Bought, Built, and Booming: a CEO’s Journey from Acquisition to Scaling a Blind & Shutter Factory

Guest Profile: Ryan Murray

Ryan Murray is the owner & CEO of AAA Blind & Shutter Factory in Little River, SC. AAA is a fabricator and dealer of Shutters, Roller Shades and Blinds. Ryan comes from outside the window treatment industry with a diverse background in finance & accounting, sales & marketing and was most recently a General Manager for a large MedTech company. Ryan acquired AAA in 2024 by following the path of ETA (entrepreneurship thru acquisition), and has successfully grown the business 20% in his first year of ownership. Ryan plans to continue to grow AAA organically and inorganically with more acquisitions.

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AAA Blind and Shutter Factory: Visit Website

Book Mentioned: Outgrow

Learn more about Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA): [email protected]

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TRANSCRIPT

William Hanke (00:00)

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing Panes. This is episode number 45, the podcast where we talk to with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. Today we’ve got a guest with some great insights that I’m excited to interview. His name is Ryan Murray. Ryan is the owner and CEO of AAA Blind Shutter Factory in Little River.

South Carolina. Is it okay if I call it AAA from now on? Okay. AAA is a fabricator and dealer of shutters, roller shades and blinds. Ryan comes from outside the window treatment industry with a diverse background in finance and accounting, sales, marketing, and was most recently a general manager for a large med tech company. Ryan acquired AAA in

Ryan Murray (00:31)

Yeah, absolutely.

William Hanke (00:55)

2024 by following the path of ETA and entrepreneurship through acquisition. going to jump into that in just a second. Ryan has successfully grown the business 20 % in his first year of ownership and he plans to continue to grow AAA organically and inorganically with more acquisitions. Ryan, thank you so much for being on.

Ryan Murray (01:19)

Yeah, thanks Will, really excited to do this with you.

William Hanke (01:22)

Yeah, yeah, your whole story has really intrigued me. I know that you acquired AAA specifically about a year ago through what you call entrepreneurship through acquisition. So what drew you to the window treatment industry and specifically to a business that was 30 years old?

Ryan Murray (01:41)

Yeah, so I actually came out of college as an accounting major and I got my CPA. So I worked a traditional W2 job, if you will, before I got into business ownership. I always knew I wanted to be a business owner. And my risk profile didn’t allow for me to shoot for that zero to one startup style. So after working a number of years for large companies,

switching careers from accounting and finance, eventually into sales and marketing, where I did get a bit of a taste of entrepreneurship. I was in a role where I was a hundred percent commissioned, eat what you kill, responsible for your business and revenue. And I really was excited by that opportunity to, to live and eat on my own efforts. And so

I found this path, entrepreneurship through acquisition, as an alternative path to entrepreneurship that was a much better fit for my risk profile. And the data shows is you have a much higher likelihood of success versus zero to one startups. No knock on them, they’re super difficult. So those that do succeed in that type of an entrepreneurship, kudos to them.

It’s just a different style. So it was something I had sort of uncovered while I was in business school and upon graduation pursued it. I was frankly industry agnostic. I was more geographically focused, wanted to be in the Myrtle Beach area.

William Hanke (02:52)

OK.

Ryan Murray (03:02)

I just relocated there to be closer to family with my wife and now two sons. And I was fortunate enough to come across AAA Blind and Shutter Factory, which had a great strong history. This is our 29th year in business.

What I liked about the business is not only is window treatments a great industry, but there was also some real estate involved in the acquisition as well. So I was really drawn to something that had a tangible product, had a sales process, and something that fit my skills from my prior background, which I somewhat consider myself a generalist, given I have a mix of some technical with accounting and finance, as well as sales and marketing and some general management.

And it’s just been a lot of fun to learn a new widget. But when it comes down to running a business, a lot of the functions and practices are the same. And so being able to apply that prior knowledge has been, led me to least some success in the first year and we’re hoping more to come.

William Hanke (04:03)

Cool. So I’m curious how you even came across AAA in the first place. And once you kind of got involved, what was the first big change that you made and how did that go?

Ryan Murray (04:16)

Yeah, so for the uninitiated, when it comes to entrepreneurship through acquisition, the first step you take is you launch what’s called a search is what it’s commonly known as. And there’s different types of flavors of entrepreneurship or ETA as well. I pursued the self-funded path, which meant I was going to fund the bulk of the acquisition with equity, but also SBA debt.

The SBA has a great lending program that allows for small businesses to capitalize and make acquisitions happen. So like I said before, I was more geographically focused, but I had a criteria, a certain criteria for the business that I wanted to buy. I wanted it to have a long tenure, a motivated seller who had a great history with the business, one that had grown and one that had a tangible product and ideally real estate.

A Blind and Shutter Factory checked all those boxes for me. And what’s also great about the window treatment industry is the average ticket size, as well as the number of transactions that the business was performing was an attractive feature as well. And so I had looked at probably in depth 40 to 50 businesses before coming across AAA and Blind and Shutter Factory. And the way that I actually found it was through a broker. There’s multiple

William Hanke (05:29)

Okay.

Ryan Murray (05:35)

sit business brokers out there similar to real estate brokers, but please don’t confuse the two because they are very different. and the sellers who I purchased from had contracted a broker who had listed the business on business websites. There’s different websites where you can find businesses for sale. And so I had been performing a search, came across AAA, contacted the broker and we, took it from there.

William Hanke (05:42)

you

I know there are several business brokers in my town, so I’m pretty sure they’re pretty easy to find across the board.

Ryan Murray (06:08)

Yeah, so, and those relationships, that’s just one flavor of search is you can do what’s called a brokered search where you focus on those relationships. And eventually I did have some brokers who would reach out to me with opportunities. And so there’s all different flavors of entrepreneurship or searching. And so that was just the type that I had pursued. knowing your business brokers as well as tax advisors or wealth advisors, those

who are in the network with other business owners, real estate agents are good for that too, is a good way to find opportunities if you’re looking for a business to buy.

William Hanke (06:42)

Okay, all types of people that hang out at networking events. So they’re not hard to find, that’s for sure. Yeah, so tell me about once you got involved in the business, what was the first big change that you made?

Ryan Murray (06:49)

Absolutely.

Yeah, so the first big change that I made was actually the time clock and payroll. The business was most processes were being done on paper, including the time clock for the production facility and all the employees. And so that was the first change I made was I made the time clock digital.

William Hanke (07:02)

Okay.

Ryan Murray (07:14)

The business wasn’t doing direct deposit, so they were issuing paper checks for payroll every two weeks. that it sounds like a small change, but it was a huge lift and the employees were really excited and not have to drive to the bank every other Friday to cash their check. The paper time clock had all kinds of issues. We actually had some fun one day, took the paper time clock off the wall and we went outside and beat it with a bat, threw it in the dumpster.

William Hanke (07:36)

What?

Ryan Murray (07:37)

as sort of a impromptu team building exercise. So that was the first big change. And the second one was instituting software. As I mentioned, everything was done on paper, including our ordering and quoting processes. And for 28 years, this business had succeeded that way, quoting on triplicate paper. And that was our source of truth for all customer information, all ordering products. And we now have that in an electronic system.

And while it was an adjustment, it’s been a huge uplift for us to be able to track customer information, orders, have that all electronically so we can query it and just be more efficient and accurate in our coding and ordering processes.

William Hanke (08:18)

Yeah, I love those two changes and it is, it’s interesting how inconvenient it is now to go to a bank, right? We’re so spoiled that just something as simple as that can really make people happy.

Ryan Murray (08:31)

Yeah, and to me, they were pretty simple changes, but to the employees who had been there for a while, it made a huge difference. So ⁓ I was excited. But now we’re getting into some more difficult changes. Production facility we’re focusing on now, bringing in some automation, which what that means is bringing in some machinery to automate, particularly our shutter production process. We’re going to change the way we build the shutter. And so…

William Hanke (08:39)

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

OK.

Ryan Murray (08:59)

So change is not gonna stop. It doesn’t stop with the payroll and the ERP system. So we’re gonna continue to improve our processes with tools, electronic and non-electronic. so that change is gonna continue to happen.

William Hanke (09:02)

All

That’s awesome. Sounds like you’ve got kind of a plan put together, which is obviously really good.

Ryan Murray (09:18)

Yeah, I have a plan and whether or not that plan works is to be seen. We’ve had plans that we’ve had to pivot, but such is business ownership and that’s what makes it fun and exciting.

William Hanke (09:22)

you

Yeah, yeah. So a lot of window treatment companies only sell and install products from suppliers, and that’s probably most of my listeners as well. How does being both a manufacturer and a dealer position you differently in the market?

Ryan Murray (09:43)

Yeah. So again, what another thing that attracted me to this business is, is that it is unique within the industry given that we fabricate. We also do deal, but 80 % of our sales are our two main products, which are shutters and roller shades that are produced in our factory in Little River by local employees and installed by local employees. So we’re really proud of that. And the goal long-term is for our factory to become a platform.

but we do also deal some other products that we don’t make. The name actually AAA Blind and Shutter Factory, we used to make blinds. We actually now outsource that because it’s only about 5 % of sales, which I think is becoming more common in the industry. So we outsource that product and the space we were utilizing for blinds, we now use for roller shades, which is about 25 to 30 % of our sales. So it makes us unique because we’re able to issue a local offering.

People like to work with local businesses, especially now with all the discussion around tariffs and bringing American manufacturing back. It’s really helpful to our brand to be a local American manufacturer. And then inside of the business that allows us to control quality, it allows us to control our lead times. We’re faster than most of our competitors. We’re able to customize any shutter or roller shade to almost any spec that a customer would need.

And we’re less reliant on third parties since we’re playing a little higher up the value chain. it allows us to say yes a lot of times when others say no, particularly when it comes to timelines or certain customization. And then it also just allows us to provide a faster and more high touch experience. And then on the financial side, Martins are hired as well since again, we’re purchasing a lot of our material and then.

So we have some leverage there when it comes to material and even tariffs. And so it’s really unique in the industry in that fact. I know there are other fabricators out there, but there’s not too many in the Carolinas. And so we’re really proud to offer position ourselves as an American manufacturer.

William Hanke (11:54)

Yeah, I think that’s a huge advantage, especially nowadays as you mentioned. So I know your company serves a 50, 60 mile radius. How important is that local manufacturer identity to your customers?

Ryan Murray (12:06)

It’s extremely important. We’ve become so well known in the local community because of our fact that we are a manufacturer. And again, what it allows us to do is provide a superior customer experience. The customer knows they’re going to, when they call us, talk to someone on the phone. They know that not only are we going to be their customer service and sales team, we’re their manufacturer and we’re their installer.

