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): ryan.aaablinds@gmail.com
Video
https://youtu.be/XhDGVM13fY0
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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)