Jason A. Smith | The Valdosta Daily TimesDavid Brooks Jr. worked at Valdosta Furniture and Mattress as a child with his father, David Brooks Sr.

VALDOSTA — Being an entrepreneur isn’t always easy and everyone does it a little differently. Some open online stores, while others open brick-and-mortar storefronts.

Some go all in and invest their lives into a new venture, while others start a new business as something to do on the side. Regardless of the type, entrepreneurs help drive the local economy.

Valdosta Furniture and Mattress was opened in 1978 by David Brooks Sr. and two partners in 1978. During the next decade, the two partners left the business, and Brooks became the sole owner of the company.

Today, the senior Brooks is mostly retired, and his son, David Brooks Jr., owns the store.

As a child, the younger Brooks swept the floor and made deliveries when he was old enough, but in 1986, he left Valdosta to live in New York City for two years.

“It won’t really translate to print well, but ultimately I really wanted to experience being somewhere else,” he said. “That’s the ultimate reason why. Yes, I did get involved in acting for a bit, and that’s what took me to California.”

Brooks spent eight years in Los Angeles. While there, he took acting classes and landed several acting jobs, he said.

He worked on several pilots, commercials and acted as a guest star on several shows.

He worked with Bryan Cranston on the first season of “Babe Watch,” and Johnny Cash on the episode “Law of the Land” on the television show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

“I had a shoot out with Johnny Cash,” Brooks said. “It basically took a whole day to shoot the scene. He’d sit there and play his guitar, fiddle around and sing a little bit.”

Brooks was making a living as a working actor but decided Hollywood was not for him. He moved back to Valdosta.

“I came back in December of 1997,” he said. “I reached a point in my life where, yes, I’d worked as an actor and supported myself as an actor, but I didn’t want to be 50 years old and be waiting for that call back for a beer commercial. I wanted more stability and I missed my family. And my dad was running the business by himself. Ultimately, it was the right decision. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

So, the younger Brooks came back to Valdosta and worked at the furniture store, he said. The elder Brooks had his son start from the bottom and work his way up.

While working with his father, the store grew from selling mostly mattresses to including bedroom suites and eventually became a full-service furniture store.

When asked what advice he would give to someone looking to start a business or had just started a business, he said because of the changes in the economy and the growth of online retail to make your business more than a place to buy and sell goods.

“Ultimately, whatever your business is, no matter where you are, you have to make yourself a destination,” he said. “You have to give people a reason to visit you and buy from you.”

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1257.