'Serial entrepreneur' receives Success Award

Mara Reyes

The Independent

PINETOP-LAKESIDE ‹ Ginger Somers can appropriately be called a "jane-of-all-trades."

She owns and runs businesses in landscaping and excavating, a boutique and, most

recently, a nursery. Her entrepreneurial spirit was recently recognized by the Northland

Pioneer College Small Business Development Center with a Success Award.

The "magic" began 10 years ago when Somers, a single mother who worked as a

sales representative, wanted to spend more time with her high-school-aged children,

Darrell and Crystal. She had been contemplating her next move when, one day, she

got an unsolicited card notifying her that she qualified for a mortgage loan.

She called for details and ended up with a $25,000 check.

Soon after she was sitting outside a convenience store when a man approached

her window and asked if she had a dump truck. Surprised, she replied that she

didn't. He told her: "If you had a dump truck, I could keep you busy forever."

She had never seen him before and she never saw him again. That night she

went to Phoenix and bought her first dump truck.

"That's why I chose to call the business It's Magic," she said. "I'm a single mom.

I have no money. Suddenly I get a card saying I qualified for a loan and then a

man asks me about a dump truck."  It's Magic Landscape and Design, Inc. does

landscaping and irrigation and has a nursery. The first year she employed two

people and had revenues of $19,000. Now she employs 17 and revenues last

year were $876,000.  "I started with one dump truck, now I have 12. That's

kind of cool," she said with a huge smile.

Four years after starting It's Magic, Somers started a second company, GSC

Excavating, which installs sewers, drains and pipes and does site work.

Working in male-dominated fields doesn't intimidate her. "I grew up on

construction sites with my dad. I grew up with tractors, backhoes, trenchers.

It's second nature," she explained.  In October 2000, Somers bought a dilapidated

historic house, which she called the "Herman Munster House," on White Mountain

Boulevard. She intended to turn it into her office but then decided to open an

upscale boutique. She had no retail experience, nonetheless, six weeks later,

Livin' Out Loud was open for business.

Somers wants to maintain the boutique "unique," carrying what she calls "weird

things." "I try very hard not to carry anything the other stores have," she said.

The store offers everything from women's clothes and shoes to unusual gifts

and gourmet foods such as jams and steak sauces. She also supports local

artists by carrying their art work, from wood bowls and etched glass to paintings.

During the summer, she puts on art fairs.

A year after opening the boutique, the business was a finalist for the Arizona

Main Street Business of the Year Award. "For someone with no retail experience,

I was psyched," she said. The boutique made close to half a million dollars last

year.

However, the so-called "serial entrepreneur" didn't stop there. She recently

bought out Aspen Nursery and created In Bloom, a full-scale commercial and

retail nursery on 3.5 acres in Pinetop. The nursery will employ about five or

six workers. It's scheduled to open April 15.  "I didn't have enough to do so I bought

a nursery," she joked.

But it's still not enough for Somers. She's in the process of buying the building

next to High in the Pines, located on E. Hall in Show Low. She plans to open a

second Livin' Out Loud Boutique, hopefully around May 1st.

When asked for the secret of her success, she replied: "I actually work my

companies. I don't have my husband or my father run them. I can run all the

equipment. I do everything from accounting and merchandising to bidding and

buying ... I work a lot and I work everyday. I don't mind. I like it. Some people

buy trailers and boats, I buy tractors."  It also helps to remember that 17 people

rely on her. "If I don't have work, they're without jobs," she said, adding that

most of her employees have been with her since the beginning.

She also offers this bit of advice: "The business becomes you if you are going

to succeed. Live it. Breathe it. Sleep it. Drink it. Become it ... Do whatever it takes

and have no fear. Believe you can do anything ‹ and you will be able to do anything."

She also credits the Small Business Development Center for helping her to secure

financing to buy the historic house, open the boutique and acquire the nursery.

SBDC consultants helped her write business plans, do "globs of paperwork,"

become a certified contractor and a Small Disadvantaged Business enterprise

contractor through the Arizona Department of Transportation.

"Without SBA (Small Business Administration) and SBDC, I would never have

done it. They helped me immensely," she said.

Somers was born in McNary and lived in Maverick until the second grade when

her family moved to Pinetop. She's married to Shane Lohr and has a 5-year-old son,

Koston.