Footprints Floors CEO and Founder, Bryan Park has seen unprecedented success since founding the company in 2008. He recently sat down for a Q&A with 1851 Franchise to discuss his story and some of the secrets to creating the best flooring franchises.

Bryan is not your typical CEO. He has truly been through it all, whether it be serving in the Air Force, selling floors, or getting cheated out of $35,000 during the recession. Bryan’s first interaction with the flooring industry was in 2005. After his time in the Air Force, he and his family decided to relocate to Littleton, Colorado. One evening he and his wife returned home to find the floors of their new home destroyed on account of their puppies. In need of a quick fix, they hired a flooring company to fix the floors. After talking to the contractor about the industry and earnings for some time, Bryan, who happened to be in need of work, talked to the company’s manager and secured himself a sales job. 

Bryan fit in well with the role and things were steady for several years until the recession hit in 2008, when the company stopped paying its employees. He went six months without a paycheck, but remained optimistic. The company still owed him $35,000 in W-2 pay, but after being told, “Hey, sorry, but we’re not gonna pay you,” from his boss, Bryan knew it was time to take things into his own hands. Although he realized that it wasn’t the best time to start a business, he enjoyed working within the flooring industry and believed it could truly “benefit from a more sophisticated approach and higher level of customer service.” He followed his heart and started Footprints Floors in late 2008. 

At first it seemed as if his gamble was a poor decision. For the first 60 days of being open, Bryan and his employees didn’t land a single project. He, his brother-in-law and his father-in-law went around putting flyers on doors in a desperate attempt to secure some kind of business. Finally, in February of 2009, their luck changed and Footprints Floors landed its first job. Another project quickly followed and Bryan decided to start some more legitimate marketing efforts. Suddenly, he and his crew were getting projects left and right! The floodgates were opened and by the eight month mark, Footprints was getting five to six jobs a day. The business was taking off and Bryan knew that he was on the front lines of something big. 

Fast forward to 2019 and Footprints Floors currently has eight franchises across the US, with 12 more expected by the end of the year. The sky is the limit for the company, which is now one of the best flooring franchises in the country. At the same time, it actively remains a flooring company for sale, as more and more Franchise Owners sign on. Bryan has big aspirations, hoping to sign on with 20 more Franchise Owners in 2020. 

While Footprints Floors’ quick success may seem unheard of, Bryan knew exactly what he was doing and that it would have profound success within the flooring industry. In his own words, “We brought an intelligent white collar perspective to an industry that’s been historically blue collar. The flooring industry has really been an industry of old-school guys who didn’t market or use computers, so as a whole, it was lagging behind the times. We’re really on the forefront of introducing proven technology like email to an industry that refuses to adapt and change”. Bryan didn’t just start a new company. He offered a fresh point of view to a stale industry, helping it to quickly become one of the best flooring franchises and ultimately leading Footprints Floor to where it is today. Furthermore, Bryan put an emphasis on providing exceptional customer service, something that keeps its customers coming back. He and his employees strive to not just get the project done but to get it done right.

Footprints Floors is not your typical flooring company for sale. Its direct business framework avoids unnecessary costs and cuts out the middleman, helping Franchise Owners be profitable from the get go. “We also have a business model that positions our franchisees to start earning money immediately after training,” says Bryan. “Unlike competitors, we sell direct-to-consumer so we don’t have a showroom, the need for real estate expenses or storage of materials, and we aren’t limited to any brands when it comes to completing a job”. The Footprints Floors model offers no buildout or HR costs, low overhead costs, and a very low cost of entry. Other companies within the industry simply cannot offer this.

One may think that they would need a construction or flooring background to be a successful Franchise Owner, but the flexible business design of Footprints Floors makes it easy for anyone to own a successful, profitable flooring franchise. “Only two of our current franchisees have a construction background,” states Bryan. “In general, we’re looking for those who are people-oriented—there’s a lot of human interaction in our job between sales and project management—and we want owners who are growth-oriented”.

Bryan’s story proves that franchising with Footprints Floors can lead to a successful, rewarding career and the franchise continues to grow at an unprecedented rate today. If this sounds like something that would interest you, visit our franchising site!

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Join us in welcoming new Franchise Owner, Rob Ricco to the ranks of the best flooring franchise in the country! Rob has plans to open locations in three territories across the state, including Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro. In a recent interview, Rob told us about his experience with the franchising process and about what drew him to starting his own flooring business with Footprints Floors. 

