Alfonso Ferreira’s Long Road to American Entrepreneurship

The dream of owning a business is a lifelong pursuit for many people, and becoming an entrepreneur may not always be the easiest goal to achieve.

Every year, people from countries all over the world come to the United States in hopes of achieving the American Dream of entrepreneurship. One such person, Alfonso Ferreira, found his ideal business opportunity as a Footprints Floors Franchise Owner in California!

Alfonso’s Story

At present, Alfonso Ferreira is a fully-fledged California resident. However, that’s not always been the case. He spent much of his early years in Mexico City, where he was born and completed school.

Following graduation, Alfonso has managed to work in various industries and with several large companies in different capacities. In his journey through the corporate world, Alfonso has worked for a consulting firm for 8 years, followed by one of the largest cereal companies in the world for another 8 years.

His next career move led Alfonso to a company called Mabe, which at the time was the GE Appliances brand affiliate in Latin America, for three years, followed by Walmart’s corporate office in Mexico for a decade. Without knowing it yet, Alfonso was slowly acquiring knowledge and business management skills that are now instrumental in his faith-based, floor installation franchise.

Venturing Into The U.S.

Even as Alfonso was coming to the U.S. a few years ago, he had no idea he would be running his own business. He first came to Los Angeles, CA to work with a U.S. company. Sadly, this arrangement did not work out, leaving him out of work.

At the time, the obvious option was to relocate back to his homeland. However, that would not be. This is because his family was well settled in the U.S. and desired to continue living here. Moreover, his daughter, who is currently a senior in high school, wants to go to college here.

It was now on Alfonso’s shoulders to find a way for his family to stay in the US. Ordinarily, this would involve looking for employment. However, after decades of working for others and recent frustrations, a life of entrepreneurship was calling.

Starting a Floor Installation Franchise

If you spend a few minutes with Alfonse Ferreira, you’d think he’s been in the floor installation business for decades. But it wasn’t even his first choice. As with anyone in such a position, his mind was all over the place. While he had set his mind on franchising, he was not sure with which company, let alone industry.

At first, he thought of either a gym or restaurant franchise. Realizing the importance of making the right decision, he hired a franchise consultant. With an experienced person to guide his choices, the chances of success would surely increase. 

This is especially so, considering he also had a clear vision and his working experience. At this stage, he had come up with some primary requirements for any company he’d work with. These were:

• It’s a fast-growing franchise
• It’s yet to establish franchises in California
• A company that allows him to put his experience in finance to use

In hindsight, it’s such decisions that show why he was bound to succeed. This is because when a franchise is at the growth stage, they’re actively looking for Franchise Owners. And, partnering with a company that’s yet to set foot in California would give him greater franchise location options. 

With such guidelines, it did not take long before his franchise consultant presented faith-based, Christian Franchise Footprints Floors as an option. This was early 2020, and he was soon invited to an in-person Approval Day at our Denver, CO headquarters. It was there that his belief in our floor installation franchise was cemented. By interacting with the team and learning about the company and its vision, his search for a franchise ended.

Some of the things that were appealing include:

• The type of company and what it stands for
• Footprints Floors’ supportive relations with Franchise Owners
• The timing as everything seemed to be on cue
• The financial investment necessary to become a franchisee
• The union would allow him to put his knowledge and expertise to use

A Tale of Commitment and Perseverance

Alfonso had found the franchise opportunity that fit all his needs, and he was ready to sign his franchise agreement! However, the world was about to throw him a curveball: soon after his Approval Day, the nation and world were turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. While it was a challenging period for everyone, it also presented unique challenges for Ferreira. 

This is because for him to set up his home improvement franchise, he would need to work on his application for an E2 investor visa, which enables international entrepreneurs to own and operate businesses based in America. During the time, consulates were closed, bringing the process to a grinding halt. Along with the strict requirements to get licenses in California, he needed a smart solution.

The team from Footprints Floors assisted Alfonso with the hardwood and tile installation licenses he needed. As of November 2020, he had completed training and signed the franchise agreement. However, with consulates still closed, he could not start his business just yet. Or, at least have hands-on involvement.