We’re handling every step of the process as well as covering any warranties or repairs. So they know that they’re investing in a product that was locally made from a company that’s been around for almost 30 years. And if they ever have any issues, they’re investing in a product that they know is going to have support for decades to come. So we have a number of repeat customers who have purchased from us over that 29 year period in three, four, some five homes as they’ve either upgraded, downgraded or

move to a different location within our radius. And then with that, we get a ton of referrals too. it’s being local and controlling our manufacturing just provides us a lot more control over the experience for the customer. And that’s been a huge, huge benefit for us. I mentioned faster lead times, what it also does is allows us to employ more members of the community. So in our production facility, we have about 10 employees right now and all local employees.

And it’s frankly, it’s fun to go to work every day for me because there’s always a challenge to face, but we have such great people that look forward and really take pride in crafting a custom and local product that is going to go in customers homes in their windows that they’re going to look at every day. And, you know, it allows us to pivot and adapt quickly when a customer has an issue, a customer quest, a change, you know, God forbid we make a mistake on a shutter.

we’re able to correct that more quickly than anybody because we can have a remake out to them, you know, potentially the next day if we really need to, as opposed to purchasing from a supplier. So there’s a number of advantages, but it really comes down to the customer experience. They really feel like they know us personally, our employees personally, and that keeps customers coming back and referring their friends and family.

William Hanke (14:04)

Yeah, that’s huge.

Yeah, I think there’s definitely an advantage to owning the entire experience. As you mentioned, you guys have some fantastic leverage there. When it comes to manufacturing, what are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced that perhaps a retail-only business wouldn’t encounter?

Ryan Murray (14:36)

Yeah, so starting out of the gate, you have to manage your supply. So there’s certain raw materials that we still have to order from a supplier. So managing a higher level of inventory is critical because we’re managing raw materials, work in progress, in addition to dealers are handling finished goods, we’re doing that as well. So, and then it’s managing the production flow. Production is a chain and if once…

linking that chain is weak. It can cause a bottleneck. Things can slow down and get you off track. So we’ve gotten really efficient to where we can offer a customer an installation date upon ordering. many of our competitors wait till the product comes in to do that. We can provide that to them as soon as they order because we know what our production schedule looks like over the next few weeks. So, but on occasion that schedule gets a bit off track. We still

William Hanke (15:16)

yeah, for sure.

Ryan Murray (15:29)

Production relies on employees and humans who at times call out sick, things happen, but we have processes in place to make up for any gaps that sometimes pop up. And in a small business, we’ve learned to deal with them. so most of the challenges are not unique, I’d say, and we have some rules and ways to handle them, but then there are exceptions you just have to manage. But I think overall, it’s just…

With the challenges, there’s so much benefit that outweigh those challenges that being a manufacturer really is part of the reason why we’re so successful.

William Hanke (16:02)

Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Let’s talk about technology. How has implementing technology affected the manufacturing and your business operations?

Ryan Murray (16:12)

Yeah, technology has been, it’s really something we’ve tried to add. So it’s very new to the business, I’ll say. So operations have become much more efficient with, mentioned the ERP earlier, as far as introducing technology into the production process, we do have some semi-automation, some machinery that’s man or woman operated. And so we…

just yesterday actually purchased our first fully automated machine, which we expect to arrive in eight to 10 weeks that will actually build our louver trees for us. So we’re really excited about that. So what it’s gonna allow us to do is be more efficient and allow our team to focus on the jobs that really require a human touch. Things like quality control and

It allows us to provide better customer service. We’ll be able to make shutters faster. The machines in a lot of way, but we’ll be more accurate as well. And so it’s just going to allow us to serve the customer faster and better. So technology is something that we’re layering into the business with a cadence. I would love to add more automation and, add to the tech stack, but I’m also very careful about that as a business that was on paper, just really as of about six months ago, it was completely on paper.

Some of that’s going to take time, but I think that’s again an advantage for us that it’s going to allow us to really leverage the fact that it really allows us to control our cost structure when it comes to automation and finding those efficiencies will help us invest in other areas, whether that’s expanding or adding more employees to help us do those jobs that only humans can do.

William Hanke (17:55)

How have your employees reacted to the technology changes? I know you mentioned the payroll and that was really cool for them. But some of these other things they may look at it as you’re taking their jobs. How are your employees reacting to some of the other things you’re hoping to bring in?

Ryan Murray (18:11)

Yeah, so our plan isn’t to take any jobs with technology. Our plan is to use that technology to allow us to expand and allow humans to continue to focus on the jobs that only they can do. And a lot of that, if I had to put it under pillars around the customer experience and quality control. So, have been really receptive of it. They’ve looked at it as something that’s additive versus something that’s going to jeopardize their position.

So we have a lot of discussion around, this is a tool to make you better at your job. This isn’t a tool to replace you. And that’s really our intent is again, as a pillar of the community, we want to continue to employ local members of that community. And so they’ve been really receptive to technology. Yeah, the learning curve is often steep. So training is really important and we’re getting better at that.

So training and being thoughtful about how the technology gets introduced is frankly just as important as the actually execution or using the technology. So we’ve really tried to be thoughtful about how we introduce things and the employees have been pretty receptive thus far with some of the changes that we’ve made.

William Hanke (19:13)

Sure.

Yeah. How about software, the other side of technology, the software you’re bringing in, new software systems? How are your employees handling that? Is it pretty easy to pick up some of the new things and move forward?

Ryan Murray (19:31)

Yeah, I would say that that’s been one of the more difficult tasks. When you introduce an ERP or CRM system, you’re doing what feels like open heart surgery on your business, especially when you’re asking team members who have built a process and created a system and followed it successfully for a number of years to introduce new technology and kind of burn the boats on some of those other systems.

William Hanke (19:41)

Right?

Ryan Murray (19:58)

It’s very, it’s very difficult. So again, that comes down to planning, setting expectations early on. I said flat out to my team, this is going to suck. This is going to be very hard for the first couple months. That’s, please expect that. And I think saying that out loud, them hearing that from me, it probably made them a little bit nervous, but it also,

William Hanke (20:17)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (20:26)

led to fewer surprises once the software got introduced. And so they were much more receptive to fighting through that pain, that uphill climb in the first couple of weeks in particular, because they knew what we were getting into and we were doing it together. I mean, it sucked for all of us, me who I like to think I’m an early adopter with a lot of things, it was painful for me as well. So going through that journey together, you know, it’s,

it helped ease some of that pain and it just comes down to setting expectations and providing good training. And some of these things you just learn on the fly. And I think that’s what’s great about small businesses versus large, where I came from, is that a lot of employees are willing to accept that kind of build the plane as you fly it mentality, which often implementing technology can feel like that. And so it was a…

William Hanke (21:17)

Sure.

Ryan Murray (21:19)

it so far has been been a good experience. But I’m getting ready to introduce another new software here shortly. So, you know, we want to get the first one done right before we do that. But it’s only going to make us better and make our team more effective in their roles.

William Hanke (21:34)

Yeah, any unexpected hurdles when you were rolling out both the software side and the new machinery?

Ryan Murray (21:40)

Yeah, the software, again, just the amount of time it takes to fully implement it. It’s so hard to estimate that. So there’s still some features of the software that we just haven’t used yet that I thought would be in place. So as far as timing of execution, it’s been a bit delayed, but not surprising. And we’re still working through that. As far as the machinery,

We’ve tried some used machinery. The equipment I have coming in a couple of weeks is new and lesson learned there is used machinery is great. It can be a little less expensive in terms of investment, but if you don’t know how to maintain it and it doesn’t work, it’s useless. without going into too many details, there’s some machinery we’ve invested in that is not going to work out.

And that’s part of business as well. You take risks, make decisions, and sometimes it doesn’t work. And so we planned for that and the investment was such that if it did not work out, we were not going to be put out of business. And we still had room to pivot, to go to some different equipment. And so that was unexpected that we weren’t gonna be able to get this piece of machinery up and running.

So a lot of it too comes down to the know-how you have within the team. And I think my expectations were a little too high around our ability to implement this technology. So I’ve learned to call for help a little bit sooner when it comes to machinery. And so, you know, I certainly learned a hard lesson there, but a good one. And I’m glad I learned it early and will be much better for it going forward as we scale up more and more.

William Hanke (23:02)

Sure.

Yeah, great point that it’s not always the cheapest or a good deal that ends up being a great deal after all, We do something similar with websites. The way I pitch it is we don’t know how many Band-Aids have been put on that. And it might be better just to start with something new, right?

Ryan Murray (23:20)

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, it’s, yes. So sometimes starting from scratch or investing more upfront is gonna save you a lot of heartache on the backend. It’s just hard to see that upfront when you’re talking, you know, big money either way. ⁓ but yeah, lesson learned there that sometimes the bigger investment upfront is gonna save you a lot of expense on the backend.

William Hanke (23:42)

Yeah.

Yeah. So you mentioned earlier on that you funded a lot of this through an SBA loan. Is there wiggle room in that for these kinds of things that come up? Or how do you fund that sudden change?

Ryan Murray (24:07)

Yeah, so the SBA often, and this varies by bank, they’ll issue a line of credit. So you do have a bit of a pool you can draw from. A line of credit’s not really supposed to be used for capital expenditures. So I didn’t use that to purchase the machinery, but as far as wiggle room, you do have some built-in cushion there. But I was able to go back to the bank and get an additional loan to purchase the equipment.

So that’s one of the benefits of side effects of an SBA loan is it’s typically issued by a regional bank. And you then have a banking partner who, when it comes to purchasing machinery, making investments, is somebody you can use as a resource to be able to make those investment decisions. I was able to do that. And it was made easier by the fact that in the first year, we’ve been pretty successful.

been able to prove that we’re able to make our loan payments every month, grow the business and generate enough revenue and cashflow to not only stay in business, but to continue to invest. so building that trust and sort of proving yourself with the bank has opened some options that I may not have had from day one. So having a bagging partner has been critical and will be critical to going forward or our continued growth.

William Hanke (25:13)

That’s great.

Yeah, good to know how that kind of works. You mentioned earlier on that Myrtle Beach is one of the fastest growing markets in the country. How has this growth affected your manufacturing capabilities and your business strategy?

