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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