Sisters in charge: innovative women entrepreneurs

The hardest part about starting The Daily Blossom all those years ago was standing out in New York, a "tough city" with a reputation for having some of the best products and services you can find. Parks' goal was to begin with corporate clients and build a reputation for on-time delivery, staying open late to fill a last-minute order, and just exceeding expectations. "It was about getting out there every day, breaking down the barriers," says Parks, who has also designed for American Express and Philip Morris. "We want to make our client get a rave phone call from a friend the next day."

Parks feels that what makes her designs stand out are surprising color, texture and accessories--color where you would normally see something in white, bark where you would expect a baby's breath or fruit where you would expect flowers. People always want to be surprised or caught off-guard by an arrangement, Parks says, and that's what she tries to do. She brings "style into your home."

The Daily Blossom recently started a basket line and is looking to expand to the home luxury and candle and fragrance business. Parks also wants to open shops in other areas of the country and do more work in the entertainment industry. "Floral design is really a reflection of emotion and feeling," says Parks. "Flowers punctuate people's lives ... and at the end of the day, people feel good."

Louise Todd FINE ARTS by TODD, Atlanta

WHEN Louise Todd was a young girl in Glendale, Ohio, she was always making money--cleaning homes, mowing lawns, babysitting, typing resumes and church bulletins, and sewing wedding gowns.

Family members told Todd that she was just like her father, a man who held down three or four jobs at a time to support his family--a man who died when she was just 2 years old.

"My family always said, `You're just like your Daddy,'" says Todd, whose life after her father's death was extremely difficult. "I liked having little jobs in the community ... I loved having my own money. I didn't realize that I was being an entrepreneur."

The love of doing things her way--of having her own money--has manifested itself in Fine Arts By Todd, one of the country's leading publishers and distributors of African-American art.

"It's been wonderful," says Todd, who started collecting art in the 1960s, shortly after she started working as a stenographer for Andrew Jergens Co., right out of high school. "I can remember when many galleries wouldn't even look at African-American artists."

Acquiring a taste for Black art through her travels and friendships with various artists, Todd, the company's founder, president and CEO, started selling artwork part-time out of her home in 1983 by investing $50,000 of her retirement funds and profit sharing from her then-employer, Procter & Gamble, and published and sold prints of new artwork.

With the profits, Todd left her job at the Fortune 500 company and leased a 10,000-square-foot warehouse, which she converted into administrative offices, a gallery, distribution center and frame shop, the last of which is managed by her partner, James Evans.