Some business owners arrive where they are through meticulous career path planning and carefully mapping out their future.

Others ride the wave and let things unfold.

Local small business owner Carrie Richards didn’t set out to be the owner/operator of an American manufacturing company specializing in flail mower blades from a young age, but the longtime Murfreesboro resident calls her journey to ownership of a mower parts manufacturer “a God thing.”

Today, Richards runs Flail-Master, a Murfreesboro-based company with roots stretching back more than six decades. The company produces steel mower blades and replacement parts used everywhere, from Tennessee farms to military bases overseas, cranberry bogs, airports, vineyards and even ski resorts.

Flail-Master traces its history back to the 1960s, when founder Harold Mensior began manufacturing replacement flail mower blades in Michigan. The business later relocated to the Berry Hill area of Nashville before eventually moving its manufacturing operation to Murfreesboro, where its products—namely, flail mower replacement blades—are still produced today.

Flail mowers—heavy-duty machines used by farmers, highway departments, municipalities, landscapers and property managers—don’t rely on one large rotating blade as do standard mowers, but rather individual teeth mounted to a rotating drum.

“These mowers take anywhere from 40 to 216 blades,” Richards said.

Even if a replacement blade costs $5 to $10, outfitting an entire machine can represent a sizeable investment for the flail mower operator—but still far less than replacing the entire piece of equipment.

Flail-Master manufactures these blades, as well as hangers, brackets, skid shoes and other wear parts, while also serving as a distributor for rotary mower blades, hay cutter blades, hay tines, chainsaw products and other related equipment.

Photos by Bracken Mayo

For years, Richards worked in the local service industry, tending bar and serving customers in Murfreesboro restaurants while raising her family as a single mother, but she has since found her role, her niche, and a passion for mower parts, carving out a fulfilling career in the manufacturing industry.

Murfreesboro Pulse: How did you acquire Flail-Master?
Carrie Richards: I was working at Cheddar’s; I was actually desperate to get out of Cheddar’s. The manager at the car place next door, City Auto, he used to come in and eat with me. He told me, “Bring me a résumé and you can come sell cars. You need to get out from behind here. You need to make more money. You’ll have insurance.” I was going to be a car salesman.

So I went over to the unemployment office, used the computer, did my résumé, printed it off. The next morning I got up—this was in July of 2015—I got up and was drinking coffee getting ready to go over to City Auto to become a salesman. I got a phone call [from someone else, at Flail-Master] and she asked me if I wanted to come in for an interview. Before we hung up, I was like, “Ma’am, could I ask you a question?” And she said “yeah.” I said, “How did you get my résumé?” And she said “The tennessee.gov website sent it over to me because you had keywords on there for the job position we had open.” So from the very get-go, this has been a God moment for me. There’s no doubt that it was a God thing from the very start; I didn’t do that on purpose.

My first day was Aug. 31, 2015. I was hired in as just a salesperson, basically, lowest man on the totem pole. I wasn’t here a month and a half, and I’ll never forget, my boss came to me and she was like, “Do you have your passport?” And I said, “No, ma’am, I’ve always wanted one.” And she was like, “We’re going to pay for you to get it if you want to go on this trip with us as a company. And if you’ve got somebody you want to take with you, you get a plus-one.” I mean, I was just floored. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I had somehow landed it.

I basically got put in the sales manager position in 2017, and worked in that function until we closed [in late 2019]. Did a million dollars in sales in 2018; I was pretty proud of that.

[Flail-Master founder Harold Mensior passed away in 2009; his wife, Mary Ann, passed away in 2016 and their son, Kerry, who lived out of state, inherited the business and owned it during this time.]

His name is Kerry. We always thought that was funny. He lived in California . . . he just thought it was time to cut the cord. It wasn’t his thing. So we closed a week before Christmas 2019. I still had a mortgage. Couldn’t find a job. COVID was just starting.

I was in my backyard, in my hammock, crying to God. “I know you didn’t help me get this house—and I just bought a car—and then, you know, pull the rug out.” It was very scary.

[Richards went on unemployment briefly, receiving only $200 a week; in an effort to pick back up in the mower parts industry, she began trying to sell some parts out of her garage on eBay.]

One morning, I woke up in April [2020] And I audibly heard God say, “Get a business license.”

I was like, it’s $15, it’s worth it. And so I did.

Two or three days later, that’s when I got the phone call from the previous owner. He was like, “Hey, I need your help. I sold the building, but I was not able to sell the trademark and the proprietary stuff that goes with Flail-Master. The phones are forwarded to my cellphone, and it won’t stop ringing.”

I said, “Well, Kerry, I got a business license three days ago. This is what I’ve been doing.” And he was like, “Well, I’ll just send them to you until I get it figured out.” I set everything up and was selling more parts in my bedroom. I guess it was June when I finally asked Patrick Dunn [longtime Flail-Master machinist Patrick Dunn], because we stayed in touch, “You think he’d sell it to us?” We were going to buy it together. We went straight into planning right after that phone conversation.

We both were very excited. We went and met with the bank, and the guy, we were showing him our business plan. It was the president of the bank. I’ll never forget that man looking at us and he was like, “You know, this is a really great opportunity, but I just don’t think you understand. You’re unemployed. I can’t get the board to approve a loan.”