Born and raised in New York City, Rob has always had the flooring business in his blood. Growing up, his father had a flooring business, something that Rob worked alongside him with for many years. This work gave him the foundation to continue on to dabble in a variety of careers within the construction and repair industries, most recently working as an operating supervisor for the Overhead Construction Group.

At a certain point, however, Rob knew that it was time for a change. Working close to 100-hour weeks and barely having time to see his family, he knew that it was time to explore other career options. Things came to a head seven months ago when Rob and his family made the move to North Carolina. In Rob’s words, “I was looking to relocate, a plan we’d had for years and finally pulled the trigger. I went through the process of if I could afford it, weighing options of opening my own business, getting back into utilities, or franchising. I went with the franchise route”. 

Finding the right franchise for his background was a bit more difficult than he envisioned, however. Rob knew he wanted to work within the service industry, but with so many options, he was unsure which was the best route to take. 

After researching over 50 franchise options in the area, Rob found Footprints Floors through a franchise consultant, soon realizing that it was the perfect fit for him. “I looked into multiple industries, home inspections, water damage.. I was going away from my background a little bit. What finally brought me back to Footprints Floors was realizing that a strength of mine was the flooring background I had and [that] the great culture was a huge plus. That’s what made me fall in love with them,” he says. 

After meeting with Founder Bryan Park and support team and seeing the laid-back, family-oriented culture, Rob realized that starting a flooring business with Footprints Floors was a no-brainer. 

The franchise had a low investment cost, yet a high return on investment, all while allowing him to work from home and spend more time with his family, something he had been searching for in a new career. 

What ultimately ended up sealing the deal for Rob was his experience with meeting the Footprints Floors team. This gave him the opportunity to shadow an actual Franchise Owner for the day and truly understand what it would be like on a daily basis to own a franchise. In Rob’s own words, “I went out on an estimate, rode around with Bryan the second half of the day, checked on a few jobs, went to a few warehouses. I liked the day-to-day and the hands on aspect.” After the day, Rob knew that Footprints Floors and its employees truly fit with his hard work ethic, outgoing personality, and commitment to great customer service. In other words, the franchise was a perfect match. He signed the franchise agreement not long after. 

Fast forward seven months since Rob began looking at franchises and he is ready to get his business up and running. He is looking forward to the high return on investment and to realizing the potential of his franchise. More than anything, Rob says, “I’m really excited to be a business owner, I’m excited about being in the field and talking to people. I take a lot of pride in what I do and it’s very satisfying to see the look on a customer’s face.”

Footprints Floors is more than just a business to own. It is a way to jumpstart your career, become independent, to take pride in your work, all while maximizing profits and managing your own schedule. With Footprints Floors you can truly have your cake and eat it too. 

To learn more about franchising opportunities, click here.

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We’re excited to welcome a new Franchise Owner to the Footprints Floors family! Shawna Eikenberry is starting a flooring installation business with Footprints Floors that will serve residents of Raleigh, NC and surrounding areas. This new Raleigh, NC location is actually Shawna’s second Footprints Floors investment- just weeks after being awarded her first Footprints Floors franchise, she decided to invest in a second opportunity within her community.

A self-described “noobie” to Raleigh herself, Shawna is originally from Kansas City, where she began her long professional career in local government. After obtaining her undergraduate degree in criminal justice, Shawna worked in corrections, as well as in a prosecutor’s office, where she worked with crime victims, before moving on to management. Upon earning her MBA from the University of Kansas, Shawna moved to Dallas, where she performed a number of public service-related jobs. “I started an emergency call center, ran a library, did some strategic planning…a little bit of everything!” she says.

Though Shawna had always enjoyed working in local government, she decided to explore different career opportunities upon moving to the Raleigh metropolitan area. “I had always worked in local government, which is rewarding in its own ways, but it doesn’t travel well when moving across the country,” she explains. Shawna became interested in owning a business, but did not necessarily have the desire to start an independent company, due to its time-consuming nature and the numerous associated risks that can come with it. “I don’t have the risk tolerance to start something for scratch on my own,” she says. “We started looking at businesses for sale and then we started looking at franchise opportunities.”

