It’s not often that one encounters a person who is perfect for their job and absolutely loves it at the same time, but it does happens from time to time. It is rare to find a couple who are both perfect for their jobs and love their jobs, and it is rarer still that the couple happens to run the same business. Yet, such is the case at Jan Mar Trophy Company in New Rochelle, New York. Case in point: the business is owned and operated by Janet and Mario Scarano, hence the name, Jan Mar.

Jan Mar Trophy Company in New Rochelle, New York is owned and operated by Janet and Mario Scarano.

Jan Mar Today
The story of Jan Mar Trophies is very much the story of Janet and Mario and the way that they have been able to work with each other over the course of their marriage and their tenure as business owners.

“My wife says I talk too much,” says Mario. “I usually do. I was a teacher, a gym teacher, and then a teacher and a coach and finally a teacher and an athletic director, and I did it for 34 years.”

As one might imagine, that’s a good position for an awards dealer to be in. “I did it for a long time, and it was a really nice connection between us and the schools. It put us in a good position to earn their business for athletic awards.”

For a number of years, when Janet and Mario first opened up a full-fledged storefront, back in 1991, Janet ran the business. “I was supposed to come in after school, but at that point, I was offered the athletic director’s position in our hometown. It was too good to pass up, so I basically became a no-show here. Janet ran the business for a long period of time. Throughout this whole process, the business wouldn’t be where it’s at if it wasn’t for her. It’s amazing what she does,” says Mario. He adds that it was an extremely smart decision to make her president when the business was started.

“She is the person in charge of the whole operation,” says Mario.

Jan Mar is now a full-service awards and apparel company.   Jan Mar celebrated 30 years of business in February this year.   Janet and Mario’s son, Nick, engraves, and he assembles a lot of the work. Nick’s fiancé, Janice, is a part-time embroiderer, and she is fantastic on the sewing machine.

The 1970s
Jan Mar celebrated 30 years of business in February this year, meaning that the business was started not long after Mario began his teaching career.

“I was a teacher, and I got started because of that. I was coaching the wrestling team at the junior high school, and we had an awards budget of $50, and I had 35 kids. I wanted to get each one of them a trophy of some type. I must have called 15 different trophy dealers throughout the metropolitan area, and I finally got ahold of one in New York City. We’re about 45 minutes from the city. I contacted him, and he said, ‘Sure, no problem.’ I went down and picked up the trophies one Saturday morning,” remembers Mario.

It is quickly clear to anyone who has ever spoken with Mario that the man is a natural born salesman—he loves to talk and he loves people—and the owner of the trophy shop was no exception in recognizing this. He asked Mario if he would be interested in selling trophies for his NYC shop in New Rochelle and Westchester.

“I love to sell. When I was in college, I was selling three-piece suits to the guys in the dorms. I love selling, so I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ That’s basically how we got started. For three or four years, in the late ‘70s, I was selling for this gentleman. During the summer, because I didn’t teach during the summer, I asked him if I could come down and learn the business. He had no problem with that. I learned a lot. We cut and bent our own columns back then,” recalls Mario.

Over time, with Mario being the salesman that he is, things began to pick up. “We got to a point where both my wife and I got really busy with our customers,” recalls Mario.

Continuing his story, Mario relates that he soon developed a good-sized clientele in New Rochelle and the surrounding Westchester area. He even brought in a nephew, who also worked in education, to sell along with him. However, while Mario and his nephew were bringing extra sales, the shop in NYC didn’t bring in any extra help, and it was completing its own orders first, putting Westchester orders on the back burner. Mario had to go the shop and work late in the early hours of the next day to make sure that his customers received their orders on time.

“It got to a point where I said, ‘Help us with this, or I’m leaving.’ He didn’t want to help us, so we broke away,” remembers Mario. “I spoke to my wife, and said, ‘Why don’t we start something ourselves?’ Like many businesses, we started out of our home.”

1981
Soon after the decision was made, Mario went to the family banker, got a loan, and he and Janet began to acquire the tools and equipment they needed, and in fairness, perhaps some that they did not need.

Mario laughs, “I’m one of those guys who believes, ‘He who dies with the most toys, wins.’ I was in a house where I couldn’t afford to buy a pantograph, and I went out and bought a System 1 Dahlgren computer engraver, which was about $10,000 at the time. It was unheard of. Most of the guys in the industry weren’t buying them, but I saw that it was the fastest way to get things done. I ended up getting more customers because of it.”

Mario says that he and Janet started with a couple of New Hermes pantographs, a large one and a small one. They had a Pixtel foot shear to cut the heavy stock metal for columns, and they had a DiAcro hand shear to cut the engraving stock. They also had a large drill to drill marble. They had bend breaks and rollers to fabricate columns.

“It just kind of continued from there. That was from the loan I first got. About two years into the business, we got the System 1. About a year-and-a-half later, we got a Wizzard to go with it. We also picked up an Imperial Stamper,” remembers Mario.

The business became very diversified, very quickly. While he obviously saw the merit of diversification, Mario also admits that in the first days of Jan Mar, they may have been too diversified, too early.

“That might have been one of the problems, because I think you can spread yourself too thin learning to use a lot of new equipment,” recalls Mario.

At this time, and for most of the next three decades, Mario still worked his day job, teaching and coaching. During busy time, he would come home around six o’clock and work until midnight or one in the morning. At his day job, Mario constantly came across other coaches, and he mentioned to them that he could supply them with awards. Soon, the busy times at Jan Mar became even busier and more frequent.

“Janet stayed at home with our kids; we had made a decision to do that until our youngest was able to go to middle school. But, Janet did a lot of the work during the course of the day,” says Mario. At this time, he says that Jan Mar simply sold and produced and then sold and produced some more.

