Susan Worthington, co-owner of The Southern Market in Bearden, admittedly wears a lot of hats. But in her case, the expression is a figurative one. Since opening her collective of interior-design shops in 1996 with her mother, Frances Sexton, Worthington plays multiple roles in the business’ daily operations, from human resources, to sales and marketing, to janitorial. It’s all part of a typical day as a small business owner.

Possessing that broad range of business skills is an attribute she learned firsthand from her father, Charles Sexton, Jr. Prior to his passing in late 2008, Sexton had spent his career as a manufacturers’ representative for industrial equipment—a family business that had been established by his own father, Charles Sexton, Sr.

That spirit of entrepreneurship also passed smoothly from generation to generation.

“My father and I are both independent individuals,” Worthington says. “It was something that I think was probably in our makeup, to be entrepreneurs.”

She recalls that as early as age 16, when she worked in a textile store, she wanted to own her own retail home furnishings business. Her father’s example instilled the notion that she could follow in his footsteps when it came to being a self-starter.

“I didn’t feel the urge to ever go work for someone else or for a big company. A lot of people enjoy the security of that,” she adds. “My dad’s work was on a commission basis, which wasn’t as stable as drawing a salary, so I was not intimidated about going out into the world after college.”

Worthington graduated from Bearden High School and later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee. However, rather than pursue her initial interest in interior design, she took her father’s advice and studied marketing and business instead. She earned her master’s degree in accounting and was on the verge of becoming a CPA when her mother began a home redecoration project that rekindled the daughter’s interest in interior design.

Her innate flair for design combined with a solid business education paved the road for Worthington to start laying the groundwork for The Southern Market in 1993.