Ryan Murray (25:33)

Yeah, so Myrtle Beach, the greater Myrtle Beach area, depending on some measures is, I think by a percentage basis, the fastest growing, one of the fastest growing MSAs in the country. And what that means for in terms of who our customers are, a lot of our customers are people from the Northeast who are relocating. Many of them, instead of going to Florida, are coming to the Carolinas. So you have a lot of…

You have a lot of new homeowners from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, PA. And what’s good about that is housing is much less expensive in this area versus the Northeast. So there’s some arbitrage in the housing market ⁓ that has allowed for people to invest more in what goes inside of their home than just the price of purchasing the house. So given the migration that’s happened to all of the Carolinas really,

William Hanke (26:12)

Okay.

Ryan Murray (26:25)

A lot of new construction is popping up every day. So the opportunity that that presents for window treatment companies is the opportunity to do a whole house instead of just a few windows here and there. So a number of our customers are new construction and not all of them are retirees. A lot of them are families like mine that just moved here three years ago who, you know, they’re looking for something that they want to get great value.

William Hanke (26:35)

Right.

Ryan Murray (26:50)

and they also want to get a great product. And so we’re able to offer that given our manufacturing capabilities and our control over our supply chain and pricing, we’re able to offer a custom unique product, a premium product at a non-premium price. So that’s really what’s attracted many customers to working with us in addition to just the experience that they get.

and so make sure we’re communicating that value proposition, but also ensuring that customers know who our reputation and Frank, just that we exist, right? you know, one of the first principles of marketing there. And, so we focused a lot on, in addition to, talked about machinery and software, our digital marketing, which is another thing the business was not investing in prior to me taking over has been huge for us. So.

really making sure that Google business profile is optimized, SEO is dialed in. Google Ads has been huge for us. We’ve driven a lot of leads at a fairly low cost. And so we’ve been really successful in generating demand using those tools. So, you know, the growth of the market is for a while there was probably more demand than supply and

We’ve actually struggled a little bit with that on the production side and I’ve had to hold some demand back. So what I mean by that is I would like to dial up Google ads, but we actually don’t quite have the capacity. That’s changed a little bit in the last month, I think due to tariffs mostly, which I’m hoping we’ll get through that shortly. yeah, the population, the migration has just led to a lot of opportunity in the window treatment industry, but just in home services in general.

So we’re hoping that continues because frankly a lot of our success is attributed to that regional trend and I just don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. So we’re going to continue to invest in our capacity with machinery and take advantage of the growth we’re seeing in this market.

William Hanke (28:50)

I’ve seen a lot lately about, you know, US-made or US-built products, especially with the tariff conversation going on, that the demand is high and the deliverability isn’t there because they weren’t expecting this, right?

Ryan Murray (29:05)

Yeah, yeah, that, that we’ve certainly seen some of that and you know, we’ve had some disruption again with some of the changes that I mentioned has just slowed us down in ways we didn’t anticipate, created some bottlenecks in our operations and, it’s a good problem to have, right? ⁓ I’d rather have that problem than the inverse, not having enough demand and excess capacity. So ⁓ it’s, I’d rather be solving that. So.

William Hanke (29:18)

sure.

It is. Yeah.

Right.

Ryan Murray (29:33)

So yeah, we’re still working through it and we wanna be cautious, because frankly the business, given I have the SBA loan, does have a lot of debt on it. So I do have to be careful and monitor cashflow very, very closely. So it’s something that we’re keeping an eye on and I’m always trying to look around the corner like most business owners to anticipate what’s gonna happen next. But just continuing to invest in the business is…

almost always going to pay dividends.

William Hanke (30:04)

Yeah. So speaking of investing in the business, we mentioned earlier on about entrepreneurship through acquisition, right? If there was a window treatment listener on here, maybe they’re a dealer, and they’re thinking about adding on the manufacturing piece, what kind of advice would you give them about scaling, equipment, staffing, getting started?

Ryan Murray (30:26)

Yeah, so as far as manufacturing goes, there’s so many components that go into it that you have to consider. If you wanted to get into manufacturing, you’re gonna have to be able to staff it properly and you’re gonna be able to have to provide that staff the proper resources. So being prepared to invest upfront.

is key, like we talked about with the machinery. And it’s probably going to be more expensive than you plan. So be ready to have some cushion if you’re looking to make that change. you know, as far as scaling it up, it has to be well planned and one step at a time. You know, one way we’re scaling up again is the machinery, but then there’s also certain problems or

or features of scaling where the solution to the problem is not how, it’s who. So one of the things we’ve done is we’ve thought about our management structure and we’ve actually created a layer of leadership responsible for each department. So our shutter production, roller shade production, our installation team and our sales team, sort of how we break out our organization and installing a leader in each of those organizations.

has been super helpful because it allows each organization to be more agile and make decisions more quickly. I didn’t come from the industry, so I’m not an expert in how to build a shutter or even how to install one. So I rely on my people to make those decisions and we’ve installed leaders so that they can be made in the field, in the factory, on the fly, often without permission. And so finding good people, which is difficult.

A lot of our people that have been put in those leadership positions have been promoted within the business and we’re really proud of that. So taking care of good employees and being able to show them a career path where they can advance has been really helpful for us, especially having a multifaceted business where we have sales, installation and production. So being able to create opportunity and show employees that there’s a path forward.

which is afforded by the fact that the business is growing, but it creates this flywheel, right? If the business is growing, we can create more opportunity, employees can move up, they’re more motivated, you can attract better talent. And so it’s created this in the short term, this flywheel that has allowed us to succeed. mean, but I would say people in process are the number one thing when it comes to being able to either start, run, or scale up a…

William Hanke (32:39)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (32:59)

manufacturing facility. So I’m still figuring it out, learning every day. ⁓ But so so far what we’re doing is working and we’re really proud of it.

William Hanke (33:04)

Sure.

So on the other side of that question, what about, since you’re somebody who’s kind of interested in acquiring more window treatment companies, what qualities would you look for in potential acquisitions?

Ryan Murray (33:22)

Yeah, so one is a solid history. So you want to find a business that’s been in business for a number of years that has a track record. Ideally, you’ll find a seller who is motivated either they’re retiring. That’s often the best profile is somebody who has run a successful business, maybe doesn’t have family or someone they want to hand it down to. And they’re looking for an exit so they can retire. That’s often the purest motivation for selling.

So that those are those two things are the first two I’d say green lights for me when evaluating a business You want to make sure it’s bankable meaning if you’re going to use an SBA loan Or some type of debt to purchase the business you want to make sure that the acquisition price you’re going to pay is Going to underwrite with the bank. So Meaning is there enough cash left over after you pay that debt each month to pay yourself?

continue to invest in the business, pay your employees and continue to operate the business. So that’s important as well, because if you pay too much for a business or the price is too high, you’re not going to be able to get that deal funded. And that’ll be a non-starter if you’re looking to use SBA or bank debt. So I would say those are just high level. The first couple of points of criteria I look at, but

William Hanke (34:32)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (34:42)

Then going a level deeper, you want to make sure that that seller, the person you’re working with, you want to evaluate them as an individual and make sure you’re working with a good person because that’ll be an indication of how the employees were treated, how the business was run. A lot of times the business takes on the personality of the owner. So you want to make sure you’re just working with someone who you feel is a trustworthy and just a solid person. So I was fortunate to AAA was owned and run by

a husband and wife team for a number of years and they just turned, they’re just A plus people and that was pretty obvious upfront. So that allows you that trust to really work through some hard things that happened during an acquisition. There are just things that happened that challenges, disagreements that you’re just gonna have to work through. And if your counterparty on the other side is…

somebody who’s not trustworthy or difficult to work with, it’s gonna be so much harder to overcome those things. And so much time gets invested and deals like this die all the time. So a lot of it comes down to just working with good people and being able to work through issues. So I would say upfront, couple of things are without them, it’s gonna be really hard to even get started. So looking for those things out of the gate, if they’re not there, we’ll help you move on more quickly too. Saying no fast is really important.

The last thing you want to do is spend too much time on a deal that’s just not going to work. So being able to evaluate that and sense that out upfront, which frankly takes a few repetitions. I had to learn some of those things the hard way. But ultimately, it led me to building a criteria that helped me find a really great business. So that would be my advice to anybody who’s looking to acquire one. also, if anybody listening, I’m sure will put my information.

out here at the podcast, I’m happy to talk to them as well. There’s a number of people in this somewhat nascent industry, which I’ll ETA, so buying small businesses. There’s a number of providers out there who can help guide you through this process as well, if it’s something that you feel you need help with. So I’m happy to talk to anybody who wants to discuss it to give them some tips and pearls and some guidance.

William Hanke (36:50)

Yeah, appreciate that. Appreciate that. I know I’ve heard in the past something similar to what you said about working hard to disqualify a lot of the list, you know, so that you’re not wasting time on those things.

Ryan Murray (37:03)

Yeah, it’s, ⁓

yeah, cause the time you waste on a bad deal could be the time invested. could invest in looking at a good one. So it’s, you know, you want to say no quickly if you see certain, certain red flags and move on fast. Cause it’s probably going to take you multiple attempts to find the right one.

William Hanke (37:21)

Yeah, I know you’ve got a little background in marketing. Of course, that’s what I really like. How does marketing a manufacturing business differ from marketing a retail only window treatment business?

Ryan Murray (37:34)

Yes, a lot of it is around that positioning and branding. So communicating the fact that we are a local manufacturer, we’re USA made, local employees. So local is really the theme here. it’s been something I’ve kind of been learning on the fly, how to really communicate that differentiation to the customer.

Not every customer cares about local. Some care about budget, some care about quality more than where it’s made. really knowing who your customers are and getting that message to those who really care about local. so we’ve retrieved a lot of data from Google and Facebook. I’ve used a lot of AI, chat GPT, Claw to distill some of that data.

Every couple of months I’ll have ChatGPT do a study on our Google reviews. We’re up to 273 five-star reviews. So that’s a really good source of information. And ChatGPT can distill it in a way that will provide insights that frankly has helped us change our brand positioning and how we communicate to customers. And that’s where we really learned too that customer experience is so valuable because over 50 % of our reviews

the customer mentioned one of our employees by name and how great they were and how they’ll never go anywhere else for window treatments in the future. so there’s data out there that you just, there’s so many tools you can use to gain some insights and help it to refine your messaging and your branding. And so we’re always talking about that too.

William Hanke (38:53)

Great.

Ryan Murray (39:11)

I’m always asking employees what customers are saying. So just getting that feedback from the customer themselves, but also from any data point that you can. And with tools like AI tools, you can easily distill that down and have it make recommendations. And AI has been a really great thought partner, distilling that data information and has really allowed us to identify how we should position our brand in the market.

