Dual purpose

OTHELLO — What do garage doors and blinds have in common? They both open, they both close, and Kip and Ilene Burns can sell you both.

The Burnses and their partner John Overton own both B and B Doors and Blinds For Any Budget. The two businesses are mobile, operating out of a trailer and a van, respectively. They actually came about as a sort of retirement project for the Burnses, who moved to the MarDon area from Kelso.

“Four years ago, my wife and I were building our custom home,” Kip Burns said. “And our builder – who's a good friend of ours, CAD Homes – did a fabulous job on our house, but they were having trouble getting doors. And we're entrepreneurs. We actually just retired two weeks ago from our corporate jobs, but we started (B and B Doors) three years ago, because there was a demand.”

Kip Burns had spent 20 years with a chemical company, and 15 with Frito Lay before that, perfecting what he called TOS, or Totally Outrageous Service.

“So 35 years, it's just been building winning teams and customer service,” he said. “TOS in both of those businesses. And we went from 20% market share to 95%.”

Ilene Burns, meanwhile, has been working since she was 12 years old, she said, including at one time managing a sawmill in Quinault.

“Thirty-six men, and she was one of the head supervisors,” Kip Burns said. “She’s not bashful.”

In their first year, the Burnses went it alone, supplying doors for CAD and other builders. But eventually, as successful businesses will, it got too big for them to manage on their own, and they reached out to Overton.

“Kip made me an offer about two years ago that I couldn't refuse,” Overton said.

Overton brought 20 years of garage door experience to the table, he said. He was working for a garage door company in the Tri-Cities when Kip Burns approached him.

“He was he was working in the office of one of our suppliers,” Kip Burns said. “And he just had great service. Super good personality, very knowledgeable. We went to lunch one day, and I said, ‘Hey, I'm interested in making an offer. Would you be interested in being 49% owner of our business?” He said ‘What's it going to cost me?’ I said ‘Nothing. We’re just going to work our way into it.’ And it's been good. We're going on our second year together.”

Overton and two employees do the installation work for both businesses, Kip Burns said.

“We're expanding now and we're doing work for you some big folks,” Kip Burns said. “There's quite a few homes. I think we have our big project of about 1,200 homes that we're going to be supplying doors for the next five years. We just out-service our competitors and, and treat people right.”

Blinds for any Budget came about a little differently. Kip Burns had had a blinds franchise in Kelso at one time, but he sold it to their son, he said. The true sales genius with blinds comes from Ilene Burns, he explained.

“Ilene is very good with the ladies,” he said. “She's got phenomenal taste, and most of the decisions on the window coverings come from women. She does great with them and they like our passion and our teamwork, is what we've seen so far. So yeah, it's been a great combination.”

The market for blinds is booming in the Basin, Kip Burns said, with the push in home construction.

“It's really good because now you’ve got a lot of new growth in this area, a lot of new homes,” he said. “And folks are looking for (window coverings). We are Blinds For Any Budget, so we have a good, better and best, but ours are custom so the quality is better than the cookie cutter. When you get them they're gonna last a long time.”

“For us it's not about the money,” he added. “It's about bringing a service to this community, because we really like it here. We built our dream home here. We've met so many neat people already that our customers end up being friends. That's the cool part. We just like people.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.