Business: Judy’s Central Point Florist and Gifts; Judy’s Ashland Flower Shop; Judy’s Grants Pass Florist and Gifts; Judy’s Grants Pass Florist and Gifts at Chet’s.

Owners: Rick and Judy Samuelson

Ages: 58 and 57

Principal Address: 337 E. Pine St., Central Point

Phone: 541-664-1878

Employees: 40

Editor’s. note: This is one in a weekly series of profiles on locally owned and operated businesses in Southern Oregon.

What do you do and how long have you been doing it?

We obtain flowers from three continents, import tropicals from Hawaii and buy from local growers and operate four floral shops.

(Rick Samuelson has been a florist for 43 years and Judy for 23.)

Our first shop here was Rogue River Florist in Grants Pass that opened 1976.

We sold to our partner in 1980 and went on to manage Bend Florist. Then we moved to Sunnyvale, Calif., and operated a shop from 1980 to 1985. We bought Chet’s Grants Pass Florist and Gifts in 1985. In 1989, we added Central Point Florist. In 1997, the long-time owners of the Ashland Flower Shop, the Williams family, asked us to buy their shop.

In October 2002, we opened Judy’s Grants Pass Florists and Gifts.

How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley?

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Rick first moved to Southern Oregon in 1976. Judy was born and raised in Oregon and graduated from Grants Pass High School.

Who inspired you to go into this line of work?

Tony Morales of Placentia Florist was Rick’s mentor, and Placentia Florist came as a referral from Valencia High School’s job program. Rick’s continued ability to make customers happy and the diversity of the business kept Rick in the floral industry.

What's the toughest business decision you've made?

Leaving every comfort zone to expand or create an additional flower shop.

Who are your competitors?

There are many shops in Southern Oregon. But putting the four shops together, we’re the biggest.

We are our biggest competitor. We try every day to raise the bar for tomorrow. The end of the day says we compete with any gift-type store. But our focus is on what we do right and wrong and how to make each better.

How do you define success for your business?

All of our successes are measured by our ability to make our customers happy.

What are your goals?

We need to get ourselves back to another comfort zone so that we can open another Judy’s. That comfort zone is when we’re able to satisfy customers on a higher level and taking care of our employees so that everything is working rather than flying by the seat of the pants all the time.

Possible locations for expansion would be Eagle Point or Medford.

What training or education did you need?

We’ve gone through the school of hard knocks. Rick started in the business at 15, sweeping floors, pulling weeds and dumping trash.

The flower business consists of a lot of areas. You need to be able to design flowers, handle delivery and build a good team that works together. If you offer less than quality products, or too limited of a selection and do not have diversity in styles and products, that can put you out of business.

We go to Dallas each year for a gift shop trade show and FTD puts on a summer show in different cities.

What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs?

Understand that it will be hard work opening a business and that you cannot get it all done in a 40-hour work week. Rarely does anything amazing just happen overnight. Start with enough funding to sustain you for a few years. Enjoy your ventures.

To suggest an idea for this weekly column contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or business@mailtribune.com