Alex Paul
When someone tells you it can’t be done, look elsewhere.
Last week, our friends, Phil and Linda Mills from Duluth, Georgia visited for a couple days.
OL used to work with Phil at an advertising/public relations agency in Missouri. We handled accounts such as Union Carbide, Dekalb Pfizer Genetics, International Harvester and others. It was a demanding job but well worth the experience. It offered the opportunity to travel and to see many different styles of business management up close. In fact, it was while OL was on a weekend layover in Yakima, Wash. that he ventured to a little town in Oregon called Sweet Home to peruse The New Era in the fall of 1984.
When our division was to be moved to Atlanta, OL parted ways with the firm and bought The New Era.
Phil and Linda moved with their two girls to Georgia. Within a couple years, due to mergers etc., our old firm closed and what had been a hobby soon turned into a full-fledged business for Phil and Linda.
For years they had made beautiful crafts on a table in their home. In fact, Debbie and I often supplied them with the wild grapevines they needed for wreaths. It made us some extra Christmas money.
They started attending more and more craft shows and as their business grew, kept adding to the number of items they offered. They soon moved from making the crafts to selling supplies wholesale.
Today, with a 20,000 square foot warehouse/office and 14 fulltime employees, they stock about 600 items.
Their business takes them around the world, especially Linda, who does the buying. Phil focuses on office management and sales.
In a short drive to Sisters and back on Thursday, Linda spoke with suppliers in China, India and Africa.
The company tries to supplement its America-based supplies with those from around the world to keep a year- round inventory.
It was fun to hear Linda tell Debbie that they sold to this business or that, when they saw the finished product on a shelf at one of the shops in Sisters.
Although we hadn’t seen each other in some 17 years, we hit it off like old times and had much fun showing off our beautiful Santiam Playground. They were impressed with how many community projects Sweet Home has tackled.
Phil was quick to point out that during one of Missouri’s famous flash floods, he had called OL because he was trapped at our two-story office in downtown St. Joseph.
Since we lived outside of town on a 640 acre farm near the river, we were trapped as well, so we couldn’t offer him much aid.
“Well, be careful, Phil,” he recalls I said, which was followed by the click of the phone.
Phil spent the night at the office and was a hero the next morning because he had moved everyone’s office things onto their desks and off the floor.
He laughingly says I abandoned him. I prefer to think that I helped turn his potential into reality.
Phil says he was so scared when the couple leased their first office building he kept asking the landlord if he’d let them out of the lease should they go belly up. 14 years later they own a new office complex.
Now, they attend about 40 big shows a year. Their two daughters, both college grads, grew up helping in the business. One is directly involved now and the other is expected to join the firm soon.
We think they’re an American success story and we’re proud to know them.
If you’d like to see what they sell, look up http://www.millsfloral.com on the internet.