The T-Shirt Guy

“I grew up right there.”, says Raymond, pointing out of the window of his car to a small, now abandoned, two family house, as he continues driving to work. Raymond Khalif was raised on the North side of Newark, New Jersey with 7 siblings, a loving mother, and a drunken father. He often shares stories of sleeping on old mattresses, using curtains as comforters, and spending weekends at friends’ houses, because the food bought with his father’s Monday paycheck had always run out by Thursday. Despite his hardships at home, Raymond was always a bright student who excelled in the classroom. In fact, his bright mind was usually what got him into trouble.

“So I’m sitting in class in sixth grade, right? This science teacher-man starts talking about how he can make it rain right there in the classroom. So I tell him he is wrong, because he was. He goes on to do the little water bottle condensation thing, and then goes, “See, Raymond?” and I say, ‘I see out the window that it’s still not raining.’ And now I’m being sent to the principal’s office.” Most of his agitated behavior in the classroom came from the stresses of the world that awaited him outside of it. Not to mention he was never sufficiently intellectually stimulated.

Even so, he was the first in his class to be accepted into college. “They announced it over the loud speakers during the morning announcements,” he recalled with a wide grin. He was to attend Grambling, now Rowan University, in the fall of 1978. When deciding what his major would be, Raymond says, “I bought a newspaper and looked up which major had the highest starting salary and took the least amount of time.” He was paying his own way through college, so the sooner he graduated, the better for him. At the time, that major was accounting, so he worked and paid twenty-seven dollars per credit until he received his diploma.

Raymond always had strong feelings about the importance of working for himself.

“In our community, almost everything is owned by someone who doesn’t live here. And I’m not just talking about the big chain stores, I’m taking about your corner stores, your sandwich shops, beauty supply stores. Even your landlord probably lives a few towns over. So how can you take pride or shame in the way your neighborhood looks or the activities that go on in it, if it doesn’t even belong to you or anybody you know?”

After college Raymond spend time in Chicago, gaining some stock-broking experience. When he returned home a few years later a simple conversation with an old friend sparked an idea that would change his life. While catching up, the friend offhandedly mention he needed to get his taxes done. “I can get them done for you.” Raymond said, surprising himself and his friend. He had never done taxes before, but that didn’t stop him. Raymond had always been a numbers guy and in a week’s time he’d taught himself the basics. This was the birth of Smart Money Enterprises.

Soon Raymond became Newark’s neighborhood tax preparer, working out of a small office he rented. One day, one of his clients vented to him about needing t-shirts for an event, to which Raymond said, “I can get you some t-shirts.” The next week, he bought his first screen printing machine, and from this came the birth of Just Let Me Play Sporting Goods, which today services Newark Public School, sanitation department, recreational centers, and city workers with uniforms, trophies, banners, and sports and recreational equipment. People enter his shop in North Newark asking for anything from football equipment and banners, to the latest arcade games, and he always delivers. “I like providing services for my community. I like that the people I do business with are the same people I see on my ride home, or at the grocery store, or at the fish truck. Growing up. I never saw anyone who owned anything other than a car, maybe. People didn’t even own the houses they lived in. I want to show people that you can be from here, start businesses here, service people from here, and be okay.”

Just being an example wasn’t enough for Raymond. He started from the ground up and taught himself everything about not only the mechanics of his businesses, such as screen printing, embroidery, graphic design, but also the mechanics of being a business man. His success came from a lot of trial and error. “If I can talk to young people about the benefits of entrepreneurship, and how to avoid the mistakes I’ve made in the past, we can have more ownership in the community.” This was the idea behind his starting The Junior Entrepreneurs Club in 1994, a non-profit organization that preaches and teaches business skills to high school students in Newark. “I want to offer them the exposure I wasn’t afforded at this age.”, says Raymond. In partnership with Newark Public School’s afterschool programs, students at select schools get paid to attend the afterschool class, and by the end of the year they have their own business plan developed. The program also provides assistance during the college application and scholarship process, tutoring for classes, teaches important life skills like how to budget, file taxes, and prepare for job interviews, and exposes students to guest speakers who are professionals from Newark.

JEC doesn’t end when the school year does, though. The relationships developed during the program form lifelong support systems, and Raymond’s goal is “to build generations of support systems so that every generation in our community isn’t starting from scratch.” This is an idea that is extremely important to Raymond. He believes that each generation should have something to pass down to the next one, be that experience or tangible capital such as a business or a house. “We’ve been doing this for twenty-four years now, and my favorite thing is when we have guest speakers who came up through our program, and who now have their own entrepreneur story to share with our current students. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, and something that other communities benefit from all the time.”, says Raymond.

Although he is known around his city as “the t-shirt guy” who can get you anything you need, the thing that makes him proudest is what he has been able to give to the young people in his community. “Sometimes I have young people come in here and help me out, and they’re full of excitement about the brands they want to start and designs they’re thinking of. “You know, I have a lot of equipment in here,” he says, referring to his 40,000 square-foot warehouse. “They think I’m joking when I say they can use anything in here that they need to start themselves off. But if I have the resources to help someone in my community, it’s a disservice on my part to not offer that up.” This mentality of generosity towards his community is what has driven him through the decades, and what will be his legacy.