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?

The main part of my business is making custom clothes, suits and shirts. I do have a small ready-made business for off the peg stuff. I carry an inventory of neckwear, but mostly it's by order and I do alterations on suits, pants and shirts. Guys come to me for advice because there is no pressure to buy anything. I do go to Meier & Frank and other stores and help them buy clothes. I look for fabrics and brands that will fit them better. I've been in the clothing business since 1969 and I opened the shop in 1980.

How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley?

I moved here from Longview, Wash., in 1975.

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What inspired you to go into this line of work?

I was in the clothing business for quite a while, working in stores and buying for them. When I came to town, I worked at Bogatay's Men's Store next to Norris Shoes. I worked there for about five years. When they closed it down, I opened my shop in the Holly Theater Building and just started special ordering ready-made clothes. I had other guys sewing for me then. One of them wanted me to buy his equipment, that was about 1985. He showed me for 30 days and then left town and the rest was up to me. Later, I had two very good tailors come to work for me from Hungary and Mexico and they taught me a lot of tailoring techniques.

What decision or action would you change if you could do it again?

It's been an interesting, fun journey. I wish I would've had some good, basic tailoring training in a scholastic environment where you became a better pattern maker. I never really thought I'd be tailoring, I just thought I'd be selling suits and pants all my life. I don't know anybody that does what I do, all the guys I know in the clothing business just have a store. If I had my big druthers, I'd like to have a little factory where I made stuff to sell there.

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

Deciding whether I was going to buy that guy's tailoring equipment, I had never touched a sewing machine. Actually the biggest decision was moving from the Holly Theater to 211 W. Main 24 years ago. I left a 600-square-foot shop and expanded into 2,100 square feet.

Who are your competitors?

There's always been different men's stores, like Nathan James now. I do all their sewing. I have never looked at them like competition though. I have fun, I love clothes and feel like I do things totally different.

How do you define success for your business?

I've never had a business plan or mind for business. I just wake up and go to work and have fun every day. Sure someone could say 'I have 50 employees and have done this or that,' but that's not my ideal.

What are your goals?

One of my biggest goals would be to create a line of clothes where I would only make so many a year. If you wanted one of them that you'd have to be ready to pick it up and pay for it right then. I'm working on a deal with a guy in New York where we're are doing a couple of our own coast designs. I don't think about retiring, because I'll do this until I'm dead.

What training or education did you need?

I learned it all by myself: Buying, selling and sewing was by trial and error until I had the two guys work with me.

What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs?

My father-in-law told me to learn how to run 2 inches of water through a half-inch hose. In business that means don't go out and buy 4,000 square foot buildings when all you need is 400 square feet. Try to do 4,000 square feet worth of business in 400 and then if you've got to expand, do it. There are too many factors that come up, population change, economy changes and recession. You've got to be prepared for it, and if not, you're sunk.

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