Carter and Rory Murphey spent the past three years learning the Budget Blinds business before finally getting the opportunity to make it their own.
The husband-and-wife team purchased Budget Blinds of Montrose and Telluride in February, completing a transition that had been discussed for roughly two years.
Since taking ownership, the Murpheys say the business has continued growing as new home construction and remodeling remain active throughout Montrose and the surrounding mountain communities.
“We hit the ground running in February,” Carter said.
The move into business ownership is also the latest development in a journey that eventually brought both of them back to Western Colorado.
Rory grew up in Gunnison, where she met Carter while he was attending Western Colorado University.
Carter grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area but was already familiar with Montrose because his grandparents lived here.
After meeting in Gunnison, the couple moved to the Dallas area when Carter took a job following college. They later returned to Colorado through transfers with his former employer and settled in Montrose as members of both sides of their family also moved closer to the area.
“We’ve all kind of migrated to Montrose,” Carter said. “It’s been perfect.”
The Murpheys married in Montrose and are raising two children, 5-year-old Kobe and 4-year-old Vivian. Their family ties to the area were part of what made taking over an established local business appealing.
Carter joined Budget Blinds in May 2022 as a manager and salesperson after previously managing Grand Junction Pipe. His former employer, Ferguson Waterworks, had acquired five Grand Junction Pipe locations, and Carter volunteered to help with the transition before moving into management.
The previous Budget Blinds owners were beginning to step back from the business and had discussed eventually selling it.
Bringing Carter into the operation gave him an opportunity to learn its management and sales sides before he and Rory pursued ownership.
“It was kind of a perfect fit,” Carter said. “We knew how the business operated.”
The purchase did not happen quickly. The Murpheys said serious discussions began about two years before the transaction closed, but financing and other pieces of the deal took time to align.
They eventually found a lender familiar with Budget Blinds transactions and secured assistance through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The experience they gained before purchasing the business helped convince lenders that they understood the operation and were positioned to succeed.
(Studio 14 by Gabrielle)
Since February, Carter and Rory have taken on more of the management, sales and administrative responsibilities previously handled by the former owners. Carter said some of the biggest adjustments have involved the small but essential duties that come with owning a company.
“You don’t know certain stuff gets done until you’re like, ‘Oh, we own this place now,’” he said. “No one else is going to get this done except us.”
Despite the added responsibility, the Murpheys said business has been strong. Each of their first several months as owners performed better than the same month in previous years.
“This community’s just growing like crazy with new homes,” Carter said.
About half of the company’s work comes from new construction, while the other half includes homeowners updating existing spaces and commercial projects.
The company serves a large territory stretching through Montrose and Telluride and into communities including Nucla, Paonia, Crawford, Gunnison and Crested Butte.
The Murpheys said growth is occurring throughout that service area.
“Montrose is just growing like crazy,” Rory said. “But so is Telluride, even though it doesn’t seem like it can get any bigger.”
Among the company’s recent commercial projects was the renovated Montrose County Courthouse, where the team installed about 80 custom shades. Even that did not cover all of the building’s windows.
The installation took approximately a week and required the team to carefully track where each custom shade belonged throughout the multistory building.
“It was like, ‘OK, this is shade number 76. Let me find this on the map. What floor is that on, and what window is that?’” Carter said.
The Murpheys said the courthouse project went smoothly and gave the company an opportunity to participate alongside other local contractors in a major community project.
The company has since secured an even larger, residential, project in Mountain Village. The job is bigger than any commercial project the business has completed and will require participation from much of its six-person team.
The team includes Carter and Rory, two installers and two office employees who handle scheduling, payments, invoicing and customer communication. The Murpheys credited their employees with helping them keep up with the company’s expanding workload.
“We just love our team,” Carter said. “Our installers work their butts off, and they’re really creative.”
Budget Blinds operates as a franchise system with roughly 1,500 independently owned locations in the United States and Canada. While many franchisees work from home and take product samples directly to customers, the Montrose operation has a brick-and-mortar showroom south of town across from Walmart, at 1414 Hawk Pkwy.
The Murpheys view the showroom as an advantage. Customers can see and operate products in person, compare materials and meet the people who will be working inside their homes.
The business receives about four or five showroom visitors on a typical day. Carter said those visits often lead to scheduled consultations because customers have already taken the time to explore their options.
The company also offers free in-home consultations. Staff members measure each window, bring product samples and prepare a quote without requiring the customer to move forward.
“We bring the showroom with us,” Carter said. “Anything that you see in our showroom, we have in our van.”
Because every product is made for a particular opening, measurements can come down to one-sixteenth of an inch. The company offers blinds, wooden shades, draperies, shutters, outdoor awnings and patio shades, as well as motorized products that can be controlled through timers, mobile applications or voice commands.
The Murpheys hope to become more involved with builders during the planning stages of new homes, particularly as automated window coverings become more common.
Carter said builders can prepare a home for motorized shades by installing relatively inexpensive wiring while the walls are still open. Without that advance planning, homeowners may discover that large or high windows require motorized coverings but are difficult to wire or reach for charging.
“We’re the last people,” he said. “You build a house, the furniture comes in, the appliances come in, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, wait. We need window coverings.’”
By that point, he said, much of the homeowner’s construction budget may already be spent.
The company offers discounts for new homeowners, builders and designers and has developed referral relationships with contractors and developers. Budget Blinds has completed work in many of the homes at The Grove near Brown Ranch through a relationship with the neighborhood’s builder.
Word-of-mouth referrals also play an important role. Once several homes in a neighborhood have new shades, residents often ask their neighbors who completed the work.
The Murpheys do not plan to immediately expand outside the two franchise territories they already own. Instead, their goal is to continue growing within a service area that already covers a significant portion of Western Colorado.
That growth may eventually require additional employees. For now, Carter and Rory are learning how to balance ownership, sales and management while raising their family in the community they chose to call home.
“It’s been great,” Carter said. “We worked there for quite a while before taking over, so I don’t know how someone would have done it without knowing the business.”
Justin Tubbs is the Montrose Business Times editor. He can be reached by email at justin@montrosebusinesstimes.com or by phone at 970-765-0915 or mobile at 254-246-2260.
