Margo Groger

A family business. An unexpected death. No succession plan. It's a patented script among family-owned firms and one that Margo Groger was living after the short illness and death of her husband, Julian, in 1985. The junior high school counselor knew virtually nothing about the spa fittings operation her husband had founded about a decade earlier. Sale or liquidation of the business was an obvious next step.

A family business. An unexpected death. No succession plan. It's a patented script among family-owned firms and one that Margo Groger was living after the short illness and death of her husband, Julian, in 1985. The junior high school counselor knew virtually nothing about the spa fittings operation her husband had founded about a decade earlier. Sale or liquidation of the business was an obvious next step.

Los Angeles Times reporter Marla Dickerson will moderate the 18th annual Small-Business Awards luncheon June 4 at the Hotel Inter-Continental in downtown Los Angeles. The luncheon is sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration and honors entrepreneurs in the Los Angeles area. Margo Groger of G-G Industries in Valencia was named Small Business Person of the Year. She and nine other small-business owners and activists will receive awards.

How to focus your business vision and foster originality will be the topics of a keynote address at the Small Business Week Awards luncheon in downtown Los Angeles on June 4. Jodi Walker, president of Success Alliances in Northridge, who has given presentations to small businesses and Fortune 500 companies in the United States, Britain, Australia and Scotland, will be the speaker.

How to focus your business vision and foster originality will be the keynote topics at the Small Business Week Awards luncheon in downtown Los Angeles on June 4. Jodi Walker, president of Success Alliances in Northridge, who has given presentations to small businesses and Fortune 500 companies in the United States, England, Australia and Scotland, will be the speaker.

Not many entrepreneurs have had a rougher start than Valencia businesswoman Margo Groger did. When her husband passed away, she knew little about the spa and whirlpool fittings business he had left behind. Then a devastating fire burned the assembly plant to the ground. But the former junior high school counselor was determined to make good on her husband's legacy.