How to Succeed at Succession, Part I

M&H Appliance’s Brian Ashworth (left) prepared for the future by purchasing Rick Anderson’s home furnishing’s store.

BrandSource members share their hits and misses 

By Janet Weyandt, YSN 

First of three parts. 

Selling a business is hard work. It’s a complex process with a million details and there are lots of ways it can go wrong.  

The only thing worse than selling a business, in fact, is not selling when the time is right. Every day, independent retailers with profitable businesses close their doors instead of trying to find a buyer and extend the life of their store.  

The other side of the coin is buying: Expanding a business is a good way to secure it for the long run.  

BrandSource has taken this issue by the horns with a new platform, Business Baton, which helps put prospective buyers and sellers together. The purpose is to give group members a little help when they’re looking for a good match.  

See: AVB Helps Members Pass the Baton 

Kevin Werner, BrandSource’s vice president of membership, manages the listings on Business Baton and works with members who are interested in buying or selling. He knows more than a little about what they’re up against.  

“I’ve done it three times in my career and it is complicated,” Werner said. “What happens a lot of times is a member will try to sell a business and if they don’t have any luck listing it, they just end up closing it and liquidating. We don’t want somebody who has a really good business to lose that.” 

What many business owners don’t know is that a solid succession plan can’t be thrown together in a few weeks or months. It’s a long process that can take up to five years in some cases. 

“Succession planning has to start years in advance,” Werner said. “You can’t wait until 90 days or six months out. The sooner the better, because there is a lot involved.”  

Related: Are You and Your Business Ready to Sell? 

That was the topic when AVB CEO Jim Ristow beamed into a multi-region meeting last June and spoke to members from the Pacific Rim, Rocky Mountain and Northwest contingents about succession planning.  

The session was called “Is Your House in Order?” and the number of people in the room who didn’t raise their hands when Ristow asked that question was eye-opening, Werner said.  

“The whole concept behind [Business Baton] was having a way that we could connect members interested in selling a business with members interested in buying a business,” he said.  

Growing Thoughtfully 

Brian Ashworth started his first business at 15, and over the decades changed it and added to it until it became M&H Appliance and Home Furnishings, a five-store retail chain that provides appliances, furniture, mattresses, electronics and service to multiple East Central Minnesota communities.  

With 40 employees and a part-time assist from his parents, Ashworth is looking ahead to the future of his business.  

“With the growth, we’ve been able to add some layers of management so I’m not wearing every hat anymore,” he said. “We’ve got a new team now, but we’re starting on the right foot having some younger talent in there, teaching them our ways versus maybe what they would have picked up at other places.” 

A big piece of the pie is Ashworth’s son, Carter, who will complete his business degree in May and then join the family business full time. It will be the first time Carter has worked consistently for the business.  

“Believe it or not, I didn’t want him involved at all, to not be the boss’s kid,” Ashworth said. “We made him work at a grocery store for two years to see how the world turns outside the family business. You need to know that’s really what you want.” 

Ashworth said membership in BrandSource has been especially helpful this year as he dipped a toe into furniture by buying Rick’s Home Furnishings, a successful store with a 40-year history in Mora, Minn. He is busy integrating the new furniture, mattress and appliance shop into his existing appliance and mattress business in the same community, and BrandSource is helping him make the most of both.  

“That’s where I’ll say BrandSource has probably been best for me,” he said. “It’s helped me navigate vendors I wanted to talk to so I’m not knocking on the wrong doors. Honestly, I don’t know how [the seller] would have been able to sell this to someone outside the industry and have it up and running as fast as we were … without that group support.”  

Ashworth has several “friendly competitors” in his area: fellow BrandSource members who collaborate when they can and help each other out. And he’s received a lot of interest from people who want to work for him.  

“I use a lot of coaching and consulting, inside and outside the industry,” he said. “Even the best athletes have trainers. We’re constantly looking to improve and be more efficient and go the right way. We want to bridge that gap between corporate America and one-store mom ’n pop. Somewhere in the middle is where you’re going to need to be to survive.” 

And that’s another way he is securing the future of M&H Appliances.  

“We want to keep the tradition of independent retail alive,” he said. 

Next up: Battling Back from Tragedy: Bozzuto’s Furniture and Appliance 

YSN publisher AVB BrandSource is the nation’s largest merchandising and marketing co-op for independent appliance, mattress, furniture and CE dealers. 

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