William Hanke (39:36)

I love that. I love the idea of putting all your reviews into AI and then kind of get a summary. We do something similar with our clients’ phone calls. So every call is recorded. We upload those transcriptions and say, us common themes, common questions. What kind of things keep coming up that maybe we could kind of sort of optimize?

Ryan Murray (39:56)

Yeah,

we’ll have to talk more about that. I’m very interested in that. The software I’m actually looking at implementing next is a call tracking software. we’ll have to discuss that. actually just this morning, I got done writing a new script for follow-ups. So we would love to close customers 100 % of the time in the field, but that doesn’t happen. We’re about 70%.

So follow up is so important because you’ve invested all that time to, you’ve paid for the lead, you’ve gone out to the appointment, you spent time with the customer, our sales manager has been in their house, they’ve talked to our customer service team on the phone, and so that follow up is really key to capitalize on that investment of money and time you spent working with that lead and customer. And so I was using ChatGPT to kind of,

William Hanke (40:24)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (40:46)

Customize a script for us and it’s something that we’re we’re going to implement here in the next few weeks with a new follow-up system and so Yeah, using the tools to your advantage It is key and allows you to create leverage within the business again going back to using technology to make employees better That’s that’s that’s my goal when I use a tool like that

William Hanke (41:06)

Right. I love that you brought up the follow-up thing. It’s amazing how many business owners just don’t follow up. You know, they do the quote, and well, I never heard from them. I’m reading a book right now called Outgrow, which is just fantastic about getting better at that follow-up piece and making it just a helpful conversation instead of trying to get the yes. I think that’s great.

Ryan Murray (41:27)

Yeah, exactly. I think it was one

of your videos where I learned that, was it like 80 % of deals closed after the sixth follow-up? There’s some interesting data around the number of follow-ups required too. it’s, you know, obviously there’s a cadence and there’s a channel you can use for each file. You know, it’s, you can really, you can really get.

William Hanke (41:39)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Murray (41:49)

super complex but ultimately the takeaway is you just have to follow up period. It’s so important. You’ve worked so hard to get that lead and a five minute phone call might lead to thousands of dollars. So why would you not make it? you know, the pushback I get is the used car salesman feel and it, but there’s ways to not do that. You’re trying to meet people where they are.

and make it easy for them. And oftentimes that follow-up call is easy for them because they say, yeah, you were here. Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s go forward. I forgot to call. I couldn’t find your number. So those are the customers we’re trying to capture. We’re not trying to convince anybody to do something they don’t want to do. So follow-up is just so key.

William Hanke (42:10)

All

Yeah, quick story, our home got hit by a tornado.

in March and just ruin deciding the roof needs to be replaced. I had three different roofers come out and that’s not cheap. I that’s going to be twenty two grand, I think, for the roof. ⁓ And so I three guys out. One of them stood in my living room and told me how much he’s focused on building relationships and things like that. And never heard from him again. And the one guy that I ended up hiring was the one that followed up probably three times.

Ryan Murray (42:42)

Sure.

William Hanke (42:57)

because I was busy worried about siding and gutters and all the other things, right? So that guy got the job.

Ryan Murray (43:03)

100%. I had the same exact experience with a job at my home about three weeks ago. I had three estimates and the guy who followed up while I was running around worrying about our next container of material coming in, right? Not even, and he got a text, hey, are you ready to move forward? I’ll take a few bucks off the quote, right? And I just said, yep, let’s do it. Yep, when can we start, right? All because he sent me a text. So it’s huge.

William Hanke (43:17)

You

Yeah.

Right, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, good stuff. I love that you guys are doing the digital marketing side too. Obviously, that’s my passion. But it’s cool to see even on the manufacturing side that you guys are still using that to kind of generate some business.

Ryan Murray (43:42)

Yeah, digital marketing, mean, in this day and age, you’re not using that channel to market, you’re behind. And there’s so many different sources you can use. I’m trying to learn every day how we can take further advantage of it, because it’s so scalable and it creates so much leverage. So it’s a…

and there’s so many different steps within that process, you can optimize one or two percent, right? And if one percent here, one percent there can lead to a few thousand dollars in sales with just a little bit of effort, so.

William Hanke (44:02)

You

Right.

Yeah. So you mentioned that you guys have kind of, you’re in a situation with lots of demand. Tell me, you also said that you kind of have basically two lines of products that is the bulk of your sales. Do you guys have any plans on adding in like exterior stuff or any other products?

Ryan Murray (44:30)

Sure, yeah, so we’re evaluating exterior now. We were looking for some vendors at IWCE just a couple weeks ago. Did our first measure for an outdoor shade about a week ago. And the product we were gonna use turns out it’s not gonna be a great fit. So we’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board. As far as what we manufacture, we’re gonna continue to focus on shutters and roller shades. We do offer solar shades as part of our roller shade line.

that can be used in screened in porches, but I wouldn’t call them true exterior. You’re not going to use it to enclose the lanai with a captured edge like product. So we’re looking for partners to do that. Bahama shutters and colonial shutters, I think are an interesting play as well. And so we’ve talked with a partner about potentially evaluating that category. And so this year,

we’re gonna look to add some outdoor, because it’s just the trend with outdoor has, it’s here, it’s been here. And now with people staying in place, 80 % of homeowners having a mortgage rate under, I think 4%, right? Making it very difficult for certain individuals to move. So they’re investing in their homes, they’re upgrading, they’re improving, they’re building a nicer backyard.

And so that’s a wave we want to get involved with. so, you know, it’s difficult though when you’re trying to manage a manufacturing facility as well and invest in that to add new products. so we’re trying to take it one step at a time, but I think that’s a trend that’s here to stay that we’re missing out on if we don’t add it to our portfolio. So we’re just in the beginnings of that.

We’re excited to get that going.

William Hanke (46:07)

Yeah, yeah, I agree. But as you said earlier, it’s a good problem to have, right? I mean, it’s it’s it’s an issue, but that’s OK. We’ll get through it. So a couple of quick fun questions or a little bit light hearted. What’s one thing you do as a leader that people might not see, but it makes a really big impact?

Ryan Murray (46:15)

Yeah, exactly.

tough one. think, one thing I do is I’m, I’m always trying to think of second and third order effects of any decision I make or anything I say or do particularly around employees. I’m always trying to anticipate the reaction and I’m always trying to think of ways that can boost morale, keep people happy, but also keeping people motivated to do a good job.

to train, to get better at their job. And so I spent, it’s hard to turn it off, right? Like you were saying earlier, I think you’re doing a workcation a little bit this week, you’d said. So as a business owner, it’s hard to turn it off sometimes. so I try to lead with my whole self and be genuine. And I always try to think of…

William Hanke (47:03)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (47:15)

of the people and how’s this decision going to affect them? Not only is it how is it going to affect the business, but how is it going to affect the people? Because it doesn’t happen without happy motivated people. So I always try to think those consequences through two, three steps ahead. And a lot of times I’m wrong, but I’m pretty open about that. And when I do get it wrong, I feel they, my team gives me a little more slack because they know

how I’m thinking and the logic that I’m using behind any decision I make. So my goal is to be as predictable as possible. I want my employees to know what I’m going to say or when I’m going to say it when a situation arises. I would love to be that predictable for them. being willing to share and being open with the business and the results and how it’s performing and just building that trust, I think, has has gone a long way and I’m continuing to lean into that.

William Hanke (48:08)

Yeah. Have you used AI for any of that kind of stuff to help you with the decision making?

Ryan Murray (48:13)

absolutely. was chatting with, I was using voice mode with chat GPT on my way home today to evaluate a partnership. So, ⁓ so that’s why I really, I really try to think of AI is not just a, you know, a content generator. That was my initial use case, marketing copy. ⁓ More is now a thought partner. And so it’s been really helpful because it is in theory.

William Hanke (48:21)

Nice.

Right.

Ryan Murray (48:39)

objective more so than maybe a person or a consultant. So it’s been really helpful. It helps you be more, I think, less afraid to communicate in a certain way what your fears are, what your concerns are with a certain decision. So it’s been helpful in that sense and I really look forward to see where this technology goes because it’s…

It’s just been so helpful for me as a leader and a thought partner so far.

William Hanke (49:05)

Yeah, I think you hit it on the head there with Thought Partner. There’s a book called AI Driven Leader that is all about how to use AI to become a thought partner, not take over the business and make the decisions, but be able to bounce ideas off of. I think it’s a fantastic and smart way to go in the future.

Ryan Murray (49:23)

Yeah, absolutely. How do you use it? Are you using it as a thought partner in any sense?

William Hanke (49:29)

yeah, every day. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, even from employee situations, here’s what’s going on. You know, how should I approach this? and I’m also a fan of Dan Martell who always talks about, the one three one concept, is bring me the problem, bring me three potential solutions, and then bring me one that you’re considering or leaning towards. And I’ll kind of input all of that into chat GPT and say, here’s what I’m thinking, but

Give me, like you said, give me potential scenarios I’m not even considering right now that might come out of this.

Ryan Murray (50:00)

Right,

right. I think that’s been one of the steps forward with me in utilizing AI is having it, asking it, what am I missing? What am I not asking? What am I not asking you? What should I be asking you? Right? I’m saying you like it’s a person, but that’s how we communicate with the technology right now. ⁓ yeah, I think I liked that. I hadn’t heard the 131.

William Hanke (50:18)

Right.

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (50:28)

That’s it. I like that as a tool. yeah, it’s certainly useful. It’s a little scary how useful it is sometimes, but ⁓ it helps you uncover some things that you probably wouldn’t otherwise.

William Hanke (50:36)

Sure.

Yeah, well Ryan, I appreciate your time so much today. We dove pretty deep into ETA and some of the things that you’ve done and the manufacturing side owning that kind of a world which is different than what a lot of our listeners do. So, highly appreciate your time today.

Ryan Murray (50:56)

Yeah, and thank you. And I would just say if there’s any business owners out there listening who want to talk about ETA or are interested in selling their window treatment business or even a home service business, my email’s open. It’s ryan.aaabliens.gmail.com. I’m always happy to chat.

William Hanke (51:15)

Yeah, we’ll put your contact info in the show notes for sure along with your website, those sorts of things just to make sure everybody can get a hold of you if they need to. Again, appreciate your kindness for sharing some really cool stuff.

Ryan Murray (51:27)

Yeah, and thank you Will for providing this platform. I think what you’re doing is great. Your content, you provide so much value for free. I follow a lot of your content and it’s been, it’s made me money. So thank you and I appreciate you. The plainest sense. So thank you for doing what you do and it was really fun to do this with you today.