Interestingly, to navigate this challenge, Alfonso decided to hire a General Manager to start his business for him and handle day-to-day operations until he could be more directly involved. As a result, he was able to launch his home flooring installation franchise in March 2021. It was also at this time that he returned to Mexico to get the necessary documentation from the consulate. This process took five months, causing Alfonso to remain in Mexico until July 2021, when he would finally be able to take the reins to his Footprints Floors business.

Adapting From the Corporate Setup to Running a Business

After his return in July, Alfonso Ferreira has been running his home flooring installation franchise and handling all day-to-day operations. He acknowledges that it’s a bit different from life in the corporate world because he has greater responsibilities that come with owning and operating a business. He attributes his success as a Franchise Owner to his experience with various companies and the project management skills he’s picked up along the way. Over the past few months, his franchise has enjoyed increased revenues. 

Alfonso Ferreira’s journey to starting his floor installation franchise has not been easy. Despite the challenges that would have seen others lose heart, his resolve remained unwavering. This not only shows entrepreneurial resolve but a husband’s and father’s commitment to satisfy his family’s desires. Through Ferreira’s perseverance to achieve his dreams for himself and his family, along with the comprehensive support he has received from our corporate team along the way, he is now a successful California business owner.

It’s not too late to follow your own dream of entrepreneurship! Footprints Floors is currently awarding territories to Franchise Owners across the country.

We’re selling out fast in major U.S. markets – visit our franchise website today for more information. 

What’s the Story Behind Our Flooring Franchise? Our Founder and Development Director Tell All!

Have you ever heard our flooring franchise’s origin story? If not, now’s the perfect time to take a couple of minutes and get to know us better.

Footprints Floors Founder and CEO, Bryan Park and Development Director Brian Knuth just did an interview with Vetted Biz, a franchise business data platform. They shared our background story with the platform’s Co-Founder, Patrick Findaro.

You can watch the entire interview on YouTube, but we’ll also cover it here for those who aren’t familiar.

As some of you know, Footprints Floors was started way back in 2008, when Park found himself jobless and out of tens of thousands of dollars of his hard-earned wages by his bankrupt former employers.

Deciding to go into business for himself, Park developed what would become the core of the Footprints Floors faith-based business model, a customer-first approach with a primary focus on professionalism, courtesy, and integrity.

The Early Days of our Flooring Franchise

But back then Footprints Floors certainly didn’t always look or work like it does today. The company only became a flooring franchise in 2013. During the past twelve or so years, we’ve grown, worked a lot of kinks out, refined the system, and scaled.

But in 2008 the fledgling home improvement business was simply a practical next step for an enterprising husband and father who needed to take care of his family.

That year, Bryan Park found himself out of a job and six months of hard-earned wages. He had been working as a flooring technician for a home services company.

This wasn’t where he’d envisioned ending up for a dream career. But Bryan had recently left the Air Force and was searching for his next path in life.

He became interested in the flooring industry by chance. Bryan and his wife were just starting their family then. At the time, the Park family consisted of the couple, their infant daughter, and three rambunctious teething puppies. And this gave Bryan his first lesson on why homeowners need flooring services.

“My wife and I had gone out dinner one night. When we came home the three puppies had eaten our carpet,” Bryan said. “They just tore it up and shredded it. The pad was all over the house!”

“So, we called and hired a flooring company to come in and put in hardwood floors,” he continued. “I’m watching this guy install it all and I was like this is kind of cool.”

Seems like Bryan was on the home renovation kick long before home flipping and interior decorating turned into such a craze. But what really interested him is the promise of how much he could make.

“I asked him, how much money do you make doing this? He said, ‘Don’t know, 100 grand,’” Bryan recalled.

The idea of a six-figure income from installing floors was an instant winner for Bryan. He immediately started thinking of how he could use that income to fund his other life goals.

“I was like, I can still go to school at night! The vision was that I would install hardwood floors while I was finishing a different degree,” Bryan said. “I was going to be an engineer until that job ended up changing the course of my life.”

