A 30-Year Family Business, Sold Through Every Curveball: Brett’s Story with Baton
Rachel Horner
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6 min read
Inspired by Baton’s owner success stories, here’s how Brett Hemphill went from 30 years of running Hemphill’s Rugs and Carpets to a closed sale with a local buyer.
About the Business
Industry: Specialty Flooring Retail / Custom Rugs and Carpet
Location: Costa Mesa, CA
Watch the Video
The Challenge: A Family Business His Sons Wouldn’t Inherit
Brett learned the flooring business by helping launch a carpet division for a furniture store in Williamsburg, Virginia. Six years later, in 1995, he moved home and started Hemphill’s Rugs and Carpets from scratch.
Thirty years on, the store had found its niche at the high end of the market. It sold custom-color carpet, custom-designed and hand-knotted area rugs, and custom hardwood, much of it sourced from vendors with limited distribution. By the end, almost all of the business came from referrals and repeat customers, and some families had been buying from Brett for two generations.
Brett and his wife ran it together, and both were fully involved. He tried for years to get her to go part time.
“She’s the type of person that gives 110%, and always had an excuse for why she couldn’t go part time. So that honestly was one reason for selling, just to get rid of some of the stress.”
Neither of their sons was going to take over. One is a mechanical engineer, and the other was headed into film. Both had fallen for the East Coast, so Brett and his wife wanted to be free to follow them there.
He started preparing two years before he sold. He hired a business coach and met with him every other week. Brett and his wife documented everything a stand-in would need if they were gone for three weeks, from vendor contacts to rebooting the internet, and put it all in two binders.
“Being a smaller family-owned business, we know what’s going on. The business needs to operate without us.”
From Valuation to Closing: How Baton Kept the Deal Alive
The timing was almost too perfect. Brett’s coach told him it was time to get the business valued, and about 30 minutes later an email from Baton arrived in his inbox.
“Usually I scream and yell about unsolicited phone calls and emails. This was just crazy.”
He had already tried selling on his own. He mailed letters to competitors he thought might be interested and got two replies, and both were lowball offers. After comparing other options, Brett chose Baton.
What happened at every stage
Valuation: Baton’s number matched what he had in mind, and a second, independent valuation came in right in line with it.
Buyer Outreach: His favorite part of the listing was the owner video. “It really allows a buyer to have a face to put with this business name and answer a lot of questions up front, so the potential buyer can do some due diligence prior to making a commitment to take the next step.” Several offers came in. The one that stood out was from a local buyer who had previously owned and sold a home furnishings business. Brett gave him a private weekend tour of the showroom, and the two got along right away. With a transition period ahead, that rapport mattered.
Offer Selection and Negotiation: The buyer used an SBA loan, and SBA lenders typically require a 10-year lease. The store had five years left on its lease. The fix was to restructure the deal so the buyer bought the real estate and the business together under one SBA loan. Brett mostly stayed out of the loan process, partly because the buyer’s loan officer was a former customer from the buyer’s furniture store days. “All I had to do was provide financials and such.”
Diligence and Closing Support: The deal fell apart more than once. Brett’s advisor, Reid, held weekly Zoom calls with Brett and the buyer to keep everyone aligned, and he stayed calm when things went sideways. “Our deal kind of fell apart a couple of times and we had to regroup. Reid very calmly explained the situation, and we worked through all the little details.”
The Results
Through Baton’s competitive outreach, intuitive platform, and end-to-end support, Brett:
Sold to a local buyer he trusted and got along with, which made the transition easy
Kept the deal going through financing problems, a change in terms, and a second buyer who came and went
Paid a lower commission than he would have with the other options he researched
“The platform of Baton, based on all the other ones that I had researched, is hands down the best. And the cost to sell, the commission, is less too. So it’s a win-win.”
What’s Next for Brett?
Brett and his wife each stayed on for three months, working three days a week. He handled finance, and she trained the buyer’s new salesperson. Brett also ended up moving a lot of furniture and fixtures for the buyer’s showroom upgrades, which he hadn’t planned on. “It couldn’t have gone better.”
Life looks very different now. He used to get hundreds of emails a day, and now he wakes up to four to six. He sails several days a week, races in a weekly “beer can” series with friends, and helps with projects at his yacht club’s outstation on Catalina Island.
His wife had the biggest change.
“She’s going out to lunch with friends. She used to be very strict about what she could and couldn’t do if she had to work the next day. That has made a remarkable difference in her lifestyle, which is kind of the goal.”
When both sons settle on the East Coast, Brett and his wife plan to follow, probably to North Carolina.
Advice and Lessons for Future Sellers
Your business may be worth more than you think. Brett is now helping a friend with health issues start the process with Baton. “The fact that small business people don’t think their business is worth anything is shocking to me. If you don’t have somebody in the family that’s gonna take it over, you should at least explore it.”
Start preparing years ahead. He suggests working with a business coach and documenting everything so the business can run without you. “Work with a business coach to get it ramped up and ready to sell, because that’s a whole process that’s gonna take a bit of time.”
Pick a buyer you’ll enjoy working with. You’ll probably spend weeks or months training them after the sale. “It’s nice to have somebody you have a compatible relationship with versus somebody that’s not gonna be so pleasant.”
Find a partner who can get you through the hard parts. Brett’s deal hit nearly every snag a deal can hit and still closed. “I couldn’t praise Baton more. And I’ve said it to many friends.”