Send us a text It’s been 5 years and 3 months, 283 episodes, and countless guests. All good things must come to an end though. I am honoring the show by taking it back to my very first guests Ken Ballin and Allen Lewis to see how we all have changed over the last 5 years. What’s new, what’s different, and how our goals have changed. Change is a necessary part of life and so is reflection. Enjoy this look back on the show, the industry, and our lives. Special thanks to all of our sponsors. I’ll s...
Dec 25, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 6Ep. 52
Send us a text How important are the words you choose to use on your website, marketing and even in your daily conversations? How does it affect the way you are viewed, your products, or even your business? I have been big on making sure to say client over customer and project over job for a long time and there are others. Kerry Lenz has also shifted the words she uses in her business to better convey what separates Rice’s More Than Floors in their market. Kerry Lenz and her husband Brad own Ric...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 51
Send us a text How did you originally decide to name your company? Have you ever thought of changing your name? What kind of damage will it cause? Will people still recognize you? Will you lose clientele? What does it take to rebrand an entire company? Shane Levinson is a serial entrepreneur and combat veteran. Shane started in the flooring business with his father Jerry Levinson nearly a decade ago, posting an average of 40% annual growth for our first 7 years. In 2021 Shane bought out his Dads...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 50
Send us a text Where do you find the time to write a blog, book client appointments, setup marketing campaigns, and get installs done? It’s a lot of hats to wear and we didn’t even get in to all of the other ones you wear. Technology has come a long way though and it’s here to help you in ways you never imagined. Cartoons like “The Jetsons” are soon to be reality with robots in homes and businesses, as well as, computers that complete simple tasks for you. Jason Potts is the owner of RIC Floorin...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 49
Send us a text A single crew is easy to manage especially if you are on it. Two crews is manageable. More than that and you start having a lot of moving pieces between availability, type of work possible to assign, type of work produced, etc. How can you not only manage a schedule effectively for yourself but with great communication to the clients as well? Marcos Guerequeta is the owner of Local Flooring Group in Saskatchewan, Canada. With a focus on social media marketing, he built up the bran...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 48
Send us a text Why does one store have a product priced at X amount of dollars and another at Y? Why does the price change as I move through different regions of the country? What goes in to pricing a product for national distribution? Why is having this conversation with other installers who don’t understand the big picture a pointless exercise? Multi-time guest, fan favorite, and friend of the show, Ron Nash returns to the Floor Academy Podcast to discuss national pricing by looking at raw mat...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 47
Send us a text Have you ever wondered how to get the higher end projects? What does it take to accomplish them? Who do you need to know? How do you need to perform? There are plenty of things that need to change and thinking that you do the best work in town isn’t going to cut it. Chris Resti owns Crest Tile and Mosaic near Rochester, NY. With a focus on fabricating mosaics and wall art, his journey didn’t begin there. Retail, food service, education and entertainment were some of the stops alon...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 46
Send us a text What happens with your missed calls or text messages? How about emails? How many times do you follow up with a prospect before considering the lead dead? How do you nurture a lead that is in its infancy? If someone isn’t ready to book now and get work done do you consider them a bad lead? All of these questions have to do with lead workflow and can have a big impact on how busy you can stay. Most of us want leads that are ready to go but we don’t have a system to nurture someone e...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 45
Send us a text What happens with your missed calls or text messages? How about emails? How many times do you follow up with a prospect before considering the lead dead? How do you nurture a lead that is in its infancy? If someone isn’t ready to book now and get work done do you consider them a bad lead? All of these questions have to do with lead workflow and can have a big impact on how busy you can stay. Most of us want leads that are ready to go but we don’t have a system to nurture someone e...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 44
Send us a text Nobody wants to work. People want too much money. Nobody will do it as well I can. What other excuses do you have for not having employees and trusting them to complete a project? It doesn’t have to be that way but it will take some work and systems to have reliable, attentive, and empowered employees that do the right thing even when you are away. Matt Garcia, owner of Craftsman Hardwood Flooring in San Angelo, TX, returns to the show once again to talk about how he implemented p...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 6Ep. 43
