Coast man named Small Business Person of the Year - Moss Point ...

PASCAGOULA -- Charles Fuqua?s lawn service has expanded to include a garden center that he opened this month on Chicot Road.

It?s about a block north of Lowe?s garden center. But Fuqua, Mississippi?s Small Business Person of the Year, said he?s not worried about the competition.

He thinks he will co-exist with the big store just fine. They may even create a hub for people with gardening needs, he said.

It?s this business philosophy and a strong, multi-generational work ethic, that has won Fuqua, 32, the state award and national recognition.

He will represent Mississippi in Washington, D.C., on May 18 and be honored at a reception at the IP in Biloxi in June with the winners of six other state SBA awards.

Fuqua started seven years ago cutting yards part-time. His full-time job at that time was working on automobile electronics and air conditioning for Ford. But soon he was making more money cutting yards than he was at his main job.

So he made the leap of faith, after praying with his wife, and went full-time with Four Seasons Lawn Service, a business that has doubled in gross revenue each year since 2005.

Methodically planning the way his business would grow, Fuqua added landscaping, installing brick pavers and irrigation to what he had to offer. And the customer base grew.

He went to college and got an associate degree in horticulture, studying when he wasn?t growing the business, coaching his children?s soccer teams or keeping up with church obligations.

?I got about four hours of sleep a night,? he said.

Then this month, he opened Four Season?s Garden Center in a fenced parking lot off Chicot Road.

The garden center is an aluminium carport structure on a neatly graveled lot with hugh mulch stalls he built himself, rows and rows of plants, lawn ornaments and pots.

He said he offers a different type of product than the big stores. Besides locally-grown plants, he offers attentive customer service and the ability to acquire just about any plant or tree a customer wants within two days.

?My goal here is to meet people?s needs,? he said. ?A lot of people come here to look for things specifically.?

He uses a network of local nurseries to supply his customer needs, and one for his own use.

?The longer we are here, the more we?ll grown our own,? he said.

He credits the Jackson County Small Business Incubator with encouraging him and giving him some of the tools he needed to make a go of his small business, like marketing.

Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/03/27/3846766/coast-man-named-small-business.html

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