Bob Nesbitt started Flooring Consultants nearly 20 years ago after purchasing Engrave-A-Crete equipment. His plan was to grow his new decorative concrete engraving business while continuing to sell other floor coverings. The plan quickly changed with the growth of his business and within months he was devoting 100% of his energy to his new concrete engraving enterprise.
Bob attests, “I’m in the floor covering business.” He focuses on inside work because “Everyone needs a finished floor,” and because hard surface interior flooring is on a growth trend. Bob’s philosophy is that outside decorative concrete work may seem like a luxury to some, inside decorative floor work is an outstanding option for a necessity. He and his customers enjoy being less impacted by weather because scheduling is easier and more dependable.
Bob is quick to point out that this does not mean that his business does not do outside work. To the contrary, Bob is proud of his cross sell/up sell record in growing jobs that were initially sourced as an inside floor referral. His up-sell focus is normally a garage floor, porch, patio, pool deck, or walkway. Success here has improved efficiency as drying time is leveraged with secondary work on the same job site.
Flooring Consultants has not invested in advertising for some time. Currently 100% of the work comes from referrals, and the company now enjoys a 75% to 25% mix of business between residential and commercial customers respectively.
Bob credits Engrave-A-Crete tools , products and tech support for making his business profitable. Why has Bob been so successful? He says:
• We do good work and we make sure each and every customer is happy.
• We truly work to build relationships and rapport with people.
• Each customer always has my business cards on hand when someone asks them, “Who did this floor?”
• I have worked hard to be known personally in our service area.