Finding Opportunity in Crisis

So, how did Bryan end up short six months of wages at what should have been a six-figure income job? Well, it might have seemed perfect. But the company was poorly managed and struggling to make it in the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

Instead of bringing a fat check home, Bryan ended up subsidizing his employers with free labor. He spent a full six months working without any pay until his boss sat him down at an Arby’s and informed Bryan that the location had gone under.

“I know, I got fired at an Arby’s! They owed me like 35 grand, and they were like, ‘good luck!’” Bryan said.

It was the worst timing ever for him. “I was 30 or 40 thousand dollars in credit card debt, had four dogs, my wife was pregnant with our second daughter, I had a two-year-old, and an 800-square foot house,” Bryan said.

“In that moment I was unemployed in the worst recession since the Great Depression. And that’s when I started faith-based Footprints Floors.”

Growth and Success in the Flooring Franchise Industry

So, what was the big idea driving Footprints? Well, there wasn’t one really, at least not at first. Footprints simply started as a way for Bryan to take care of his own family.

“My intentions were to feed my family really,” he remembers. “And that was it, that was all I was planning on doing with it.”

Even so, it certainly took a lot of hard work, pavement pounding, and mental grit to get things running during the Great Recession.

“December 9th of 2008 was our starting date. I’m starting a flooring company in the winter and it’s a seasonal business, so it’s not ideal,” Bryan said.

“We went the next couple months not doing any work. I was walking neighborhoods, putting flyers on doors, hanging out at Home Depot, hitting up customers in the flooring aisle, just trying to drum up any business. Just anything I could to support my young family.”

A few uncertain months without income must have felt like a much longer stretch. But once work started trickling in, it was a go for the future home flooring franchise.

“And then in February of ‘09, we did our first project. And things just started to roll from there,” Bryan said. “We kicked on marketing, and I ended up doing almost 550 thousand dollars that first year.”

There’s a secret to why Bryan was so successful early on. It’s because he concentrated on generating business and getting the jobs done, while his wife handled reception and administrative work. It was the earliest form of our centralized back-end setup that still delivers outstanding business results.

Bryan kept strengthening the structure until he met Brian Knuth, the VP of Development for a Denver-based franchise growth firm called Raintree, in 2018.

“I immediately had an attraction to the business for a variety of reasons,” recalled Knuth about his first encounter with Footprints Floors. “I’ve been closely related to the service industry. And I’ve always been attracted to the needs-based business where there’s an easily identified need from the consumer. It’s not a hard sale per se.”

“I evaluated Footprints Floors,” he continued, reflecting on what drew him in. “It was largely the infrastructure that he and his team have to support Franchise Owners. Bryan’s put [infrastructure] into place to create this operation where you can manage multiple jobs, multiple individuals, and a tremendous amount of output.”

Walking the Talk

Brian Knuth believed in our flooring franchise concept so much that he came on board as part of our executive team in addition to his position at Raintree. Not only that, but he’s also a Franchise Owner, and operates three of his own Footprints Floors territories on a semi-absentee basis. Similarly, Park owns and runs five flooring franchise territories in addition to acting as Founder and CEO.

Because of their hands-on experience, they both understand what it’s like to be a Franchise Owner and use this to help guide their big-picture strategy.

“I think that’s an advantage as a Franchisor,” Park said. “I run a flooring company to this day. Whatever I’m telling a Franchise Owner to do, I’m doing the same thing. Whatever we’re implementing at the Franchisor level, is affecting my day-to-day business as well.

I’m not just talking the talk. I’ve been walking the walk for 15 years.”

Want to Be Part of Our Next Chapter?

Our background story is certainly compelling, but we’re even more excited about what the future holds for our Christian Flooring Franchise! Our operations may look a lot different now then in those hard first few months, with a robust call center infrastructure and dedicated support team taking the place of flyer distribution and hanging out in hardware store flooring aisles. But to this day, and beyond, our faith-based business philosophy and model are still shaped by the same principles of hard work, integrity, and dedication.

The values that made Footprints Floors an early success still dictate the direction of our company, and that is something that will never change. If you share those values and are interested in a Christian Flooring Franchise, we’d love to hear from you.

Just visit our franchise website for more information.