William Hanke (51:39)

There we go. All right, I like to hear that.

you

Awesome. Thank you, Ryan. For listeners, please consider subscribing if you haven’t already. And we’re bringing out a lot of different episodes from a lot of different people and more experts like Ryan every time we publish a new episode of Marketing Panes. So thank you for listening. Thank you, Ryan, for your time. And everybody, hope you have a great day. We’ll see you in the next episode.

TRANSCRIPT

William Hanke (00:00)

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing Panes. This is episode number 45, the podcast where we talk to with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. Today we’ve got a guest with some great insights that I’m excited to interview. His name is Ryan Murray. Ryan is the owner and CEO of AAA Blind Shutter Factory in Little River.

South Carolina. Is it okay if I call it AAA from now on? Okay. AAA is a fabricator and dealer of shutters, roller shades and blinds. Ryan comes from outside the window treatment industry with a diverse background in finance and accounting, sales, marketing, and was most recently a general manager for a large med tech company. Ryan acquired AAA in

Ryan Murray (00:31)

Yeah, absolutely.

William Hanke (00:55)

2024 by following the path of ETA and entrepreneurship through acquisition. going to jump into that in just a second. Ryan has successfully grown the business 20 % in his first year of ownership and he plans to continue to grow AAA organically and inorganically with more acquisitions. Ryan, thank you so much for being on.

Ryan Murray (01:19)

Yeah, thanks Will, really excited to do this with you.

William Hanke (01:22)

Yeah, yeah, your whole story has really intrigued me. I know that you acquired AAA specifically about a year ago through what you call entrepreneurship through acquisition. So what drew you to the window treatment industry and specifically to a business that was 30 years old?

Ryan Murray (01:41)

Yeah, so I actually came out of college as an accounting major and I got my CPA. So I worked a traditional W2 job, if you will, before I got into business ownership. I always knew I wanted to be a business owner. And my risk profile didn’t allow for me to shoot for that zero to one startup style. So after working a number of years for large companies,

switching careers from accounting and finance, eventually into sales and marketing, where I did get a bit of a taste of entrepreneurship. I was in a role where I was a hundred percent commissioned, eat what you kill, responsible for your business and revenue. And I really was excited by that opportunity to, to live and eat on my own efforts. And so

I found this path, entrepreneurship through acquisition, as an alternative path to entrepreneurship that was a much better fit for my risk profile. And the data shows is you have a much higher likelihood of success versus zero to one startups. No knock on them, they’re super difficult. So those that do succeed in that type of an entrepreneurship, kudos to them.

It’s just a different style. So it was something I had sort of uncovered while I was in business school and upon graduation pursued it. I was frankly industry agnostic. I was more geographically focused, wanted to be in the Myrtle Beach area.

William Hanke (02:52)

OK.

Ryan Murray (03:02)

I just relocated there to be closer to family with my wife and now two sons. And I was fortunate enough to come across AAA Blind and Shutter Factory, which had a great strong history. This is our 29th year in business.

What I liked about the business is not only is window treatments a great industry, but there was also some real estate involved in the acquisition as well. So I was really drawn to something that had a tangible product, had a sales process, and something that fit my skills from my prior background, which I somewhat consider myself a generalist, given I have a mix of some technical with accounting and finance, as well as sales and marketing and some general management.

And it’s just been a lot of fun to learn a new widget. But when it comes down to running a business, a lot of the functions and practices are the same. And so being able to apply that prior knowledge has been, led me to least some success in the first year and we’re hoping more to come.

William Hanke (04:03)

Cool. So I’m curious how you even came across AAA in the first place. And once you kind of got involved, what was the first big change that you made and how did that go?

Ryan Murray (04:16)

Yeah, so for the uninitiated, when it comes to entrepreneurship through acquisition, the first step you take is you launch what’s called a search is what it’s commonly known as. And there’s different types of flavors of entrepreneurship or ETA as well. I pursued the self-funded path, which meant I was going to fund the bulk of the acquisition with equity, but also SBA debt.

The SBA has a great lending program that allows for small businesses to capitalize and make acquisitions happen. So like I said before, I was more geographically focused, but I had a criteria, a certain criteria for the business that I wanted to buy. I wanted it to have a long tenure, a motivated seller who had a great history with the business, one that had grown and one that had a tangible product and ideally real estate.

A Blind and Shutter Factory checked all those boxes for me. And what’s also great about the window treatment industry is the average ticket size, as well as the number of transactions that the business was performing was an attractive feature as well. And so I had looked at probably in depth 40 to 50 businesses before coming across AAA and Blind and Shutter Factory. And the way that I actually found it was through a broker. There’s multiple

William Hanke (05:29)

Okay.

Ryan Murray (05:35)

sit business brokers out there similar to real estate brokers, but please don’t confuse the two because they are very different. and the sellers who I purchased from had contracted a broker who had listed the business on business websites. There’s different websites where you can find businesses for sale. And so I had been performing a search, came across AAA, contacted the broker and we, took it from there.

William Hanke (05:42)

you

I know there are several business brokers in my town, so I’m pretty sure they’re pretty easy to find across the board.

Ryan Murray (06:08)

Yeah, so, and those relationships, that’s just one flavor of search is you can do what’s called a brokered search where you focus on those relationships. And eventually I did have some brokers who would reach out to me with opportunities. And so there’s all different flavors of entrepreneurship or searching. And so that was just the type that I had pursued. knowing your business brokers as well as tax advisors or wealth advisors, those

who are in the network with other business owners, real estate agents are good for that too, is a good way to find opportunities if you’re looking for a business to buy.

William Hanke (06:42)

Okay, all types of people that hang out at networking events. So they’re not hard to find, that’s for sure. Yeah, so tell me about once you got involved in the business, what was the first big change that you made?

Ryan Murray (06:49)

Absolutely.

Yeah, so the first big change that I made was actually the time clock and payroll. The business was most processes were being done on paper, including the time clock for the production facility and all the employees. And so that was the first change I made was I made the time clock digital.

William Hanke (07:02)

Okay.

Ryan Murray (07:14)

The business wasn’t doing direct deposit, so they were issuing paper checks for payroll every two weeks. that it sounds like a small change, but it was a huge lift and the employees were really excited and not have to drive to the bank every other Friday to cash their check. The paper time clock had all kinds of issues. We actually had some fun one day, took the paper time clock off the wall and we went outside and beat it with a bat, threw it in the dumpster.

William Hanke (07:36)

What?

Ryan Murray (07:37)

as sort of a impromptu team building exercise. So that was the first big change. And the second one was instituting software. As I mentioned, everything was done on paper, including our ordering and quoting processes. And for 28 years, this business had succeeded that way, quoting on triplicate paper. And that was our source of truth for all customer information, all ordering products. And we now have that in an electronic system.

And while it was an adjustment, it’s been a huge uplift for us to be able to track customer information, orders, have that all electronically so we can query it and just be more efficient and accurate in our coding and ordering processes.

William Hanke (08:18)

Yeah, I love those two changes and it is, it’s interesting how inconvenient it is now to go to a bank, right? We’re so spoiled that just something as simple as that can really make people happy.

Ryan Murray (08:31)

Yeah, and to me, they were pretty simple changes, but to the employees who had been there for a while, it made a huge difference. So ⁓ I was excited. But now we’re getting into some more difficult changes. Production facility we’re focusing on now, bringing in some automation, which what that means is bringing in some machinery to automate, particularly our shutter production process. We’re going to change the way we build the shutter. And so…

William Hanke (08:39)

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

OK.

Ryan Murray (08:59)

So change is not gonna stop. It doesn’t stop with the payroll and the ERP system. So we’re gonna continue to improve our processes with tools, electronic and non-electronic. so that change is gonna continue to happen.

William Hanke (09:02)

All

That’s awesome. Sounds like you’ve got kind of a plan put together, which is obviously really good.

Ryan Murray (09:18)

Yeah, I have a plan and whether or not that plan works is to be seen. We’ve had plans that we’ve had to pivot, but such is business ownership and that’s what makes it fun and exciting.

William Hanke (09:22)

you

Yeah, yeah. So a lot of window treatment companies only sell and install products from suppliers, and that’s probably most of my listeners as well. How does being both a manufacturer and a dealer position you differently in the market?

Ryan Murray (09:43)

Yeah. So again, what another thing that attracted me to this business is, is that it is unique within the industry given that we fabricate. We also do deal, but 80 % of our sales are our two main products, which are shutters and roller shades that are produced in our factory in Little River by local employees and installed by local employees. So we’re really proud of that. And the goal long-term is for our factory to become a platform.

but we do also deal some other products that we don’t make. The name actually AAA Blind and Shutter Factory, we used to make blinds. We actually now outsource that because it’s only about 5 % of sales, which I think is becoming more common in the industry. So we outsource that product and the space we were utilizing for blinds, we now use for roller shades, which is about 25 to 30 % of our sales. So it makes us unique because we’re able to issue a local offering.

People like to work with local businesses, especially now with all the discussion around tariffs and bringing American manufacturing back. It’s really helpful to our brand to be a local American manufacturer. And then inside of the business that allows us to control quality, it allows us to control our lead times. We’re faster than most of our competitors. We’re able to customize any shutter or roller shade to almost any spec that a customer would need.

And we’re less reliant on third parties since we’re playing a little higher up the value chain. it allows us to say yes a lot of times when others say no, particularly when it comes to timelines or certain customization. And then it also just allows us to provide a faster and more high touch experience. And then on the financial side, Martins are hired as well since again, we’re purchasing a lot of our material and then.

So we have some leverage there when it comes to material and even tariffs. And so it’s really unique in the industry in that fact. I know there are other fabricators out there, but there’s not too many in the Carolinas. And so we’re really proud to offer position ourselves as an American manufacturer.

William Hanke (11:54)

Yeah, I think that’s a huge advantage, especially nowadays as you mentioned. So I know your company serves a 50, 60 mile radius. How important is that local manufacturer identity to your customers?

Ryan Murray (12:06)

It’s extremely important. We’ve become so well known in the local community because of our fact that we are a manufacturer. And again, what it allows us to do is provide a superior customer experience. The customer knows they’re going to, when they call us, talk to someone on the phone. They know that not only are we going to be their customer service and sales team, we’re their manufacturer and we’re their installer.

