Lorraine Miller, 56, Salt Lake City
Owner, Cactus and Tropicals
"I don't have killer toys . . . " — Lorraine Miller
Lorraine Miller worries that local government is helping national chain businesses steal the soul of the city.
"We're starting to look like every other city in the country, with the Wal-Marts and Barnes and Nobles," she said. Owner of a successful nursery business in Sugar House, Miller has turned her $2,000 initial investment into a million-dollar company, despite having "no idea what a financial statement was and no idea what a spider mite and mealy bug were" when getting started. "I learned everything the hard way," she said.
She does not spend money on herself, other than taking an occasional short vacation; she reinvests it in the business.
"I don't have killer toys" like many successful people, she said.
Never married, Miller nevertheless says she has 60 children — her employees. She has purchased five building lots at 2700 South 2000 East to expand her greenhouses over the nearly 26-year life of the business. She bought a house for herself eight years ago.
During her busy seasons — spring and Christmas — she works seven days a week, but now, in winter, she has the luxury of weekends to herself. The Small Business Administration named her National Small-Business Owner of the Year in 1994, and she proudly displays in her office a photo of President Clinton presenting the award to her.
She was a history major and after college served as a VISTA volunteer, but while working as a lab technician she had a "suppressive boss" and decided she wanted to be her own boss instead. She considered selling books and is glad now that she settled on plants. With her mother's help, she ran the small greenhouse without hired help for five or six years. During the late '70s and early '80s, she said, it was difficult for a woman business owner to deal with the "good ol' boys network" in Salt Lake City.
"It was difficult for a woman to get a loan without a husband to co-sign," she remembered. "But it's better now."
Miller says she has two concerns about business in Salt Lake City and Utah: National chains with the assistance of government agencies on all levels are "the knife in the heart" of small, locally owned businesses. And so much attention is paid to sales tax revenue that people think that is the only value of a business, and they "disregard what local ownership and entrepreneurship does for the character of the community and the sense of place."
Her advice to women considering starting a business: "Be prepared for it to be very difficult, requiring a commitment beyond your imagination. And be prepared for the greatest sense of freedom you can experience."