Best Practices - June 2009

By Sonya Jennings

After basically being born into the flooring business and working most of his young life for his father’s company, Rite Rug Company, Jason Goldberg decided in 2000 to begin his own company called America’s Floor Source. Located in Columbus, Ohio, America’s Floor Source serves the builder, wholesale, property management and retail markets by offering carpet, ceramic tile, hardwood, laminate, sheet vinyl, LVT, stone, cork, bamboo, blinds and window treatments.

The company gains most of its current clients by aggressively pursuing builder, property management and wholesale customers with cold calling and networking. Later this year, the company intends to launch a plan to capture more retail business. As it stands now, the builder market is approximately 60% of the business, with wholesale and property management at 17% and 20%, respectively. The remainder is retail.

When asked what makes his business successful, Jason Goldberg’s first comment was, “We educate and train our employees. These words are thrown around a lot in every industry, but we actually do it.” Goldberg doles out regular reading assignments for his staff. Whether through current articles or books like “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, he believes that ongoing education is the way to keep his staff ahead of the competition.

Every Tuesday after the store closes, there’s a structured meeting for all employees. For the first hour, an outside representative educates the staff about a product. The second hour of the meeting consists of “theory and philosophy” training. This time is used to discuss assigned reading material, sales training, and/or general business training. The third hour is for a group of 12 employees who gather to discuss strategy and planning. Many of the ideas that come out of this hour determine what will be highlighted at the next week’s meeting. Once a month, they review sales figures, but the main purpose of the meetings is to learn more about the industry, products, and how to keep the business healthy and growing.

New employees complete an intense 180 day training program. They sit down with Goldberg throughout the training and discuss all that they’ve been learning. “It is very clear within the first 90 days of training if this person can thrive in our company,” Goldberg says. “I can tell in a simple conversation if they have been reading and digesting all of the educational material. It is usually at this point that I determine whether the person is a good fit for our business.”

Goldberg is candid about how the comprehensive training program began. In 2005, he launched a remodeling operation within the business called Décor Blvd, which he now refers to as “the million dollar mistake.” After soul searching about what went wrong, he determined that a fully involved and tuned in staff would have prevented the problem. He comments, “Had everyone been plugged into the process when I was considering the remodeling venture, my staff would have asked questions that would have led to the conclusion that this was not going to work.”

A big believer in education, Goldberg took many lessons from this experience that will more than make up for the lost million. One, he learned that he knows the flooring business very well, and that’s where his focus should be. He believes that a business owner shouldn’t leap into any new area without an extensive knowledge of the business. Also, when expanding a business, he stresses the importance of making sure that the new venture is building equity, not killing equity. According to Goldberg, “One of my big lessons from this is that many people working together will make a better decision than one. Although one person ultimately will make the final decision, input from an entire team of employees is absolutely critical to success.”

Décor Blvd was transformed into a showroom for builders, their clients and retail customers. Other items are still featured in the showroom such as cabinets, paint colors, plumbing, interior and exterior doors, and exterior siding in order to help the home-owner choose products that complement each other. Designers work with customers to choose products that will coordinate together in a new or remodeled home. The difference is that instead of managing the entire project, America’s Floor Source sells only the flooring, and the client can get the other items from the companies that show products at Décor Blvd. This portion of the business still brings in revenue from other companies that showcase products in the Décor Blvd showroom.

Goldberg explains the shift in his educational philosophy. “After the failure of the remodeling business, I knew that I had to design a new plan that would keep my employees very involved and educated, so I came up with the weekly meetings and new educational goals.” However, he says the first year was a disaster. No one wanted to do all the additional reading and take extra time to meet and plan. Change can be difficult. But during year two, everyone began to see the benefit of how the new focus was improving not only individual employees but the company as a whole. “If you really care about what you are doing and the people you are serving, and this is shown by paying attention to detail…you are going to go far in this world,” Goldberg says. “This is the philosophy we try to communicate over and over.”

Another way that education enters Goldberg’s overall business is through technology. The staff at America’s Floor Source is highly proficient at using its specially designed software for installation and customer service in addition to industry software. The company has two websites, and the process of building them was intense and thorough. First, the staff studied other websites—what worked, what didn’t. Then there were many brainstorming sessions about exactly how to direct the customer quickly and easily to needed information. It was a two year project of pre-planning the sites on poster boards. According to Goldberg, “The result of all of the work on the sites is two complementary websites that are complete, clean, easy to navigate, and highly informative.” They include a virtual room designer, interactive lifestyle and design questionnaires, and educational information.

In every aspect of America’s Floor Source, education is key. Goldberg adds, “It is so cliché to say that ‘people make a business,’ but we actually put that philosophy into action.”

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