Send us a text Is it really worth it to have a showroom? Will it truly help your installation business? Won’t it just create more work and get in the way of running installs? It could not be worth it, it could get in your way, and it could create more headaches. However, it could also open up a new revenue stream, limit liability, and give you a path to something other than the “daily grind”. Billy Fritzel is the owner of Fritzel Flooring founded in 2017 in Fort Collins, CO. Following in the foo...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 42
Send us a text Just because you can set a tile, hand sew a seam, or properly sand and finish a floor to perfection, does not mean you are good at business. Often times we think because we are great craftspeople that those skills mean we are good at our business. If that was the case, why are there constantly contractors from all fields asking how much they should charge, what is the difference between markup and margin, and how do I handle this challenging client? If you had the skills you would...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 41
Send us a text How much does your workman’s comp cost you? What are you classifying your employees as? What are you subs classified as? Did you know that core tasks dictate classification and different classes have different rates? Someone in the field using dangerous power tools will cost you far more than someone in an office sitting at a computer. How do you figure out when you can change a classification and is all this penny pinching really worth it? Brad Lenz and his wife Kerry own Rice’s ...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 6Ep. 40
Send us a text When are you big enough to get a second location? What are the challenges behind it? How do you manage two teams? There are a lot of things to make happen so that you can be successful. From dialing in sales processes to expanding your marketing in to a new area there is a lot to consider. Chris Rogers is the owner of Wally’s Carpet and Tile in San Bernardino and recently opened up his second showroom. Starting out as an installer gives Chris a different perspective on running a r...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 6Ep. 39
Send us a text How do you manage your time in your business? How do you manage all the different hats you have to wear? Sales, installation, scheduling, finance, and marketing are just a few of them and they all require a different skillset. What if there was a better way to free up time where you could automate some of the processes as part of being an owner? Brittany Murphy returns to the show as the founder of Marketing Mutt? With over a decade of experience she has created over 900 online ma...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 6Ep. 38
Send us a text Do you sell installations or do you sell an experience? Answering that one question can quickly help you differentiate your company from the competition. What makes an install an experience? When does it start? What’s included? Is it really different than what the competition is doing? Reggie Burke of Bayview Flooring in Port Angeles, Washington has over 10 years of experience in the flooring trade. Upon going out on is own after being trained by his father, Reggie was looking for...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 37
Send us a text What changes about your marketing strategy as your business develops around you. What kind of tactics are required as a startup, survival, successful, scaling, or sustainable entity? More than likely referrals won’t be the only thing keeping you business alive past the survival stage. Justin Shaw of Driven for Growth, returns to the show to help us answer the above questions with practical steps to help you move the needle. He works closely with entrepreneurs in the contracting sp...
Sep 04, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 36
Send us a text What changes about your marketing strategy as your business develops around you. What kind of tactics are required as a startup, survival, successful, scaling, or sustainable entity? More than likely referrals won’t be the only thing keeping you business alive past the survival stage. Justin Shaw of Driven for Growth, returns to the show to help us answer the above questions with practical steps to help you move the needle. He works closely with entrepreneurs in the contracting sp...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 35
Send us a text How do you grow an installation company to more than just installation? You get into the retail side of things and start selling products. It’s as easy as building a relationship with a local store for a kickback to being as complicated as opening up your own store from ground zero and building it up. There is a middle ground of finding a store that is for sale and buying a client base and some systems and processes to help make your life slightly easier. Donald Perkins and his wi...
Aug 21, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 34
Send us a text How do you choose the right software for your business? Recommendations? Trial and error? Research? There are plenty of ways to attack it but one of the most important things to consider is whether or not it fits your business model. Not all software is created equally nor is it created to function as part of every industry. Tom Strachan is the CEO of Service Buddy, and leads a dedicated team in transforming the way flooring companies manage their operations through technology.The...