We were both kind of low in the mouth when we left there. We knew we could do this together with his expertise and mine. But [Patrick] called me the night after that. He said, “I’ll help you, but I just can’t put everything I got on the line.” I said, “Well, okay, but I don’t even know how I’m going to do it.”

In July, Kerry called again, and he said “The people who bought the building, they’re really wanting these machines out of the building. Do you think if I can set up an appointment that you and Patrick could go over there and measure them up, figure out what it’s going to take? . . . I’m just going to get them put into storage until we figure out what’s going on”

We come in, and we met with them, and it was father and son who owned the place. We got ready to leave after we went and measured them, and the older of the two, the father, asked what we were going to do with the machines.

I said, “I plan to send them to a facility down in Alabama and have blades made; I’m going to continue the business.”

He goes, “You ever seen Shark Tank?” And I said, “Yes, sir.” And he goes, “Well, I’d like to see your business plan if you got one. . . . “Yeah, me and my son, we sold the business we bought this building for, and hey, if it’s a good investment, I mean, it sounds like you need space to rent.” And I was like, “Well, I wish I could.” He’s like, “Let’s meet.”

So I did. I came and met with them, and I sent them a business plan. And three hours after they sent me an offer—I couldn’t refuse.

Kerry flew in and my partners put up the money for us to buy all the proprietary stuff. We had it all legalized. We signed all the things and moved right back in this building, November 2020, and started right back up.

. . . Now, this is our sixth summer.

Flail-Master team: Patrick, Carrie and Max

There is no way we’d be where we are right now if Patrick hadn’t come back to help me. I’m forever grateful for that. He’s taught my son [Max, himself now an important part of the Flail-Master team] things that he can’t go to school and learn—the intricacies of what is done in the shop. He knows what he’s doing.

Who are your customers?
Our customer base is everything from Joe Farmer to a city, county, state department, military, airports. We’ve got blueberry farmers. We’ve got a lot of cranberry farmers up north. Lots of vineyards that use these to do their in-between rows.

We’ve got customers in Hawaii, Canada, Australia, Sweden. One of our customers is a military base out in Guam. Colleges. Prisons. Anywhere that somebody’s got flail mowers.

We’ve got small manufacturers. One in particular in Ohio, they decided they were going to make a flail mower. We’re their only source for parts outside of what they make themselves.

We had a company that used our blades in their machines that fluffed insulation. A ski resort uses them in a machine to fluff snow.

We service the Amish. They go to the pay phone still in town to call us and ask me the total and send me a check. But I send them their parts, because I know they ain’t lying.

What is the most frustrating or challenging aspect of running the business?
It’s hard. It’s a lot. There are days when they see me cry. We have a season, and then we have an off-season. It gets real iffy.

But I think I’m learning that I really do have it.

What’s your favorite part about your job?
Well, proving that even though I’m a girl, I know what I’m talking about when it comes to mowers. Earning the trust of the men who call me.

A little story: We’ll say “Mr. Farmer” called me, and he wanted to argue with me about the part he needed for his mower, but I knew what flail mower he had, and I said, “You know, Mr. Farmer, I’m looking at the schematic breakdown for your mower, and I believe, really, this is the part number that you need.” And he yelled at me, and he said, “Your job is to take the order, and your job is to send me the parts, and don’t worry about the rest.” And I said, “Well, you know what, I’m going to do that, Mr. Farmer, but I want to make sure I let you know that when this part gets there and it’s wrong, you’re going to pay to send it back to me, but I will be happy to send you the part I believe you need.” He said, “Fine” and hung up on me. It was a week later he called, and he asked for me, and he said, “Carrie, this is Mr. Farmer.” I said, “Hey, Mr. Farmer, how can I help?” And he says, “Well, hold on a second. Let me get outside.” And he goes, “I had to get out of earshot of my wife because I had to tell you you was right, and I was wrong, and I am so sorry. I will never question you again.”

I’m so grateful to be able to write paychecks. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to employ people and build our business locally. It’s been really rewarding.

Every morning when I pull out of my driveway now, I look at my little house. Every single day, even when I’m upset, I say the same things for the four miles. “Thank you God for my home. Thank you God for my kids. Thank you God for my life. Thank you for my work. Thank you for my friends. Thank you for everything that has manifested in front of me.” Because there were some really dark times.

What advice do you have for people starting a small business?
Don’t forget that your dream can be bigger even if you haven’t imagined it yet.

My favorite all-time quote is: “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it,” by Jonathan Winters.

For a long time, people just saw me as a bartender. And a hot mess. But I’ve always been driven to be an entrepreneur. I just didn’t find where my gears were fitting until I looked at a mower breakdown and realized numbers are my thing.

Anything else Murfreesboro should know about Flail Master?
We’re getting ready to have a full line of safety arborist gear. We don’t just do mower parts. We sell chainsaw bars and chains and now we have tree climbing safety equipment. It’s a full arborist supply. We’re going to bring in bulk rope; nobody in Middle Tennessee actually has bulk rope for arborists but that’s going to be part of what we’re expanding into.

We have pine straw.

For our local customers, we always keep their mower blades in stock so that if they bend one, break one, whatever it is, they got a job to continue doing, but they know they can depend on us to be here.

We’ll leave parts outside for them if they’ve already paid or they’re local. There’s many times I leave parts outside so they can pick it up at their convenience, whether it’s early in the morning or in the evening.

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For more information on Flail-Master or to shop online, visit flailmaster.com.