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RW: Describe some of the hard times of your business. When you first got started, and then through growth years.

KO: Well, I think the hardest part was, we didn't know what we were doing. Because, not having ever run a business before, we didn't know what was involved. But, I will say this, that back in those days, it was a lot simpler to run a business. You didn't have the government, and the state, and the city, with all of these regulations and forms that you have to spend time filling out. And then the main thing was to make enough money to pay your bills. And that was your number one concern. And even labor-wise, you didn't have to withhold social security, medical and... life was a lot simpler running a business back then, and I don't think you needed to be too smart to run a business, as long as you had enough capital. Which, I don't know how we survived, but that's another story.

RW: You'd mentioned before, that there is always someone there to help you when you need it, when you get in, stuck into a hard time. Are there some other people that you'd like to mention, that have helped you along the way?

KO: Well, not particularly. I, I think... there were different people that did little things that helped us along. But certainly nobody stands out that I can mention. But we're thankful for all the people that did come forward to help us when they could. I'm, well, you could list among those people the jobbers that were buying stuff from -- you know, if things got a little tough, they would let us, let it go until we could get on our feet to pay 'em off. So, yeah, I think certainly that's an important part of the, what help we got.

RW: Wanted to ask you a little bit about your experience with the non-minorities in the same business. Did you have a lot of competition? Was that ever a problem or...

KO: Well, there's always competition. But, I think as you mentioned a little earlier, there was -- the area was growing, so if you could put the material out, there was a place to sell it. The big problem was trying to establish a price. That was always a problem, and it still is. At one time, we were hoping that this flower organization could set prices so that everybody would get the same price. But what happened is, the moment you set a price, your competitors down there, selling 10 cents less, or 15 cents less. So that never really panned out. I don't know if that will ever work. But that was a big problem, trying to establish market price.

<End Segment 43> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.