family farm, naming his business Forest Scientific Corporation. “That was 33 years ago, starting as a one-man shop,” he said. “I kept growing and moving locations. I can’t believe I now own this huge facility where I once rented a small section.”
Martincic not only used an SBA-backed loan to purchase the building but also the SBA’s COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to weather the pandemic and reward his hard-working team. Paycheck Protection Program loans were SBA-backed and forgivable loans designed to help small business owners like Martincic, use proceeds for qualified expenses such as payroll, utilities, and health-care premiums. “Since I’ve started Forest Scientific, I’ve always reinvested in new equipment; with these funds I invested in my employees,” he said. “They receive free top-of-the-line health benefits, salary increases, paid vacations and flexible work schedules. They can even use the equipment to make parts for their trucks or houses.”
Martincic, whose machinery is still in service after decades, said the key to his success was treating his post-college jobs as his own business.
“Dream big and work hard to fulfill your dreams. Let everyone know you are there to serve and provide impeccable service,” he stated. “And when you finally open that small business, they will come to you.”
About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.