Starting a flooring installation business wasn’t exactly the first thing that came to mind when Shawna began looking into franchise opportunities, but after finding the Footprints Floors franchise website, she saw that our model aligned with what she was looking for in a franchise. “I liked the idea of business-to-business and home services,” Shawna says. “No retail, no food services.” As a hobbyist woodworker who enjoys home improvement projects, Shawna was also interested in the aspect of providing honest, high-quality flooring installation services to the people in her community, and felt that her past personal experiences with home improvement could be an asset to building solid relationships with her clients. “We’ve done a lot of home-improvement projects and so we have a lot of compassion that goes into it,” she explains. “It’s super exciting and incredibly trustful and it’s hard to find someone you can trust, so we really like the idea of being able to meet people in this space and make sure that we are that trustworthy service.”

In addition to the service-oriented aspects of the Footprints Floors opportunity, Shawna was also especially drawn to the home-based business model and simple operations that came with owning a Footprints Floors franchise, especially in comparison to starting a flooring installation business from scratch. “One of the things I liked about the Footprints Floors model is that you don’t have to invest in a lease space of any kind,” she says. “It’s just my car and me, going out and closing jobs.” 

Having no dedicated warehouse or office space is more than just a practical aspect of the Footprints Floors model, in Shawna’s view. She also appreciates the ability to connect with clients in their homes so she can get a firsthand look at their vision for improvements to their flooring. “For me, a lot of what I talked about is being able to meet people in their homes,” she says. “We help people level up their biggest investments. For most people their home is everything to them, so we’re going to come in and help them level up. This is what’s most exciting to me about this.”

Shawna recalls her Discovery Day in Denver as an insightful and educational experience that helped her to know for sure that she wanted to invest in the Footprints Floors opportunity. She also enjoyed meeting our Founder, Bryan Park, in addition to other Franchise Owners and members of our corporate team. “He’s obviously a very smart, really nice guy- we really enjoyed him,” she says about Park. Discovery Day was also an opportunity for Shawna to take a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of a Franchise Owner. “From a practical perspective it was nice to see, in person, what this looks like on a day-to-day basis,” she notes. This close-up look at the Footprints Floors opportunity helped Shawna visualize what starting a flooring installation business through Footprints Floors would truly be like. As she puts it, “Thinking about what something might be is different than actually getting to actually see it.” 

In addition to the favorable impression that she received at Discovery Day, Shawna mentioned that our outstanding support system played a major role in her decision to invest in the Footprints Floors opportunity. While starting a flooring installation business from scratch means having to handle administrative tasks such as appointment scheduling, as well as sales and marketing-related tasks, such as generating new leads, becoming a Franchise Owner with Footprints Floors means being backed by the full power of a corporate call center and marketing team. Shawna is excited to be able to dive right into the business of providing world-class flooring installation services to her clients without the hassle of all of the background details involved with operating a home improvement business. “I’m not having to focus on phone calls, or marketing, or playing phone tag,” she says. “These are more of the details that are more of a grind, though these are the nuts and bolts. I want to be out there, doing the job, and meeting people. In this system, Footprints takes care of these details that are so important to growing the business. I can just meet the customers and do my job.”

Shawna was also drawn to the freedom and flexibility that comes with starting a flooring installation business through Footprints Floors, and recently experienced something that would have been next to impossible in her past career in local government- a vacation! “This last weekend, we were out of town- we had two of our best friends that we hadn’t seen in a few months so we decided to take a trip over the weekend. No worrying about vacation time, no checking in with the boss- as somebody who has the background that I do, who’s got a very bureaucratic background, it was nice that I was able to just go.” 

Shawna’s trip helped her to see the level of autonomy she would be able to have as a business owner, and she liked it! “Freedom and autonomy is huge and also just getting away from all of the office politics and stuff. We are going to run this business in the way that we feel is best for us, for the business, and we don’t have to worry about whether someone in the office just isn’t going to do their job. I don’t have to worry about office politics,” she says.

We are thrilled to have Shawna heading up not one but TWO Footprints Floors franchise locations in the Raleigh, NC metropolitan area, and wish her a successful and fulfilling journey into entrepreneurship!

Are you thinking about starting a flooring installation business in your community? Footprints Floors is currently awarding franchise opportunities in select territories. Find out more about our opportunity here. 

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We’re excited to welcome Kyle Battles in starting a flooring business with Footprints Floors! Coming off of years of experience running his own business, Kyle is bringing our flooring franchise to Chicago, Illinois. 

Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Kyle moved to the Chicago area in 2004 to pursue a college degree at DePaul University. Right out of college, Kyle worked several at a medical billing company before he and a friend decided to launch their own medical billing company in 2012. With his experience running his own business alongside now starting a flooring business with Footprints Floors, entrepreneurship was always the path that Kyle pursued in his career. 