We’re handling every step of the process as well as covering any warranties or repairs. So they know that they’re investing in a product that was locally made from a company that’s been around for almost 30 years. And if they ever have any issues, they’re investing in a product that they know is going to have support for decades to come. So we have a number of repeat customers who have purchased from us over that 29 year period in three, four, some five homes as they’ve either upgraded, downgraded or

move to a different location within our radius. And then with that, we get a ton of referrals too. it’s being local and controlling our manufacturing just provides us a lot more control over the experience for the customer. And that’s been a huge, huge benefit for us. I mentioned faster lead times, what it also does is allows us to employ more members of the community. So in our production facility, we have about 10 employees right now and all local employees.

And it’s frankly, it’s fun to go to work every day for me because there’s always a challenge to face, but we have such great people that look forward and really take pride in crafting a custom and local product that is going to go in customers homes in their windows that they’re going to look at every day. And, you know, it allows us to pivot and adapt quickly when a customer has an issue, a customer quest, a change, you know, God forbid we make a mistake on a shutter.

we’re able to correct that more quickly than anybody because we can have a remake out to them, you know, potentially the next day if we really need to, as opposed to purchasing from a supplier. So there’s a number of advantages, but it really comes down to the customer experience. They really feel like they know us personally, our employees personally, and that keeps customers coming back and referring their friends and family.

William Hanke (14:04)

Yeah, that’s huge.

Yeah, I think there’s definitely an advantage to owning the entire experience. As you mentioned, you guys have some fantastic leverage there. When it comes to manufacturing, what are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced that perhaps a retail-only business wouldn’t encounter?

Ryan Murray (14:36)

Yeah, so starting out of the gate, you have to manage your supply. So there’s certain raw materials that we still have to order from a supplier. So managing a higher level of inventory is critical because we’re managing raw materials, work in progress, in addition to dealers are handling finished goods, we’re doing that as well. So, and then it’s managing the production flow. Production is a chain and if once…

linking that chain is weak. It can cause a bottleneck. Things can slow down and get you off track. So we’ve gotten really efficient to where we can offer a customer an installation date upon ordering. many of our competitors wait till the product comes in to do that. We can provide that to them as soon as they order because we know what our production schedule looks like over the next few weeks. So, but on occasion that schedule gets a bit off track. We still

William Hanke (15:16)

yeah, for sure.

Ryan Murray (15:29)

Production relies on employees and humans who at times call out sick, things happen, but we have processes in place to make up for any gaps that sometimes pop up. And in a small business, we’ve learned to deal with them. so most of the challenges are not unique, I’d say, and we have some rules and ways to handle them, but then there are exceptions you just have to manage. But I think overall, it’s just…

With the challenges, there’s so much benefit that outweigh those challenges that being a manufacturer really is part of the reason why we’re so successful.

William Hanke (16:02)

Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Let’s talk about technology. How has implementing technology affected the manufacturing and your business operations?

Ryan Murray (16:12)

Yeah, technology has been, it’s really something we’ve tried to add. So it’s very new to the business, I’ll say. So operations have become much more efficient with, mentioned the ERP earlier, as far as introducing technology into the production process, we do have some semi-automation, some machinery that’s man or woman operated. And so we…

just yesterday actually purchased our first fully automated machine, which we expect to arrive in eight to 10 weeks that will actually build our louver trees for us. So we’re really excited about that. So what it’s gonna allow us to do is be more efficient and allow our team to focus on the jobs that really require a human touch. Things like quality control and

It allows us to provide better customer service. We’ll be able to make shutters faster. The machines in a lot of way, but we’ll be more accurate as well. And so it’s just going to allow us to serve the customer faster and better. So technology is something that we’re layering into the business with a cadence. I would love to add more automation and, add to the tech stack, but I’m also very careful about that as a business that was on paper, just really as of about six months ago, it was completely on paper.

Some of that’s going to take time, but I think that’s again an advantage for us that it’s going to allow us to really leverage the fact that it really allows us to control our cost structure when it comes to automation and finding those efficiencies will help us invest in other areas, whether that’s expanding or adding more employees to help us do those jobs that only humans can do.

William Hanke (17:55)

How have your employees reacted to the technology changes? I know you mentioned the payroll and that was really cool for them. But some of these other things they may look at it as you’re taking their jobs. How are your employees reacting to some of the other things you’re hoping to bring in?

Ryan Murray (18:11)

Yeah, so our plan isn’t to take any jobs with technology. Our plan is to use that technology to allow us to expand and allow humans to continue to focus on the jobs that only they can do. And a lot of that, if I had to put it under pillars around the customer experience and quality control. So, have been really receptive of it. They’ve looked at it as something that’s additive versus something that’s going to jeopardize their position.

So we have a lot of discussion around, this is a tool to make you better at your job. This isn’t a tool to replace you. And that’s really our intent is again, as a pillar of the community, we want to continue to employ local members of that community. And so they’ve been really receptive to technology. Yeah, the learning curve is often steep. So training is really important and we’re getting better at that.

So training and being thoughtful about how the technology gets introduced is frankly just as important as the actually execution or using the technology. So we’ve really tried to be thoughtful about how we introduce things and the employees have been pretty receptive thus far with some of the changes that we’ve made.

William Hanke (19:13)

Sure.

Yeah. How about software, the other side of technology, the software you’re bringing in, new software systems? How are your employees handling that? Is it pretty easy to pick up some of the new things and move forward?

Ryan Murray (19:31)

Yeah, I would say that that’s been one of the more difficult tasks. When you introduce an ERP or CRM system, you’re doing what feels like open heart surgery on your business, especially when you’re asking team members who have built a process and created a system and followed it successfully for a number of years to introduce new technology and kind of burn the boats on some of those other systems.

William Hanke (19:41)

Right?

Ryan Murray (19:58)

It’s very, it’s very difficult. So again, that comes down to planning, setting expectations early on. I said flat out to my team, this is going to suck. This is going to be very hard for the first couple months. That’s, please expect that. And I think saying that out loud, them hearing that from me, it probably made them a little bit nervous, but it also,

William Hanke (20:17)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (20:26)

led to fewer surprises once the software got introduced. And so they were much more receptive to fighting through that pain, that uphill climb in the first couple of weeks in particular, because they knew what we were getting into and we were doing it together. I mean, it sucked for all of us, me who I like to think I’m an early adopter with a lot of things, it was painful for me as well. So going through that journey together, you know, it’s,

it helped ease some of that pain and it just comes down to setting expectations and providing good training. And some of these things you just learn on the fly. And I think that’s what’s great about small businesses versus large, where I came from, is that a lot of employees are willing to accept that kind of build the plane as you fly it mentality, which often implementing technology can feel like that. And so it was a…

William Hanke (21:17)

Sure.

Ryan Murray (21:19)

it so far has been been a good experience. But I’m getting ready to introduce another new software here shortly. So, you know, we want to get the first one done right before we do that. But it’s only going to make us better and make our team more effective in their roles.

William Hanke (21:34)

Yeah, any unexpected hurdles when you were rolling out both the software side and the new machinery?

Ryan Murray (21:40)

Yeah, the software, again, just the amount of time it takes to fully implement it. It’s so hard to estimate that. So there’s still some features of the software that we just haven’t used yet that I thought would be in place. So as far as timing of execution, it’s been a bit delayed, but not surprising. And we’re still working through that. As far as the machinery,

We’ve tried some used machinery. The equipment I have coming in a couple of weeks is new and lesson learned there is used machinery is great. It can be a little less expensive in terms of investment, but if you don’t know how to maintain it and it doesn’t work, it’s useless. without going into too many details, there’s some machinery we’ve invested in that is not going to work out.

And that’s part of business as well. You take risks, make decisions, and sometimes it doesn’t work. And so we planned for that and the investment was such that if it did not work out, we were not going to be put out of business. And we still had room to pivot, to go to some different equipment. And so that was unexpected that we weren’t gonna be able to get this piece of machinery up and running.

So a lot of it too comes down to the know-how you have within the team. And I think my expectations were a little too high around our ability to implement this technology. So I’ve learned to call for help a little bit sooner when it comes to machinery. And so, you know, I certainly learned a hard lesson there, but a good one. And I’m glad I learned it early and will be much better for it going forward as we scale up more and more.

William Hanke (23:02)

Sure.

Yeah, great point that it’s not always the cheapest or a good deal that ends up being a great deal after all, We do something similar with websites. The way I pitch it is we don’t know how many Band-Aids have been put on that. And it might be better just to start with something new, right?

Ryan Murray (23:20)

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, it’s, yes. So sometimes starting from scratch or investing more upfront is gonna save you a lot of heartache on the backend. It’s just hard to see that upfront when you’re talking, you know, big money either way. ⁓ but yeah, lesson learned there that sometimes the bigger investment upfront is gonna save you a lot of expense on the backend.

William Hanke (23:42)

Yeah.

Yeah. So you mentioned earlier on that you funded a lot of this through an SBA loan. Is there wiggle room in that for these kinds of things that come up? Or how do you fund that sudden change?

Ryan Murray (24:07)

Yeah, so the SBA often, and this varies by bank, they’ll issue a line of credit. So you do have a bit of a pool you can draw from. A line of credit’s not really supposed to be used for capital expenditures. So I didn’t use that to purchase the machinery, but as far as wiggle room, you do have some built-in cushion there. But I was able to go back to the bank and get an additional loan to purchase the equipment.

So that’s one of the benefits of side effects of an SBA loan is it’s typically issued by a regional bank. And you then have a banking partner who, when it comes to purchasing machinery, making investments, is somebody you can use as a resource to be able to make those investment decisions. I was able to do that. And it was made easier by the fact that in the first year, we’ve been pretty successful.

been able to prove that we’re able to make our loan payments every month, grow the business and generate enough revenue and cashflow to not only stay in business, but to continue to invest. so building that trust and sort of proving yourself with the bank has opened some options that I may not have had from day one. So having a bagging partner has been critical and will be critical to going forward or our continued growth.

William Hanke (25:13)

That’s great.

Yeah, good to know how that kind of works. You mentioned earlier on that Myrtle Beach is one of the fastest growing markets in the country. How has this growth affected your manufacturing capabilities and your business strategy?

Ryan Murray (25:33)

Yeah, so Myrtle Beach, the greater Myrtle Beach area, depending on some measures is, I think by a percentage basis, the fastest growing, one of the fastest growing MSAs in the country. And what that means for in terms of who our customers are, a lot of our customers are people from the Northeast who are relocating. Many of them, instead of going to Florida, are coming to the Carolinas. So you have a lot of…

You have a lot of new homeowners from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, PA. And what’s good about that is housing is much less expensive in this area versus the Northeast. So there’s some arbitrage in the housing market ⁓ that has allowed for people to invest more in what goes inside of their home than just the price of purchasing the house. So given the migration that’s happened to all of the Carolinas really,

William Hanke (26:12)

Okay.

