Impressions - April 2024 - 38

t hink .
mak e .
d o.
shop talk
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A Tale of Two
Screen Printers
For a pair of Boston-area entrepreneurs, teaming up was key
BY DEAVIHAN SCOTT, CONTENT MARKETING ASSOCIATE
From the time they were young, Marckendy
" Marck " Jean and Jabir Ducasse both
knew they wanted to be entrepreneurs.
It wouldn't be until 2013, though, that
they would team up to create the custom
apparel business that is VilleSide Customs
(villesidecustoms.com) in the Boston suburb
of Somerville, Massachusetts.
Marck's first experience managing his
own business was selling candy as a kid. As
the years passed his interests shifted, but his
desire to run a business of his own never
waned, and in 2001 he began a venture with
another close friend, which they dubbed
P.A.P. (Pretty Authentic People) Clothing.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town,
Jabir knew he wanted to " be his own boss "
but had not yet figured out all the steps he
needed to take to make it happen. Over the
years he worked a series of different jobs,
eventually reaching the point he could no
longer ignore the urge to strike out on his
own. Already having an interest in screen
printing and vinyl work-and inspired by
the name his late brother had come up
with years earlier-he opened VilleSide
Customs in 2008.
Jabir ran the shop on his own for five years
until he found himself at a crossroads as a
result of the burnout he was experiencing.
At the same time, Marck was in a position
where he was looking for yet more opportunities
with respect to his own career
path. Although they'd worked together before,
the two were formally re-introduced
by a mutual friend who recognized how
their interests were aligned. Thus, was born
the current iteration of VilleSide Customs
Company.
From the very beginning, even as the
two of them were still considering joining
P.38
forces, they felt like they clicked. " We speak
the same language, " Jabir says. " Customers
will call and not know if they're speaking
to me or Marck sometimes. "
Complementing this ability to communicate
is the fact that while they both
wear many of the same hats behind the
scenes, they also bring two very different
sets of strengths to VilleSide's operations:
Jabir having a knack for customer relations;
Marck's abilities including an aptness in the
area of production management.
Equally important, Marck and Jabir are
fully committed to the idea that running
a joint business takes a combination of
mutual effort, patience and understanding.
" To be successful you've got to be a team
player. " Marck says. " Ninety-nine percent
of the time we're aligned-but every decision
to make, we [still] talk about it before
pulling the trigger. "
The resulting trust has not only become
ImpressionsMagazine.com April 2024
the foundation of their partnership but a
crucial element in how they've grown their
business over the years, with an emphasis
on ensuring they always do right by their
customers in terms of quality and service.
" We have exposure on social media, but
we get a lot of our customers by word
of mouth. They know that we don't cut
corners with our work " Jabir says.
" We want to make sure that the interactions
with our customers are a hundred
percent genuine. We make it a goal to make
sure that every customer is satisfied. " Marck
adds.
Beyond that, they've found that it's important
to create and maintain robust connections
featuring complete transparency
with their business network as a whole,
both as a means of garnering new customers
or forming long-lasting partnerships
with vendors.
This is reflected not only in their finanFor
Jabir (left) and Marck being able
to communicate clearly has been a
foundation of their partnership from the
beginning. Photo by Adam Cort
http://www.ImpressionsMagazine.com http://www.villesidecustoms.com http://www.ImpressionsMagazine.com
Impressions - April 2024

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