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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 15 N OV E M B E R 4 , 2 0 2 4 FA M I LY - OW N E D B U S I N E S S found it difficult not being able to tell employees about the planned sale until about 60 days before it was completed and tried to keep his cool throughout. "Like the old anti-perspirant commercial says, you can't let them see you sweat." Frustrated with the length of time it took to complete the deal, he never thought of stopping. Nor did his CFO Steven McGrath, who now works as a consultant providing corporate and financial management advice. "Part of it was us needing to build certain aspects, and part of it was you can't just show up and say, 'I want to sell my business today,'" McGrath explains. "e buyers come in, and they have their own timetables. We had a buyer who took their sweet time closing." Mapes, 65, recently bought a farm — no animals, just land and build- ings — and is plotting his next move, perhaps teaming up with a developer on housing. "I didn't sell the business to retire," Mapes says. "I sold the business." To current family business owners mulling a sale, he says, "Stay calm and let your ego get out of the way … You're never as important as you think you are." Growing new roots in Gorham Like Mapes, Jeff O'Donal found selling his business to be somewhat frustrating. He bought O'Donal's Nursery in Gorham from his par- ents in 2006, decades after they had bought the business from the Jackson family who started the original firm in Portland in 1850. After hearing from a grocery store owner who had successfully sold his business to employees, O'Donal opted to go the same route, turning to Rob Brown, a Northport-based adviser with the nonprofit Corporate Development Institute, to help organize a worker cooperative buyout. "I had every intention of staying on a member and working part-time, but in the end they told me no and I was made a non-entity," says O'Donal, who nevertheless has no regrets about selling to former employees who helped build the business. While initially told the sale would take six months to a year, it dragged on for 18 months and was "far more complicated than I wanted it to be," says O'Donal, who sold the opera- tional assets but kept the land. Now the 67-year-old breeds day lilies in Maine and New Hampshire, where he runs a nursery in Conway he bought a few years before O'Donal's Nursery and Garden Center became an employee-owned cooperative in 2023. "It should have gone quicker and had more money, but when you're selling to employees you're not going to get top dollar," he says. Unexpected path Some business owners have even less time to play with. at was the case for Corinne and Tom Watson, who envisioned Tiny Homes of Maine as a long-term investment when Quality coverage is everything. Business • Employee Benefits • Bonding • Home • Auto Feeling uncomfortable about your business insurance or benefits plan? Discover how good it feels to work with our experienced advisors. UnitedInsurance.net C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » F I L E P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D / F O C U S Corinne Watson says the decision to sell Tiny Homes of Maine to Hancock Lumber was prompted by several factors, including a property fire last year.

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