“I like the idea of working for myself,” Kyle claims. He explains how running his own company allows the personal and financial freedom to depend on and lead his own work. “I like the idea of the freedom, socially and financially, the day to day freedoms, I like depending on myself – I don’t love being told what to do so that goes along with all of those things. I like depending on me, basically, and there’s more of a higher financial feeling of working for myself as opposed to work for somebody.” At Footprints Floors, our Franchise Owners possess the ability to truly lead their own schedules, without the oversight of others, to find the independence and flexibility they desire.

Kyle’s journey with Footprints Floors actually began on a whim. “I actually sort of stumbled across Footprints Floors accidentally,” Kyle confesses. He worked with franchise brokers and used his interests to figure out what he wanted to pursue—financially, staff-wise, and the specific type of business. Nearly entering the drug testing industry, Kyle was then introduced to Footprints Floors when the broker said, “hear me out on Footprints Floors.” Upon receiving more information and developing a deeper interest, Kyle found that our franchise was the path he wanted to pursue in starting a flooring business, and his journey to joining our flooring franchise thus began.

Kyle found Footprints Floors to be his perfect fit through both our business model and the independence that comes with being a Franchise Owner. “My favorite part, a big part, is that I do have that control,” Kyle states. “At my old job, there was a constant stream of paying bills, demographics need to be updated, credentials need to be redone – it was all never ending.” With our flooring franchise, Kyle found that the project-based nature of our company allowed for structure and a sense of achievement for servicing the individuals in his community. “I like the idea with Footprints that you start a job and then when it’s done, it’s done and you move on to the next one. I also like that it will be cool to actually see people get a new floor; it will be good to see that satisfaction on their faces.” By being a Franchise Owner, Kyle found the sense of independence to be his own boss without having to worry about relying on the responsibilities of others. “I like being able to put all of the eggs in my basket,” Kyle says. “Not having to worry about who’s going to show up, trust issues when people were working from home. I just like the idea of Footprints Floors that at least, at first, it’s just me. I can trust me, I can lean on me.”

Kyle also found comfort in his journey in becoming a Franchise Owner through his training with Footprints Floors Founder, Bryan Park. He found that he could find mentorship and support through Bryan’s knowledge with Footprints, and saw pieces of himself reflected in Bryan’s character. “Bryan is a family-first guy, he seems very honest, he’s very humble, down to earth,” Kyle states. “He’s also very helpful and he’s also not that much older than me and he already has a huge operation.” In seeing that they are similar in age, Kyle finds inspiration in Bryan’s ability to handle operations at such a young age. “I’m only 33, I’ve seen that a young person has been able to do the same business and make it work and be able to really scale the operation. He sort of looks like me, acts like me, and it makes sense.” Because he came in to the flooring industry without prior experience, Kyle felt hesitation in approaching business operations without any previous experience. However, Kyle found that the support of Bryan and the whole corporate team truly helped him transition and adopt the Franchise Owner mindset. “He’s been very helpful in that I was coming in blind and I don’t know anything about flooring— no construction, flooring, or anything like that. He’s been an open book and he’s let me pick his brain.” He summarizes Bryan’s mentorship style through the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a dumb question.”

Now as he begins his official career as a Footprints Floors Franchise Owner, Kyle anticipates his readiness to experience any new situation will be the key to his success. Overall, the idea of building a well-running business is what Kyle is most looking forward to. “I’m excited to get going,” Kyle claims. “I’m really excited for me to have a streamlined process and have my crews in place. I’m really looking forward to the next 6-12 months when I really know what I’m doing and things become more strategic, planning how I want to schedule my week to be as productive as possible, starting to make more managerial decisions. Overall, slowly growing the organization until it’s a well-oiled machine.”

As an individual without experience in the flooring industry, Kyle has this piece of advice to anyone considering the next step in becoming a Franchise Owner: 

“Just be ready to learn. Take in as much as you can possibly take in, especially in this sort of world. Most of the people entering the Footprints flooring world don’t have much of a flooring background, if any. There’s much to learn, so don’t let the pride get in the way of asking something that might be simple or obvious. Take notes, and have a willingness to learn.”

Do you want to follow in Kyle’s footsteps and take the next steps in starting a flooring business? Visit our franchise page to learn about how you can become our next Franchise Owner and join our flooring franchise family.

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