Annette Hodges: Desire to ‘find something else to do’ leads to furniture business

Just as she now buys dining room sets for inventory, Annette Hodges was the catalyst for the creation of a locally-owned group of furniture retail stores. And it’s truly a family business.

In her teens, Hodges planned to move away from the area, but instead married her high-school sweetheart, began building a life with him and having children.

“We knew the only way to get ahead was to do it ourselves,” she said, so “we did anything we could to make extra money to get ahead” even while husband Rusty worked in the oilfield. They gathered pecans dropped from their 27 trees and sold them to grocery stores. They built and delivered portable storage barns. To save money, they built their first home with their own hands. “We’ve always worked together. It’s a bond.”

Hodges was keeping books for her husband’s mechanic shop in Bourg when she felt the desire to find something else she could do. They researched business opportunities and settled on opening a waterbed and swimming pool shop. They opened the Waterbed Sleep Shoppe in 1981, which grew to seven locations n three in Houma and one each in Larose, Morgan City, Hammond and Baton Rouge — plus warehousing. Rusty Hodges temporarily closed the mechanic shop to get the store launched, briefly reopened his business, but closed it to accommodate the waterbed shop demand.

As times changed, they started shrinking the waterbed business and changing the product mix with an eye toward diversifying in their hometown. The Sleep Shoppe (as it became known) evolved into a full-line sleep center and the warehouse on Main Street became a full-line furniture store, Hart Furniture. Realizing that the oil crunch in the 1980s hurt some customers’ ability to get credit led to the opening of Mr. H Rent to Own. And they purchased the Heilig-Meyers inventory, remodeled the store and opened Landmark Home Furnishing.

In 2005, they purchased the old Aggie’s Skateland; while trying to decide how to best use the property, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck. Within a couple of weeks, truckloads of furniture were being delivered to that storage location to help keep up with customer demand.

“In the beginning, I did almost everything,” said Hodges. That included all of the accounting, selling on the showroom floor and purchasing inventory. Her husband oversaw the warehouse and delivery. In the 1990s, her husband took over the back-office responsibilities to computerize operations and Hodges focused on the sales floor, purchasing and decorating. Today, daughter-in-law Georgia leads the decorating responsibilities and daughter Angela helps keep Landmark running smoothly. Each store has a manager, as does the warehouse and corporate office.

The company never did start selling swimming pools.

“We’ve always been a close-knit family,” Hodges said. When needed, she depended upon her mother and mother-in-law to look after the children, but “my kids grew up in our stores … They all claim they’ve been working since they’re three.” The children went to the stores after school and did their homework, swept parking lots, dusted, helped with office work and worked in the warehouse. The office always had a kid-friendly area and the couple could keep an eye on the children; daughter Angela loved to play “office.”

“I believe in fate. Things happen for a reason,” Hodges said. “If they didn’t go the way you wanted, there’s a reason, so you’ve got to go look for the silver lining.”

For example, if furniture comes in from the manufacturer damaged, the store may get partial credit for it. But the silver lining is that furniture is still quite usable if not saleable n so Hodges donates those pieces to MacDonell Children Services, The Haven or Habitat for Humanity. They also donate personal and employee time to some of those same organizations, and buy Christmas gifts for the MacDonell children each year.

Hodges believes in being flexible, being able to switch gears and fly by the seat of her pants. It’s a skill that has helped her to adapt to changing consumer tastes, desires and price points in furnishings over the years.

“I’m really kind of a simple, average kind of person,” she said. For all the grand pieces of furniture in the Landmark store, Hodges said her home is decorated in a casual and comfortable style with a dash of the eclectic n and she keeps her furniture for years, sometimes even refinishing beloved pieces. But, she enjoys helping customers put together a room for their home in a style she wouldn’t choose for her own.

NAME: ANNETTE HODGES

TITLE: Secretary/Treasurer and Buyer

COMPANY: Waterbed Sleep Shoppe Inc., dba The Sleep Shoppe, Hart Furniture, Mr. H Rent to Own and Landmark Home Furnishing

ESTABLISHED: 1981

ADDRESS: Landmark Home Furnishing, 6667 West Park in Houma

TELEPHONE: (985) 851-2443

WEBSITE: www.landmarkhomeonline.com

AGE: 56

EDUCATION: 1973 graduate of Vandebilt

FAMILY: Husband of 38 years, Rusty. Children Jacob, 36, married to Jessica; Jeremy, 30, married to Georgia; Angela, 23; and T.J., 20

FIRST JOB: Cashier at Kroger grocery store on Barrow Street

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Becoming successful in business, feeling comfortable in the life they’ve created and knowing it was through hard work.

ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE SELF: “Integrity — I like to think I have a lot of integrity.”

ADVICE TO OTHERS: “Work hard and set your goals (a skill she learned from her husband) because nobody’s going to do that for you n and don’t put it off because you don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring.”

WOMAN IN BUSINESS YOU ADMIRE: Janet Henry, State

Farm agent, for her professionalism and charming nature.