We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Becky Blair. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Becky below.

Becky, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My husband and I opened a toy store in 1992. In 2013 we sold it to our manager and decided to try working for other people. Fast forward to 2018 and I was visiting my hometown and saw a beautiful old building sitting empty. The idea popped that my little town needed a gift shop. I convinced my husband to take a look and we were hooked. We moved into the upstairs loft after purchasing the 1930s building and began restoring the shop downstairs. I wanted a place for locals to be able to find a unique gift and have it gift-wrapped and not have to drive out of town. The B Hive opened on November 1, 2019 The B Hive is a modern general store with gifts from traditional to trend for all ages.

I love the feel of a community and we offer classes for all ages, book signings, and volunteer in the community. We opened 4 months before Covid shut us down but we’re still standing. Is there still a place for a family business in today’s world? We shall see……..

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The B Hive is a modern general store with gifts for all ages from trend to traditional. We specialize in curating unique products and include as many local items as possible. We feature several local artisans and carry their items. Lillington is a small town between Raleigh and Fayetteville and had no gift shop. We give the locals a place to find a special present and have it gift wrapped.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We opened the shop in November 2019 and had to close due to Covid in March 2020. We adapted and began Facebook Lives. personal shopping, free local delivery, shipping, and curbside pickup. The community rallied with us. I began doing custom Easter Baskets in March and it exploded. I ended up putting together 200 custom baskets. It was fabulous. I believe having to adapt and hustle helped the business going forward.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

We sold our toy store Science Safari in September of 2013. We opened the shop in 1991 and made a great hire in 1992. Sean became our manager. and we took him with us to shows and gave him input on buying. When we decided in 2012 to leave retail life we offered to sell and finance the purchase for Sean. It went smoothly and he made all payments and no owns the business. We are all still friends and work on buying together now to get freight incentives. Treating your employees well worked for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bhiveonmain.com
• Instagram: bhiveonmain
• Facebook: bhiveonmain
• Linkedin: The B Hive
• Other: Tik Tok – Bhive11

Image Credits
Becky Blair Anna Cross