From Computer Engineering to Flooring Franchise Opportunities: Jamie Lamkin’s Road to Entrepreneurship

Footprints Floors Founder Bryan Park started this company simply to provide for his wife and children. The company he was working for failed due to poor management practices and he had to find a way to put food on the table.

Bryan built faith-based, Christian Franchise Footprints Floors as he raised his family. And Footprints absolutely thrived, thanks to his careful management. He then decided to grow it further, by extending flooring franchise opportunities to like-minded individuals, who care about running a good business, while maintaining a healthy personal and family life.

Individuals like our latest Franchise Owner, Jamie Lamkin, whose Tallahassee, Florida territory is already gaining ground as a premier flooring installation company and earning stellar customer reviews!

Flooring Franchise Opportunities that Put Family First

“Family is what really caught my ears…not just the family within the franchise, but also more time I would be able to spend with my family,” says Jamie about his initial discovery of the flooring franchise opportunities available through Footprints Floors.

Born in the small town of Brandenburg, Kentucky, Jamie moved to the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where he met his wife, started a family, and began working at a software company where he would spend the next two decades of his career. “After earning an associate degree in computer engineering, I started working for a small company called Digital Biometrics,” he says. “ I was with Digital Biometrics who, over time, merged with several different companies over my 19-year tenure.”

The last 10 years of Jamie’s software engineering career took him to Tallahassee, where he enjoys spending time in the wilderness as often as he can. “My hobbies, when not working, are golf, camping, fishing, and painting,” he tells us. “Camping is my favorite as I get to spend time with family and friends. Fishing is another fun time to spend with my sons as it is relaxing being on the water.”

Unfortunately, Jamie wasn’t able to spend that much time with his family prior to discovering Footprints Floors. His professional background was in the software industry, where 50-hour workweeks aren’t unheard of, but Jamie’s role was even more demanding. “With the company I was on call 24/7; however, the last 10 years of service, I worked my way to being a Regional Field Service/Account Manager in the Southeast. My time was [devoted] to the company and [I had] little time for family as I was still needed 24/7.”

Jamie’s Road to Entrepreneurship

Jamie has a great work ethic, but he needed a break. He was more than ready for a change, when along came a surprising introduction to our flooring franchise opportunities.  Jamie remembers, “In March 2020, I was introduced to the faith-based Footprints Floors Franchise by Keith Ritter from Franchise Source. He had seen my resume on a job board and asked if I would be interested.”

This wasn’t Jamie’s first-time considering owning his own business. “My interest in entrepreneurship has been something I had thought about for quite some time. I liked how I could set up my own schedule, hours, and provide family time.”

Many people would like to be entrepreneurs. Most remain stuck thinking, wishing, and dreaming about it. Jamie is one of the few who actually made the move. For a family man, a decision like this can’t be taken lightly.

“I had always thought about owning my own company or doing business on my own. I just never did take the leap,” he explains. “Going from a corporate world to buying into a franchise for myself and my family is scary; however, after long talks with my wife we thought, why not take the chance now?”

Perhaps not surprisingly, a flooring franchise wasn’t the first type of business on Jamie’s mind, and he first considered more typical franchising opportunities, like restaurants. “I was looking at opening a restaurant in the little town we live in now; however, the overhead was higher than I was looking to spend,” he recalls.

Franchise consultant Keith Ritter made Jamie aware of our affordable flooring franchise opportunities. Jamie says, “I provided him with my information and background. He provided me with two different franchises to investigate. I chose Footprints Floors.”

Inside Jamie’s Discovery Day Experience

When Jamie attended Discovery Day in Colorado and met our Founder Bryan Park, he was given the reassurance he needed to proceed. “In meeting with Bryan and the staff at Footprints Floors, they made my decision to take the leap of faith to want to franchise,” he notes.

There are a few key things that stood out to Jamie during his Discovery Day, including, “meeting everyone in person, seeing the business up front and how it operates, being provided some figures of how other franchises are doing, and being able to see the operation first-hand in the field.”

Meeting our Founder and speaking with the team helped Jamie understand who we are as a company. Footprints Floors operates on a shared vision of success. When Founder Bryan Park decided to grow his company, he had two choices: more employees or franchising.

It was an easy decision.

Footprints thrives because of how well we treat our customers. Our dedication to them shows in our industry-leading ratings with the Better Business Bureau, Home Advisor, and Yelp.

Bryan was determined to keep this intact. He decided to grow by keeping the company’s best people close to the ground, through a team of like-minded Franchise Owners.

This vision resonated with Jamie. “The Founder and corporate team of Footprints Floors were really great to finally meet,” he says. “You watch them in their videos and understand where they come from and how they got to where they are today. It took hard work and dedication to make it. When you understand their devotion, caring, kindness to build a company from the ground up and start franchising, then you know they have experienced everything you are going through when starting a franchise. I hope to take what they have built and continue on the devotion, caring, and kindness to make my franchise and company name successful.”

During his Discovery Day process, Jamie also learned how he can put his abilities to work and have success within our proprietary business structure.

Footprints Floors is such a unique flooring franchise opportunity because our Franchise Owners don’t have to worry about things like lead generation, inventory, or payroll. Thanks to our wonderful support systems, Franchise Owners simply plug themselves into our system with energy and dedication.

Flooring Franchise Opportunities – No Flooring Required!

Jamie doesn’t have a history in flooring, construction or home improvement. But his white-collar experience as an account manager will translate well for him. As he points out, “My customer service and field service experiences are a good fit for the Home Services Industry.” 

With our team backing him up, Jamie’s ready for his new flooring franchise. We asked him what set this franchising opportunity apart from others in the industry. His answer was clear. “Structure, low overhead, and family values. [Corporate] communication and the helpfulness.”

Reflecting on his experience, Jamie has some advice for those who are considering entrepreneurship. “If you are coming from the corporate world, do your research of state business guidelines. Just know, you will have good days and bad days; however, do not give up as you are the one that can make it successful.”

We certainly take care of a lot for our Franchise Owners to help them succeed in their markets, but Jamie’s the type of Franchise Owner we like best – an individual who is driven to succeed and ready to build a thriving business. He has the character it takes to make his flooring franchise opportunity flourish. When we asked what motivates him and what he’ll be relying on, he had this to say. “My family, my work ethic, and my customer service experience.”

Thanks to investigating flooring franchise opportunities through Footprints Floors, Jamie now has far more family time and a much better lifestyle than 24/7 on-call work at someone else’s business. He says, “I look forward to being able to provide superior service to homeowners and spending more time on the weekends with family and friends. Never thought I would be a franchise business owner; now that I am one, my work ethic has to be above and beyond what I have done before to make my own Footprints Floors franchise successful.”

A Better Life for You and Your Family is Just Footprints Away!

Quality family time, a profitable business, and some healthy recreation. That’s our vision of a good and balanced life. It’s one that we hope to share with as many aspiring business owners as possible, through our affordable flooring franchise opportunities. 

For those of you out there who’d like to discover flooring franchise opportunities that give them back a healthy work-life balance, Footprints Floors is still on the lookout for quality Franchise Owners. We still have exclusive flooring franchise territories available. But hurry, several states are entirely sold out and some regions have only a few territories left!

If you’re interested in securing an opportunity like this for yourself, please visit our franchise website for more information.

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