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It’s not easy, but best friends Brandon Hudson of Chicago, Illinois, and Damion Mason of Kingston, Jamacia, have built a successful business partnership that has helped to guide and support their successful ventures, including their Marco’s Pizza restaurant chains across Virginia.
With a total of twelve locations in cities that include Richmond, Chesapeake, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Ashburn and Charlottesville, inspiring entrepreneurs can certainly learn a thing or two from these two franchise owners about loyalty and longevity in business.
Answering a Community Calling
After graduating from Virginia State University, these fraternity brothers briefly said goodbye and parted ways. While Mason stayed in Virginia and went on to pursue an accounting career in auditing, Hudson found himself pursuing a career as an economist in Pennsylvania.
However, after just seven months, Hudson found himself burnt out, unfulfilled and unsatisfied. At only 21 years of age, he felt like there was no other option than to return to the state of Virginia where he could reconnect with Mason and all his other friends to re-evaluate his career in an environment that allowed him to have community and thrive.
“I came back to Virginia with no plan and started substitute teaching, which led to becoming a counselor for a kid who tried to burn down the school,” Hudson shares. This was a severely catastrophic and emotional event for Hudson, and it left him trying to understand why this child would have any desire to do such a thing. This yearning caused his professional pursuits to shift towards mental health.
Hudson explains, “I got into mental health to try to figure out the thought process behind it.” He continues, “From there, my interest area was the mental health for low-income, underprivileged intercity youth who struggled with addictions. I worked in mental health for about a year and a half before I opened up my first mental health company, along with other business partners in 2007.”
Upside to Youth Development, located in Hopewell, Virginia, functioned as a hub providing intensive home counseling outpatient services for clients with oppositional deviance, ADHD, and conduct disorders with the goal of getting them on the right track.
Soon after opening, he convinced Mason to join him as a qualified youth counselor. Hudson expanded services with his then-business partners to other Virginian locations, including Daneville, Suffolk, and Martinsville.
After a few years, Mason took up his own mental health calling, and with the support of Hudson, he opened up his first mental health company in Petersburg, Virginia and then soon after in Newport News called Second Chances Comprehensive Services.
“You need the support of those around you and the mentorship of those before you to help successfully roll out a business. I was fortunate to have the guidance and friendship of Brandon to take me to that next step,” says Mason.
In 2010, Hudson and Mason became official business partners and expanded Second Chances Comprehensive Services to Franklin, Emporia, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Fredericksburg and Hampton.
From Mental Health to Franchise Ownership
The friends and business partners devoted over ten years to supporting the community within the mental health arena. However, due to hardships and ebbs and flows of mental health, the two began exploring other business opportunities to continue to make a difference in communities.
“We were making a big impact in the community, but we were looking to get into a QSR (quick service restaurants) space, so we decided to get into a franchise because a franchise is business in a box. It gives you the structure, the product, and the steps. You just need to know how to follow the directions. We were looking at different companies, but Marco’s Pizza was in our neighborhood and I started to check it out and it became my family’s pizza of choice.”
Hudson and his family loved Marco’s Pizza so much that he convinced Mason to check it out for himself. Once he did, he agreed that it was the best thing since “pants with pockets.”
From there, Mason went online and discovered Marco’s Pizza was a franchise and these best friends made a trip to the corporate office inToledo, Ohio, to learn more. Right away, Marco’s family-friendly environment stood out for being engaging, welcoming, and inclusive.
“It was an easy choice. It fit within the financial constraints of what we were trying to do, and it was a franchise that we could grow with. More than that, we believed in it because we were eating it two or three times a week,” says Hudson.
He continues,” So, once we got to the corporate office and they laid out the strategy and made us feel comfortable, it was an easy decision that Marco’s would be our next progression in business.”
This decision was made jointly in 2018 and two years later, these soul brothers both sold their mental health businesses to focus on the growth of their first Marco’s Pizza franchise in Chester, Virginia.
Ready for Expansion
They opened their second location in 2020 near their alma mater in Colonial Heights. Soon after, their third Marco’s Pizza franchise followed in Richmond.
With a competitive heart and the desire to be the best, these best friends continued to expand over the years, opening their fourth and fifth locations in Chester in 2022. Next, they opened in Forest, Charlottesville, an additional Richmond location, and then took a brief pause for the entire year of 2023.
This year, these masterminds were ready to add to their growing franchise portfolio, opening five locations in Vinton, a third Richmond location on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Broadlands and closed October 8 on two final stores in Fairfax Station.
Contributing to their success, Hudson says, “Before joining Marco’s, we worked hard to establish a strong reputation and credibility across various business ventures by consistently following through on our promises and commitments.”
Hudson adds, “We leveraged these relationships to create new opportunities and add credibility to all partnerships. Additionally, we demonstrated adaptability by finding solutions that worked for both parties during changing circumstances.”
When asked how the two best friends found success, Hudson shares, “For one, it’s the friendship. And early on I had this saying that I didn’t do business with friends, family, and frat because it seemed like it would be a train wreck. But when you find someone in business whose goals align with yours and you have not only the same vision but the same drive and belief system, and not only that, but you trust that individual, then it becomes easier.” He continues, “Not to say that we don’t have disagreements, but we are like Frick and Frack.”
For Mason, he says, “We have a rare partnership, founded on friendship and propelled by our unwillingness to stay stagnant. Anything that we have is attributed to our mutual trust in each other, our growth mindsets and Marco’s collaboration, giving us the formula that we could use to fuel our success.”
With their tenacity and talents, Hudson and Mason won Franchisees of the Year with their focus always on growing successful establishments. “We had a personal goal. We wanted to be the largest franchisee in Virginia. Once we hit eight, we became the largest in Virginia. Then, we wanted to be the largest African American franchisee. We still have a ways to go. We don’t just want to open stores to open them. We want good, successful stores and we wanted to give opportunities for growth.” Hudson says.
Some of the biggest lessons they have learned is that the accolades come by simply doing the work and your heart being in the right place. Also, getting the right information and networking are key. However, the impact they have on the community is one of these fraternity brothers’ biggest rewards.
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Community Still Comes First
Still focused on the youth, community and giving back, Hudson and Mason currently employ about 75 youth across 12 locations. Some employees were even recruited from a program organized by Dr. Ryan Sykes at L.C. Bird High School and work at the Chester, Virginia, location.
When speaking more about their continued success, Hudson says, “It’s 100 percent how we treat people. Also, it’s the intangibles. You can have the money. You can have a good product, but at the end of the day, we are in service to people, whether we are selling pizza, whether we are offering mental health, whether it’s a janitorial company, we are in service to people, and you have to understand how to treat individuals, and that is our biggest differential.”
Mason concludes, “We lead with compassion and empathy. We help people reach their personal goals as well as their professional goals and we go from a level of understanding. We aren’t slowing down; the future is bright for us, and we look forward to our continued partnership and success. The sky is the limit.”
Be sure to learn more about Brandon Hudson and Damion Mason on LinkedIn and by visiting their Marco’s Pizza establishments which you can locate online.