Ryan Murray (26:25)

A lot of new construction is popping up every day. So the opportunity that that presents for window treatment companies is the opportunity to do a whole house instead of just a few windows here and there. So a number of our customers are new construction and not all of them are retirees. A lot of them are families like mine that just moved here three years ago who, you know, they’re looking for something that they want to get great value.

William Hanke (26:35)

Right.

Ryan Murray (26:50)

and they also want to get a great product. And so we’re able to offer that given our manufacturing capabilities and our control over our supply chain and pricing, we’re able to offer a custom unique product, a premium product at a non-premium price. So that’s really what’s attracted many customers to working with us in addition to just the experience that they get.

and so make sure we’re communicating that value proposition, but also ensuring that customers know who our reputation and Frank, just that we exist, right? you know, one of the first principles of marketing there. And, so we focused a lot on, in addition to, talked about machinery and software, our digital marketing, which is another thing the business was not investing in prior to me taking over has been huge for us. So.

really making sure that Google business profile is optimized, SEO is dialed in. Google Ads has been huge for us. We’ve driven a lot of leads at a fairly low cost. And so we’ve been really successful in generating demand using those tools. So, you know, the growth of the market is for a while there was probably more demand than supply and

We’ve actually struggled a little bit with that on the production side and I’ve had to hold some demand back. So what I mean by that is I would like to dial up Google ads, but we actually don’t quite have the capacity. That’s changed a little bit in the last month, I think due to tariffs mostly, which I’m hoping we’ll get through that shortly. yeah, the population, the migration has just led to a lot of opportunity in the window treatment industry, but just in home services in general.

So we’re hoping that continues because frankly a lot of our success is attributed to that regional trend and I just don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. So we’re going to continue to invest in our capacity with machinery and take advantage of the growth we’re seeing in this market.

William Hanke (28:50)

I’ve seen a lot lately about, you know, US-made or US-built products, especially with the tariff conversation going on, that the demand is high and the deliverability isn’t there because they weren’t expecting this, right?

Ryan Murray (29:05)

Yeah, yeah, that, that we’ve certainly seen some of that and you know, we’ve had some disruption again with some of the changes that I mentioned has just slowed us down in ways we didn’t anticipate, created some bottlenecks in our operations and, it’s a good problem to have, right? ⁓ I’d rather have that problem than the inverse, not having enough demand and excess capacity. So ⁓ it’s, I’d rather be solving that. So.

William Hanke (29:18)

sure.

It is. Yeah.

Right.

Ryan Murray (29:33)

So yeah, we’re still working through it and we wanna be cautious, because frankly the business, given I have the SBA loan, does have a lot of debt on it. So I do have to be careful and monitor cashflow very, very closely. So it’s something that we’re keeping an eye on and I’m always trying to look around the corner like most business owners to anticipate what’s gonna happen next. But just continuing to invest in the business is…

almost always going to pay dividends.

William Hanke (30:04)

Yeah. So speaking of investing in the business, we mentioned earlier on about entrepreneurship through acquisition, right? If there was a window treatment listener on here, maybe they’re a dealer, and they’re thinking about adding on the manufacturing piece, what kind of advice would you give them about scaling, equipment, staffing, getting started?

Ryan Murray (30:26)

Yeah, so as far as manufacturing goes, there’s so many components that go into it that you have to consider. If you wanted to get into manufacturing, you’re gonna have to be able to staff it properly and you’re gonna be able to have to provide that staff the proper resources. So being prepared to invest upfront.

is key, like we talked about with the machinery. And it’s probably going to be more expensive than you plan. So be ready to have some cushion if you’re looking to make that change. you know, as far as scaling it up, it has to be well planned and one step at a time. You know, one way we’re scaling up again is the machinery, but then there’s also certain problems or

or features of scaling where the solution to the problem is not how, it’s who. So one of the things we’ve done is we’ve thought about our management structure and we’ve actually created a layer of leadership responsible for each department. So our shutter production, roller shade production, our installation team and our sales team, sort of how we break out our organization and installing a leader in each of those organizations.

has been super helpful because it allows each organization to be more agile and make decisions more quickly. I didn’t come from the industry, so I’m not an expert in how to build a shutter or even how to install one. So I rely on my people to make those decisions and we’ve installed leaders so that they can be made in the field, in the factory, on the fly, often without permission. And so finding good people, which is difficult.

A lot of our people that have been put in those leadership positions have been promoted within the business and we’re really proud of that. So taking care of good employees and being able to show them a career path where they can advance has been really helpful for us, especially having a multifaceted business where we have sales, installation and production. So being able to create opportunity and show employees that there’s a path forward.

which is afforded by the fact that the business is growing, but it creates this flywheel, right? If the business is growing, we can create more opportunity, employees can move up, they’re more motivated, you can attract better talent. And so it’s created this in the short term, this flywheel that has allowed us to succeed. mean, but I would say people in process are the number one thing when it comes to being able to either start, run, or scale up a…

William Hanke (32:39)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (32:59)

manufacturing facility. So I’m still figuring it out, learning every day. ⁓ But so so far what we’re doing is working and we’re really proud of it.

William Hanke (33:04)

Sure.

So on the other side of that question, what about, since you’re somebody who’s kind of interested in acquiring more window treatment companies, what qualities would you look for in potential acquisitions?

Ryan Murray (33:22)

Yeah, so one is a solid history. So you want to find a business that’s been in business for a number of years that has a track record. Ideally, you’ll find a seller who is motivated either they’re retiring. That’s often the best profile is somebody who has run a successful business, maybe doesn’t have family or someone they want to hand it down to. And they’re looking for an exit so they can retire. That’s often the purest motivation for selling.

So that those are those two things are the first two I’d say green lights for me when evaluating a business You want to make sure it’s bankable meaning if you’re going to use an SBA loan Or some type of debt to purchase the business you want to make sure that the acquisition price you’re going to pay is Going to underwrite with the bank. So Meaning is there enough cash left over after you pay that debt each month to pay yourself?

continue to invest in the business, pay your employees and continue to operate the business. So that’s important as well, because if you pay too much for a business or the price is too high, you’re not going to be able to get that deal funded. And that’ll be a non-starter if you’re looking to use SBA or bank debt. So I would say those are just high level. The first couple of points of criteria I look at, but

William Hanke (34:32)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (34:42)

Then going a level deeper, you want to make sure that that seller, the person you’re working with, you want to evaluate them as an individual and make sure you’re working with a good person because that’ll be an indication of how the employees were treated, how the business was run. A lot of times the business takes on the personality of the owner. So you want to make sure you’re just working with someone who you feel is a trustworthy and just a solid person. So I was fortunate to AAA was owned and run by

a husband and wife team for a number of years and they just turned, they’re just A plus people and that was pretty obvious upfront. So that allows you that trust to really work through some hard things that happened during an acquisition. There are just things that happened that challenges, disagreements that you’re just gonna have to work through. And if your counterparty on the other side is…

somebody who’s not trustworthy or difficult to work with, it’s gonna be so much harder to overcome those things. And so much time gets invested and deals like this die all the time. So a lot of it comes down to just working with good people and being able to work through issues. So I would say upfront, couple of things are without them, it’s gonna be really hard to even get started. So looking for those things out of the gate, if they’re not there, we’ll help you move on more quickly too. Saying no fast is really important.

The last thing you want to do is spend too much time on a deal that’s just not going to work. So being able to evaluate that and sense that out upfront, which frankly takes a few repetitions. I had to learn some of those things the hard way. But ultimately, it led me to building a criteria that helped me find a really great business. So that would be my advice to anybody who’s looking to acquire one. also, if anybody listening, I’m sure will put my information.

out here at the podcast, I’m happy to talk to them as well. There’s a number of people in this somewhat nascent industry, which I’ll ETA, so buying small businesses. There’s a number of providers out there who can help guide you through this process as well, if it’s something that you feel you need help with. So I’m happy to talk to anybody who wants to discuss it to give them some tips and pearls and some guidance.

William Hanke (36:50)

Yeah, appreciate that. Appreciate that. I know I’ve heard in the past something similar to what you said about working hard to disqualify a lot of the list, you know, so that you’re not wasting time on those things.

Ryan Murray (37:03)

Yeah, it’s, ⁓

yeah, cause the time you waste on a bad deal could be the time invested. could invest in looking at a good one. So it’s, you know, you want to say no quickly if you see certain, certain red flags and move on fast. Cause it’s probably going to take you multiple attempts to find the right one.

William Hanke (37:21)

Yeah, I know you’ve got a little background in marketing. Of course, that’s what I really like. How does marketing a manufacturing business differ from marketing a retail only window treatment business?

Ryan Murray (37:34)

Yes, a lot of it is around that positioning and branding. So communicating the fact that we are a local manufacturer, we’re USA made, local employees. So local is really the theme here. it’s been something I’ve kind of been learning on the fly, how to really communicate that differentiation to the customer.

Not every customer cares about local. Some care about budget, some care about quality more than where it’s made. really knowing who your customers are and getting that message to those who really care about local. so we’ve retrieved a lot of data from Google and Facebook. I’ve used a lot of AI, chat GPT, Claw to distill some of that data.

Every couple of months I’ll have ChatGPT do a study on our Google reviews. We’re up to 273 five-star reviews. So that’s a really good source of information. And ChatGPT can distill it in a way that will provide insights that frankly has helped us change our brand positioning and how we communicate to customers. And that’s where we really learned too that customer experience is so valuable because over 50 % of our reviews

the customer mentioned one of our employees by name and how great they were and how they’ll never go anywhere else for window treatments in the future. so there’s data out there that you just, there’s so many tools you can use to gain some insights and help it to refine your messaging and your branding. And so we’re always talking about that too.

William Hanke (38:53)

Great.

Ryan Murray (39:11)

I’m always asking employees what customers are saying. So just getting that feedback from the customer themselves, but also from any data point that you can. And with tools like AI tools, you can easily distill that down and have it make recommendations. And AI has been a really great thought partner, distilling that data information and has really allowed us to identify how we should position our brand in the market.

William Hanke (39:36)

I love that. I love the idea of putting all your reviews into AI and then kind of get a summary. We do something similar with our clients’ phone calls. So every call is recorded. We upload those transcriptions and say, us common themes, common questions. What kind of things keep coming up that maybe we could kind of sort of optimize?

Ryan Murray (39:56)

Yeah,

we’ll have to talk more about that. I’m very interested in that. The software I’m actually looking at implementing next is a call tracking software. we’ll have to discuss that. actually just this morning, I got done writing a new script for follow-ups. So we would love to close customers 100 % of the time in the field, but that doesn’t happen. We’re about 70%.