Describing this time in her life, Janet says, “I had a baby, so it was a lot of work, and a lot of work late at night. The playpen went downstairs while we were working, the whole bit. But, we were always able to fulfill our orders and do everything. It was hectic, but it was fine. You know, all of the young women nowadays, it’s hectic for them, too.”

Jan Mar soon grew into a full-service awards and apparel company that provides a full line of acrylic, crystal and glass awards, corporate gifts, bronze tablets, promotional products, trophies, cups, plaques, resin fixtures, ribbons, medals, certificates, buttons, sublimation of mugs and ceramic tiles, embroidery and screen printing, jackets, hats, hoodies, banners, small signage, trophy showcases, record boards, memorabilia cases, diploma and photo laminations, wedding and social stationery products for corporations, schools, athletic groups, civic and non-profit organizations and individuals and probably more.

1991
In the early 1990s, Mario began to tire of coaching, and he started to think about spending more time with the business and doing more with it. They began looking for a storefront location, knowing that one would be needed if ever they wanted to sell their business.

“That’s one of the things I have heard Steve Capper say, ‘From the day you start, you want to develop your business as if you want to sell it the next day.’ I said to Janet, we have enough customers, if ever there was a time, it’s now,” tells Mario.

They found a 2,400 square-foot space on the main drag of New Rochelle, right across from City Hall. That was in 1991.

“My burning desire to coach wasn’t there anymore. The problem was, as soon as we opened the storefront, I was offered the position of athletic director. From 1991 until 2004, when I retired from education, Janet ran the business and did an unbelievable job. I had really stuck her in a tough position, and her work was amazing,” recalls Mario.

Although she is quick to point out that she can still perform every job in her company (though she admits she is still learning CorelDraw), Janet devotes much of her time these days to organizing the business operations at Jan Mar Trophies. That’s now, “Years ago, when we first started, I did everything. I bent columns; I did the engraving with the pantograph, one plate at a time. I did all of that; it was very hands on. Even now, I am still very hands on. I’ll do some engraving, and I love to work with our customers, handling sales in the showroom.”

“They come in to see her,” Mario quickly interjects.

Describing the early days after the move to the storefront shop, Janet says, “It was great. I loved getting out of the house. I loved being out in the store and working with the customers. We’re in a great neighborhood, and we have great neighbors on the street here. At that time, our youngest son was old enough to come here after school, and our older children were getting ready for college. It worked out well. I love being in this store.”

Explaining the dynamic of their current working relationship, Janet says, “Mario takes over a lot of the banner, silk screening and engraving, and of course, he loves to sell and work with the customers. I take care of the book work and getting the orders ready to be worked on in the morning, the organization part.”

Part of that organization is using different clipboards that each employee of the company can use to determine the progress of any specific order. The clipboards detail the order, the materials needed, the type of personalization to be applied, and the time that the order is due to be finished. Janet likes to have every order done at least two days before the customer needs them, just in case something should come up. Anyone who doesn’t finish their task on time had better have their head on a swivel.

Janet laughs, “I’m the one with the whip, my husband says, ‘Oh my God, she’s got the whip out!’”

“We have family working here, and the other employees have become family, because that’s what it is here,” says Janet.

Jan Mar’s Staff
Although the Jan and Mar of Jan Mar are still hands on—and it is likely that they always will be—much of the work done at the business is performed by a staff of four full-time employees supported by three part-timers during the busy seasons.

“I have one employee, Tim, who has been here nine years, all through high school and all through college. He’s great. He can pull an item out and sell it immediately. He’s like me, he’s real good at that,” says Janet. She adds that another employee has been there eight years.

One of their full-time employees is Janet and Mario’s son, who, despite being deaf, is often the first employee to greet employees, as his work bench is set up to see customers coming into the showroom.

“They all know Nick. He engraves, and he assembles a lot of the work. Then, we have a part-time embroiderer, my son’s fiancé, who is also deaf, and she is fantastic on the sewing machine. So, we have family working here, and the other employees have become family, because that’s what it is here,” says Janet.

She says that in such a way as to make one think of any other arrangement as ridiculous. Janet and Mario’s pride and love of their family is obvious—I am told they have four very handsome grandsons and a granddaughter described as a princess in a loving tone, leaving little doubt that she is treated as such—but they also speak of their employees as proud parents.

“We just lost another employee to his career; he was good friends with Tim, a wonderful young man named Damon. He also went all of the way through high school and college with us. He just got a job in Alaska with AmeriCare,” says Mario.

Mario is a natural born salesman—he loves to talk and he loves people.

Awards & Recognition
Under the direction of Janet and Mario Scarano, Jan Mar Trophy has been in business for 30 years. In addition, Mario had a 34-year career in education, an accomplishment that led to his induction into the New Rochelle Sports Hall of Fame. That is usually the time that people begin to talk about retirement, but not a word of it was mentioned from either Janet or Mario. In fact, rather than slow down, the couple seems to be moving and building momentum as fast as ever.

In 2009, Jan Mar won the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award. In 2010, two years after the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, Jan Mar opened a second store, doubling their space to 4,800 square feet. Along with their online presence, that makes three storefronts. They also picked up another award, this one the NAACP Small Business of the Year Award. The NAACP was Jan Mar Trophy’s very first customer.

“That was a big honor for me to receive that award on behalf of Jan Mar Trophy. It was beautiful,” says Janet. She is very proud of the company’s community involvement, working with several youth leagues and other groups.

In one last quote, Janet and Mario state that, “Our reputation has been built of our steadfast belief that the quality of our products can only be surpassed by the service we offer our customers.” Everything they say leads one to believe that Janet and Mario are going to continue to do just that. And if anyone even thinks of slipping, they had better look out for Janet…and her whip.