Written by: Samantha Cee

This week we at Fashion Gxd Magazine, sat down with the amazing brand, Street Squad Clothing. The goal at Street Squad is to become one the most recognized street wear brands in the world. The word street in Street Squad Clothing represents street wear, and the word squad represents a small group of people on a particular task. Street Squad has a phenomenal team of designers and marketing experts. Street Squad conspires in the near future to launch their own manufacturing facility and open a brick and mortar location on the East Coast. The plan they have is to help create jobs for people that are being undeserved due to economic or social challenges. Their plan is to help to give people jobs that are sustainable and give back to inner cities children, and close the digital and financial literacy gap. They also plan to have annual food and back to school drives for children and families in inner city communities. Take a look at the exclusive interview with the rising designer & brand below.

Facebook: @streetsquadclothing & Instagram: @streetsquadclothing

Fashion Gxd Magazine : How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do?

Answer: We partnered with top graphic designers all over the world to bring Street Squad Clothing to life in 2020 during the pandemic. Also many of our designers and team members have worked with smaller street-wear clothing companies before. We wanted our brand to be mentioned in the conversation with other popular street-wear brands. Now we finally have the team and marketing behind us to make this vision happen.

Fashion Gxd Magazine : What three pieces of advice would you give to other children who want to become entrepreneurs?

Answer: Study business and marketing before starting a business. You want to learn a P&L statement and other financial statements from accounting courses. Most people start a business because they have money saved up but what happens when the money runs out. I have seen people from corporate America who have good income go into business and fail, and one of the reasons is many of them depended their capital they saved up over the years to save them. You should never rely on just the money you really need knowledge to grow a business. The capital is good but your money will only take you so far.

"Knowledge is worth more the money."- Mario West

Every entrepreneur needs to learn basic accounting before ever starting a business. •Learn your target market on who your customers are. You do not have a business if you don't have customers so you should know who your customers are in the beginning. •Pray for guidance and knowledge then you will be successful in business in any field of business. Take business classes at a local community college if you have to or online apps like udemy. This is great for people who did not take the traditional college route to learn business. There are plenty of resources out there to help you get started. Knowledge is truly power!

Fashion Gxd Magazine :If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?

Answer: I would have started learning business at a younger age I started my first business at 22 years old while at Towson University. I would tell young entrepreneurs to start as soon as possible. The sooner you start learning business the earlier you can retire and grow and expand your businesses and pass down your skills to the younger generation. Starting a business at a early age is similar to retirement planning the earlier the better.

Fashion Gxd Magazine :What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur ?

Answer: Resiliency, Work ethic, Knowledge.

Fashion Gxd Magazine :What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Answer: My failures so for have been one failing business and lost of money this was most recent failure the cleaning business I started in college failed only after two short years due to my contract loss. However, now I had to learn to test my products and ideas first rather than throw a bunch of money into a business venture without a proof of concept or customers in place.

Fashion Gxd Magazine : How many hours do you work a day on average?

Answer: 10-12 hours days in the beginning month's. Since then I now spend about 7-9 hours a day in the business.

Fashion Gxd Magazine :Describe/outline your typical day?

Answer: I wake up pray then talk with my designers check my ads on Facebook and Instagram. Then I manage all of the posts on social media then work on new designs and concepts for the upcoming week or seasons. Also I manage the sales on Shopify with my team daily. Then we focus of emails from customers to let us know how they felt about buying our products we always try to send a follow-up email.

Fashion Gxd Magazine : How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
Answer: I had to cut some of my friends and family off completely. I had to dedicate that time and energy to my business and team members. So in the beginning you will not have much of a social life. This has been hard but your business is like raising a child you need to dedicate that time to your child which is your company.

Fashion Gxd Magazine: What motivates you?

Answer: Our goal is to help people out in society by creating jobs and economic growth. The goal at Street Squad is to create street wear designs that have never been seen before. CEO Mario West has been quoted stating "Learn how to turn you creativity into profitability." I have always been motivated to inspire people to chase after dreams after all you only have one life. The rappers and entrepreneurs have inspired me such as Nipsey Hussle, Master P, Daymond John, also Russell Simmons.

Fashion Gxd Magazine: How do you generate new ideas?

Answer: Many of our designs are inspired by sports and music also cartoons believe it or not. We like to bring artwork to life at Street Squad Clothing. Our brand also implements biblical base quotes or themes in the designs. The goal is make sure every piece of merchandise we sell has meaning behind it. This allows us to better serve our customers on why they should buy and shop with us. We are not just a another t-shirt business we sell to people art on clothes and creativity. Our clothes and accessories are also high quality too. Having faith and commitment will take you a long way in life and in business.

Fashion Gxd Magazine : What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?

Answer: The biggest sacrifice I have made to be a entrepreneur is losing family and friends. Also, sacrificing my time to make my business ventures work. Many people will doubt you in business especially in the beginning when you are not profitable yet. However, you should not listen to the negativity and always block out the noise. People will laugh at you until your more successful than them.

Fashion Gxd Magazine : Where you see yourself and your business in 10 years? 20 years?

Answer: Hopefully in 10 years the Street Squad brand will be bigger in the street-wear industry. Also, I want to continue to work on my new real estate investment company and purchase a office space and retail space for Street Squad Clothing. This will be perfect both my companies working together to build a empire. This would allow me not to have to pay rent to anyone because we would own the property. This is the vision for Street Squad Clothing LLC for the next 10 years, also for my real estate investment company.