Aug 14, 2024•58 min•Season 6Ep. 33
Send us a text It’s not uncommon for me to hear from the audience or clients that they are technology adverse. With the average age of an installer in the industry being over 50 years old, it’s really no surprise that technology is not a major part of their business model or life. Couple that with the fact that technology and hand skills do not always go together and it’s a modern day recipe for disaster. There are simple and easy to use tools readily available to make your business more streaml...
Aug 07, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 32
Send us a text It’s not easy to grow a business and make it efficient. Many of us struggle to make it happen and it doesn’t help that the trades are full of guys with lots of pride and stubbornness. We often times get the mindset that we have to do everything on our own and that because we know our trade well, that we know how to run our business well. Knowing your trade and knowing how to run a business are two separate skills though and we have to normalize this. Mike Somodean is the owner of ...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 6Ep. 31
Send us a text What is it that you actually sell as an installation contractor? If your answer is installs, you are dead wrong. That is what you do but it is not what you sell. You are selling a solution to a problem that someone has and providing them with value. Think about it, if you had a $100 bill in your hand, what would you trade it for? The value of the proposed trade would need to be worth more than the $100 bill or you wouldn’t make the trade. How can you present value to your prospect...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 6Ep. 30
Send us a text Do you ever worry about the tax man coming after you? What about any other government agency? Do you even know who can and what it truly takes to avoid getting in trouble? I’m sure most of us pay our taxes correctly enough to remain under the radar but what about OSHA, or the Department of Labor or the Environmental Protection Agency? I never really thought to personally worry about it, but then it came to my attention I may not need to worry about myself or my team. It could come...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr•Season 6Ep. 29
Send us a text How many times do you follow up with a potential client before you move on? What kind of follow up system do you have? Does any of it involve education? Did you know that the average buying cycle for flooring is 6 to 12 months? How are you staying in front of your prospects so they will use you when they are finally ready? Chris Frate, owner of Pasquale Floors in Cleveland, OH, has grown his business to have multiple crews offering sand and finish services. Started in 2001, its be...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 28
Send us a text Struggling to manage just the field operations? What’s it like to add on the books, marketing, scheduling, deliveries, and bidding? Wearing all the hats is a difficult task that is only multiplied by the facts that we are not good at everything and we don’t enjoy everything. Did you know that you don’t have to do it all? Did you know that your struggles are not unique and many other owners are just like you? Doug Howard is President of Growth Team Strategies, a consulting company ...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 27
Send us a text Have you heard bad stories about useless business coaches who don’t produce results? Does the idea of hiring one just completely turn you off? I can’t blame you, not one bit. There are a lot of coaches out there but many of them are really just cheerleaders. They pump you up emotionally but don’t ever provide any tools to truly change the business. What is it that you are actually buying and what is that you are actually wanting? Does your business even need help? Justin Shaw is t...
Jun 26, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 26
Send us a text I hear stories from retail store owners all the time on how potential subs come in and ask if they are hiring and then the follow up is how much do you pay. This is a horrible approach in my opinion as you are your own business and need to be telling them what you expect. Besides the pay portion though, what about asking what struggles they have with their current subs or what their most common callback complaints are? Can you find a unique niche to solve for the retailer? Kevin W...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 6Ep. 25
Send us a text Where do you even begin starting a business? Many of us just end up out on our own after we learn the skillset thinking that’s all we need. It’s not the case and business knowledge is not the first thing we often seek. This is a major problem for small business owners in general but is easily fixable. Paul Wilke, is the owner of Masterpiece Floors in Corona, CA. With years of experience under his belt as a sand and finish craftsman, as well as, being an owner/operator as well as e...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 24
Send us a text We have all seen the jack of all trades guys, or the guy that offer carpet, hardwood, tile, sheet goods, etc. How about the guys and gals that are doing residential one week and commercial the next. Sure it can all be done but each thing is technically a different model and they all require knowing the ins and outs of each so that you can properly run your business as efficiently as possible. If they are being run as one in the same, it can lead to cash flow problems, scheduling i...
Jun 05, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 23
