North Shenandoah News

When Jonathan Horton arrived at Patrick Henry College, he had every intention of going to law school. Instead, he landed a job working with one of his best friends three years after graduating.

“Three months later, I was thrust into a bookkeeping and business administration role at a sister company, which was a line of work I had never had any interest in previously,” he said. “However, I soon discovered that I enjoyed, and was competent at bookkeeping and business administration. That has been the core of my career ever since.”

Attending Patrick Henry provided Horton with a strong Christian foundation and framework.

“For me the faith-based principles of excellence, servanthood/servant leadership, stewardship, and vocation all shape my approach to life and to my business consulting,” he said. “In particular, God’s calling upon my work is to serve other business owners with excellence by helping them to be good stewards of their businesses, people, and resources.”

His advice to businesses struggling to recover after being shut down by COVID-19 and government orders is to cultivate grit, flexibility, gratitude and empathy.

“Business leaders should see this crisis as an opportunity to pivot or expand their business, or even completely reinvent it if need be,” Horton told North Shenandoah News. “When the world changes in a big way, new problems arise that need solving, and that creates opportunities for business. If you’re not sure where to start, ask your existing customers if their needs have changed, and find new ways you can serve them.”

While studying at PHC, Horton met his future wife, a fellow student named Rebecca. After marrying and having three children, the couple became full-time entrepreneurs when they launched Ingenium Business & Consulting Services in January 2018.

“Rebecca has mostly worked part-time throughout our marriage while I earned a low-to-medium salary so, there was always a need for a little extra money,” he said. “I had been contracting myself out as a bookkeeper to several small businesses since early 2015 and she started a freelance web design agency. By 2017 we came to a crossroads as a family where we decided to leave employment behind. We brought our different areas of expertise under a single brand.”

The pair currently live in Winchester, Virginia. They provide digital marketing services, marketing strategy consulting, bookkeeping services, and business administration consulting to small business clients in the northern Shenandoah valley, Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. They also employ seven staffers in five states, including three PHC alumni. 

Horton earned a Bachelor of Arts in government with an emphasis on political theory but his fondest PHC memories are learning from a wide spectrum of perspectives on non-essential aspects of theology and politics that all represent Protestant evangelicalism. 

“My life was enriched by people very different from me, many of whom went to very different churches but the essential aspects of our faith, and our shared core courses, gave us a unity of purpose and a common language of ideas with which to discuss our differences in a friendly and constructive manner,” he said. “Rather than produce viewpoint uniformity, my PHC education produced mutual understanding and respect, while also deepening my understanding and strengthening my confidence in my core beliefs.”