A Louisville succession story at Bronwsboro Hardware & Paint

INDEPENDENT PROFILE

A Louisville succession story

Employee rises to ownership of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint

By Tim Burke

You’ve done it all—swept floors, dusted shelves, and worked your way up to managing the operation. Years flowed past. You learned from a great mentor.

And now, you’re owner.

Doug Carroll, employee of 20 years, is the new owner of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint.

Do it Best member-owners Jim and Marilyn Lehrer sold the two-store Louisville, Ky.-based business to their trusted store manager recently.

Carroll said watching Jim Lehrer and seeing how his success on the wholesale side of the industry helped him be successful on the retail side of it, was a key learning experience.

“Jim is very unique in how he operates,” Carroll explained. “I’ve talked with a lot of different owners in different states over the years, and nobody operates quit like he does. He’s a very ‘hands on’ kind of guy. It’s really molded me to know what to expect when running my own business.”

The new owner pointed out that having two sons of his own has reinforced the feeling that the business caters to families to help them make their homes better. And he’s picked up on small details of importance to customers and carried them over.

“Both Jim and I give out our cell phone numbers to our customers,” Carroll said. “We both strongly believe they deserve it. It’s a little thing, but its effect is phenomenal.”

Brownsboro customers have certainly noticed the fine details in continuity, expressing their positive feelings to both the new and prior owners about the local transition.

“I have been blown away by the positive response,” Carroll said. “We’ve had hundreds of messages of congratulations on our social media and personal emails. My phone has practically melted down.”

The hardware business could easily have sold to out-of-state interests, but instead remains locally owned.

The new owner talked with people who didn’t know about the transition. “To put it gently, they were concerned. But once I told them we are staying local, and that they won’t see any difference, they were super relieved and excited.”

Carroll said his goal moving forward is to ensure customers don’t see a change. In fact, he noted, “I want them to feel even better about our local presence.”

Dial your clock back to the year 2000. Doug Carroll explained that he was in the restaurant business before he came to Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, saying “a friend of a friend of a friend put in a good word to Jim, and when I turned in an application, next thing I know he hired me.

“It started out as a job to pay for my car and cell phone, and it just grew over time.”

As he watched the business become more successful, Carroll found himself becoming more involved in the business — and he did it without Lehrer even asking him. It continued to grow from there.

“Jim offered me a management posi-

Doug Carrol, owner of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, took over the reins from Jim and Marilyn Lehrer, his former employers of two decades. Localownership is highly valued by customers.

tion when I was still in college, and I originally said ‘no.’ And then I switched to, ‘I’ll think about it.’ And then, when the store was really starting to take off, I decided to give it a chance not knowing if it would be my career,” he recollected.

“I was comfortable with the business, and as the business continued to grow, I found myself wanting to be involved. The next thing I know it’s 20 years later and I have two kids,” he said.

Jim Lehrer, a respected award-winning retailer who was a member of the Do it Best board of directors for nine years, including two as board chair, reflected on the young man who came to work for him at the turn of the century.

“Like many young people, when Doug came in, he was a bit ‘wet behind the ears.’ But he seemed anxious and willing to learn so we hired him on,” Lehrer said.

Lehrer remembered that when that young man got to be about 18 years old, he liked to have a lot of fun, at night, on the weekends, perhaps even during the week. (“We worked through all that,” Lehrer said.)

The former owner said, “there was a time when I knew he ‘had it.’ He got into his early 20s and was hungry to learn about the industry and was hungry for knowledge, of how things work.”

The seminal moment, Lehrer pointed out, was when they added their second location in Prospect.

“He was a natural to manage that location in 2011. So that was the time he really got to cut his teeth on running a location,” said Lehrer.

His greatest asset is his work ethic, Lehrer pointed out. “He certainly puts in the hours and wants to learn and will do what it takes to take care of the customer and provide the service that we have set here,” Lehrer said.

Carroll said the entire staff is excited to keep the local business local, and he offered a tip for other hardware store owners thinking of passing the baton.

“In a few words: Listen. Learn. Be committed to a smooth transition. Be open with your customers about what’s happening. Communicate.”

“In a few words: Listen. Learn. Be committed to a smooth transition. Be open with your customers about what’s happening. Communicate.”

— Doug Carroll,

Owner, Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, on succession planning.

For more on the succession story at Brownsboro Hardware, visit HBSDealer.com.

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LEADING BY HBSDealer’s Top Women in Hardware & Building Supply event set the stage for diversity EXAMPLE

By HBSDealer Staff

Chicago—Leaders from across the industry and across the country came to celebrate with HBSDealer during its first, live Top Women in Hardware & Building

Supply event. The two-day event could be described as equal parts networking, education, celebration and inspiration.

The spirit of mutual advancement was palpable during the awards ceremony, and that momentum continued on day two with a series of panels that explored recruiting, mentoring and achieving positions of power.

Alison Dowell, the president and general manager of Oak Brook, Ill.based distributor Emery Jensen

Distribution, shared her story during a panel discussion.

“When I think about what our responsibility is to one another and to women getting into the industry — and really anybody that is different or anybody that doesn’t feel like they belong — it’s helping them find their place or their seat at the table.”

Dowell was one of dozens of industry leaders who shared their stories or stories of inspiration, or merely their support. Men were far outnumbered by women in the Top Women event ballroom, but the importance of male involvement was noted by several panelists as a factor to advance equity for women in the workplace and the c-suite.

Sarah Dodd, senior vice president of global merchandising at Lowe’s, described a male mentor as crucial to her advancement. “So to the men in the room, don’t underestimate your influence when it comes to the women that you work with and the women that support you or the women that you’re around every day,” she said.

The Top Women agenda included a session on the “She-Cession” examining the negative impact of the pandemic on women in the workforce. Another panel examined the pursuit of power with the tagline: “You don’t get if you don’t ask.” And mentorship—a topic that worked its way into the discussions during all of the panels—was explored in depth during a session titled “Mentorship: Who helped you, and how to return the favor.”

The inspirational tone was set early, with a tribute to Pony Jorgensen founder Adele Holman, who broke barriers in the

More than 230 industry pros attended the first-ever Top Women in Hardware & Building Supply event in Chicago. Clockwise from above: Dinner at the Fairmont. Pony Jorgenson’s Bill Sokol at the podium. YellaWood’s Lindsay Carter and Builder FirstSource’s Jeanine Froke/ Opening night reception. The US LBM contingent brought along their daughters, as well as their CEO.