Jackie Martin left a sales management job 13 years ago to strike out on her own as a caterer. She didn’t like it the hours were long and the work hard. But as part of the job she made floral centerpieces for tables. When more and more customers started asking her for the floral arrangements, she decided to launch a new career and Gilmore Florists in Inglewood was born. Over the course of the years, Martin said she learned a number of important lessons including the value of good customer relationships. She was interviewed by Julie Sable.

With a $5,000 loan from my father and some seed money that I had raised by selling house plants, I began a floral design business in the garage of my home after taking floral design courses at a floral school in Chinatown.

I received orders primarily from churches for their altars, weddings and funerals. My business was going well and then my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had one lung removed and we suffered through a long recovery.

I had been working out of my garage for nine months, things were going well and we decided it was time to lease a store. I leased space in Inglewood and named the store after my mother. For several years things went as well as you can expect when you’re a small business owner. There were years when I had to stick more money in and other years when things were a little bit better, maybe just breaking even.

I learned from my mistakes such as having too many employees, which means paying more in taxes and higher workers compensation. Also, I hired people who weren’t necessarily the best for the job. I finally decided it was better for me to stay a little later at night and do things myself rather than pay someone else.

And then, my husband of 17 years left me. In addition to my roles at the store as marketer, janitor and chief financial officer, I was now a single parent.

My business suffered during this time. I began making mistakes in orders and not taking the time to plan out the next six months to year, which is crucial for a retailer.

I was lucky. The customers whose orders I made a mistake on gave me a second chance. I believe that the nature of my personality being able to relate to my customers, remembering their children’s names and asking about them helped me develop relationships.

When the store first opened, it took about 8 years before we began to see any profits. Then, we suffered a loss the year of the divorce and have had a break-even year and are now on the way to the first profitable year in while.

I can honestly say that if you provide a good service and a good product at a reasonable price, and in my case, lots of creativity, you should be a success.