So follow up is so important because you’ve invested all that time to, you’ve paid for the lead, you’ve gone out to the appointment, you spent time with the customer, our sales manager has been in their house, they’ve talked to our customer service team on the phone, and so that follow up is really key to capitalize on that investment of money and time you spent working with that lead and customer. And so I was using ChatGPT to kind of,

William Hanke (40:24)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (40:46)

Customize a script for us and it’s something that we’re we’re going to implement here in the next few weeks with a new follow-up system and so Yeah, using the tools to your advantage It is key and allows you to create leverage within the business again going back to using technology to make employees better That’s that’s that’s my goal when I use a tool like that

William Hanke (41:06)

Right. I love that you brought up the follow-up thing. It’s amazing how many business owners just don’t follow up. You know, they do the quote, and well, I never heard from them. I’m reading a book right now called Outgrow, which is just fantastic about getting better at that follow-up piece and making it just a helpful conversation instead of trying to get the yes. I think that’s great.

Ryan Murray (41:27)

Yeah, exactly. I think it was one

of your videos where I learned that, was it like 80 % of deals closed after the sixth follow-up? There’s some interesting data around the number of follow-ups required too. it’s, you know, obviously there’s a cadence and there’s a channel you can use for each file. You know, it’s, you can really, you can really get.

William Hanke (41:39)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Murray (41:49)

super complex but ultimately the takeaway is you just have to follow up period. It’s so important. You’ve worked so hard to get that lead and a five minute phone call might lead to thousands of dollars. So why would you not make it? you know, the pushback I get is the used car salesman feel and it, but there’s ways to not do that. You’re trying to meet people where they are.

and make it easy for them. And oftentimes that follow-up call is easy for them because they say, yeah, you were here. Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s go forward. I forgot to call. I couldn’t find your number. So those are the customers we’re trying to capture. We’re not trying to convince anybody to do something they don’t want to do. So follow-up is just so key.

William Hanke (42:10)

All

Yeah, quick story, our home got hit by a tornado.

in March and just ruin deciding the roof needs to be replaced. I had three different roofers come out and that’s not cheap. I that’s going to be twenty two grand, I think, for the roof. ⁓ And so I three guys out. One of them stood in my living room and told me how much he’s focused on building relationships and things like that. And never heard from him again. And the one guy that I ended up hiring was the one that followed up probably three times.

Ryan Murray (42:42)

Sure.

William Hanke (42:57)

because I was busy worried about siding and gutters and all the other things, right? So that guy got the job.

Ryan Murray (43:03)

100%. I had the same exact experience with a job at my home about three weeks ago. I had three estimates and the guy who followed up while I was running around worrying about our next container of material coming in, right? Not even, and he got a text, hey, are you ready to move forward? I’ll take a few bucks off the quote, right? And I just said, yep, let’s do it. Yep, when can we start, right? All because he sent me a text. So it’s huge.

William Hanke (43:17)

You

Yeah.

Right, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, good stuff. I love that you guys are doing the digital marketing side too. Obviously, that’s my passion. But it’s cool to see even on the manufacturing side that you guys are still using that to kind of generate some business.

Ryan Murray (43:42)

Yeah, digital marketing, mean, in this day and age, you’re not using that channel to market, you’re behind. And there’s so many different sources you can use. I’m trying to learn every day how we can take further advantage of it, because it’s so scalable and it creates so much leverage. So it’s a…

and there’s so many different steps within that process, you can optimize one or two percent, right? And if one percent here, one percent there can lead to a few thousand dollars in sales with just a little bit of effort, so.

William Hanke (44:02)

You

Right.

Yeah. So you mentioned that you guys have kind of, you’re in a situation with lots of demand. Tell me, you also said that you kind of have basically two lines of products that is the bulk of your sales. Do you guys have any plans on adding in like exterior stuff or any other products?

Ryan Murray (44:30)

Sure, yeah, so we’re evaluating exterior now. We were looking for some vendors at IWCE just a couple weeks ago. Did our first measure for an outdoor shade about a week ago. And the product we were gonna use turns out it’s not gonna be a great fit. So we’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board. As far as what we manufacture, we’re gonna continue to focus on shutters and roller shades. We do offer solar shades as part of our roller shade line.

that can be used in screened in porches, but I wouldn’t call them true exterior. You’re not going to use it to enclose the lanai with a captured edge like product. So we’re looking for partners to do that. Bahama shutters and colonial shutters, I think are an interesting play as well. And so we’ve talked with a partner about potentially evaluating that category. And so this year,

we’re gonna look to add some outdoor, because it’s just the trend with outdoor has, it’s here, it’s been here. And now with people staying in place, 80 % of homeowners having a mortgage rate under, I think 4%, right? Making it very difficult for certain individuals to move. So they’re investing in their homes, they’re upgrading, they’re improving, they’re building a nicer backyard.

And so that’s a wave we want to get involved with. so, you know, it’s difficult though when you’re trying to manage a manufacturing facility as well and invest in that to add new products. so we’re trying to take it one step at a time, but I think that’s a trend that’s here to stay that we’re missing out on if we don’t add it to our portfolio. So we’re just in the beginnings of that.

We’re excited to get that going.

William Hanke (46:07)

Yeah, yeah, I agree. But as you said earlier, it’s a good problem to have, right? I mean, it’s it’s it’s an issue, but that’s OK. We’ll get through it. So a couple of quick fun questions or a little bit light hearted. What’s one thing you do as a leader that people might not see, but it makes a really big impact?

Ryan Murray (46:15)

Yeah, exactly.

tough one. think, one thing I do is I’m, I’m always trying to think of second and third order effects of any decision I make or anything I say or do particularly around employees. I’m always trying to anticipate the reaction and I’m always trying to think of ways that can boost morale, keep people happy, but also keeping people motivated to do a good job.

to train, to get better at their job. And so I spent, it’s hard to turn it off, right? Like you were saying earlier, I think you’re doing a workcation a little bit this week, you’d said. So as a business owner, it’s hard to turn it off sometimes. so I try to lead with my whole self and be genuine. And I always try to think of…

William Hanke (47:03)

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (47:15)

of the people and how’s this decision going to affect them? Not only is it how is it going to affect the business, but how is it going to affect the people? Because it doesn’t happen without happy motivated people. So I always try to think those consequences through two, three steps ahead. And a lot of times I’m wrong, but I’m pretty open about that. And when I do get it wrong, I feel they, my team gives me a little more slack because they know

how I’m thinking and the logic that I’m using behind any decision I make. So my goal is to be as predictable as possible. I want my employees to know what I’m going to say or when I’m going to say it when a situation arises. I would love to be that predictable for them. being willing to share and being open with the business and the results and how it’s performing and just building that trust, I think, has has gone a long way and I’m continuing to lean into that.

William Hanke (48:08)

Yeah. Have you used AI for any of that kind of stuff to help you with the decision making?

Ryan Murray (48:13)

absolutely. was chatting with, I was using voice mode with chat GPT on my way home today to evaluate a partnership. So, ⁓ so that’s why I really, I really try to think of AI is not just a, you know, a content generator. That was my initial use case, marketing copy. ⁓ More is now a thought partner. And so it’s been really helpful because it is in theory.

William Hanke (48:21)

Nice.

Right.

Ryan Murray (48:39)

objective more so than maybe a person or a consultant. So it’s been really helpful. It helps you be more, I think, less afraid to communicate in a certain way what your fears are, what your concerns are with a certain decision. So it’s been helpful in that sense and I really look forward to see where this technology goes because it’s…

It’s just been so helpful for me as a leader and a thought partner so far.

William Hanke (49:05)

Yeah, I think you hit it on the head there with Thought Partner. There’s a book called AI Driven Leader that is all about how to use AI to become a thought partner, not take over the business and make the decisions, but be able to bounce ideas off of. I think it’s a fantastic and smart way to go in the future.

Ryan Murray (49:23)

Yeah, absolutely. How do you use it? Are you using it as a thought partner in any sense?

William Hanke (49:29)

yeah, every day. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, even from employee situations, here’s what’s going on. You know, how should I approach this? and I’m also a fan of Dan Martell who always talks about, the one three one concept, is bring me the problem, bring me three potential solutions, and then bring me one that you’re considering or leaning towards. And I’ll kind of input all of that into chat GPT and say, here’s what I’m thinking, but

Give me, like you said, give me potential scenarios I’m not even considering right now that might come out of this.

Ryan Murray (50:00)

Right,

right. I think that’s been one of the steps forward with me in utilizing AI is having it, asking it, what am I missing? What am I not asking? What am I not asking you? What should I be asking you? Right? I’m saying you like it’s a person, but that’s how we communicate with the technology right now. ⁓ yeah, I think I liked that. I hadn’t heard the 131.

William Hanke (50:18)

Right.

Yeah.

Ryan Murray (50:28)

That’s it. I like that as a tool. yeah, it’s certainly useful. It’s a little scary how useful it is sometimes, but ⁓ it helps you uncover some things that you probably wouldn’t otherwise.

William Hanke (50:36)

Sure.

Yeah, well Ryan, I appreciate your time so much today. We dove pretty deep into ETA and some of the things that you’ve done and the manufacturing side owning that kind of a world which is different than what a lot of our listeners do. So, highly appreciate your time today.

Ryan Murray (50:56)

Yeah, and thank you. And I would just say if there’s any business owners out there listening who want to talk about ETA or are interested in selling their window treatment business or even a home service business, my email’s open. It’s ryan.aaabliens.gmail.com. I’m always happy to chat.

William Hanke (51:15)

Yeah, we’ll put your contact info in the show notes for sure along with your website, those sorts of things just to make sure everybody can get a hold of you if they need to. Again, appreciate your kindness for sharing some really cool stuff.

Ryan Murray (51:27)

Yeah, and thank you Will for providing this platform. I think what you’re doing is great. Your content, you provide so much value for free. I follow a lot of your content and it’s been, it’s made me money. So thank you and I appreciate you. The plainest sense. So thank you for doing what you do and it was really fun to do this with you today.

William Hanke (51:39)

There we go. All right, I like to hear that.

you

Awesome. Thank you, Ryan. For listeners, please consider subscribing if you haven’t already. And we’re bringing out a lot of different episodes from a lot of different people and more experts like Ryan every time we publish a new episode of Marketing Panes. So thank you for listening. Thank you, Ryan, for your time. And everybody, hope you have a great day. We’ll see you in the next episode.