• Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTS
  • A&D
  • INSTALLATION
  • MARKETS
  • AWARDS
  • EDUCATION
  • BUYER'S GUIDE
  • MEDIA
  • EMAGAZINE
  • SIGN UP
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • NEWS
  • Breaking Flooring News
  • eNewsletters
  • PRODUCTS
  • Carpet & Area Rugs
  • Hardwood
  • Installation Products
  • Installation Tools & Equipment
  • Laminate
  • Resilient
  • Specialty
  • Tile & Stone
  • MARKETS
  • Commercial
  • Residential
  • AWARDS
  • Installation Awards
  • Top Flooring Products
  • EDUCATION
  • Continuing Education
  • Webinars
  • Sponsored Insights
  • MEDIA
  • FLOOR Podcast
  • Videos
  • TISE 2025 Videos
  • eBooks
  • EMAGAZINE
  • eMagazine
  • Archive Issues
  • Contact
  • Advertise
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
    • Breaking Flooring News
    • eNewsletters
  • PRODUCTS
    • Carpet & Area Rugs
    • Hardwood
    • Installation Products
    • Installation Tools & Equipment
    • Laminate
    • Resilient
    • Specialty
    • Tile & Stone
  • A&D
  • INSTALLATION
  • MARKETS
    • Commercial
    • Residential
  • AWARDS
    • Installation Awards
    • Top Flooring Products
  • EDUCATION
    • Continuing Education
    • Webinars
    • Sponsored Insights
  • BUYER'S GUIDE
  • MEDIA
    • FLOOR Podcast
    • Videos
    • TISE 2025 Videos
    • eBooks
  • EMAGAZINE
    • eMagazine
    • Archive Issues
    • Contact
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP
Commercial FlooringQ&A on Flooring

What’s Next for Starnet Commercial Flooring Partnership

By Tanja Kern
Mark Bischoff

“We feel like we can be a rally point for the industry to get the productivity up,” said Starnet President and CEO Mark Bischoff.

Photos by Silk + Sage Films. 

Starnet 30th Anniversary

Starnet celebrated its 30th anniversary in Colorado Springs, Colorado, offering commercial flooring contractors, manufacturing partners, service providers and industry partners the chance to reconnect and plan in person.

Photo by Silk + Sage Films.

Starnet leadership

Starnet leadership from left: Fred Williamson, new membership; Eric Boender, VP business development; Mark Bischoff, president and CEO; Rob Starr, director of marketing and member services; Pam Herrlinger, executive assistant; Adrienne Clay, member financial operations associate; Bruce Campos, VP business development; and Paul Flieger, CFO.

Photo by Silk + Sage Films.

Starnet’s 30th anniversary convention

The trade show at Starnet’s 30th anniversary convention in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Photo by Silk + Sage Films.

Mark Bischoff
Starnet 30th Anniversary
Starnet leadership
Starnet’s 30th anniversary convention
August 10, 2022

Starnet celebrated its 30th anniversary in Colorado Springs, Colorado, offering commercial flooring contractors, manufacturing partners, service providers and industry partners the chance to reconnect and plan in person. President and CEO Mark Bischoff met with Floor Trends to give some insight on the organization, which currently has 180 members in 390 locations accounting for $4 billion annual sales. 


Floor Trends: Congratulations on celebrating 30 years. You’ve achieved a lot of growth—how does the group manage it? 

 Bischoff: It’s a member-driven organization, so they have high expectations for each other. They're very competitive, and their membership committee selects and evaluates the members to join the organization. They’ve put them through a process and they get references from our vendor partners as well as local area members. There's an interview and that's part of that quality check in. It's not easy to join Starnet—you already have to be significant in the marketplace, but beyond that, you have to have good credentials. And that feeds through to everything that they do. So our members have set the standard for what quality means and their commitment to the industries. Incredible. And they're great entrepreneurs.

Another change in the membership: more and more members are multi-location companies, and that was not true a decade ago. It used to be very difficult to scale a flooring contracting company through the years. Some people have done it well and some people have kind of struggled through it. There are lots of models that they can follow to do multi-location service business in the construction industry. Our members are much better now at running multi-location offices. Many of their customers ask them to open in new markets, and it's a significant part of the membership now that that manages multiple locations. 


Floor Trends: Tell me more about the floor care business. 

Bischoff: We are picking up floor care members. We have good coverage across North America. The floor care members did very well early on in the pandemic because of disinfection and their maintenance business suffered because no one was in these buildings. They're very busy now. Even beyond floor care, some of them are adding janitorial divisions to supplement the floor care business, and they love the floor care business because it provides constant contact to their end user customers.


Floor Trends: How do you handle territories if a member wants to expand? 

We’ve transitioned to ... a more cooperative model. Our obligation to the vendor partners is to make sure that we provide service in every market and market segment.

Bischoff: That's a new challenge as well; the organization used to be very territorial. We’ve transitioned to, and this is a play on words, but a more cooperative model. Our obligation to the vendor partners is to make sure that we provide service in every market and market segment. Our members may choose not to serve certain market segments. For example, some members may not have had good experiences or just choose not to do K-12 schools. Our obligation to the vendor is to have a member in that market that will do K-12 schools. So that's our value proposition in the manufacturer, and our members understand that's part of our mission and vision. And although they don't love it when new locations pop up, it's part of our obligation and they understand.

We want to be indispensable. We'll always take high-quality contractors that the members approve. The challenge for us is that the standards that they have to meet—there are fewer and fewer companies at that level. You already have to be significant in the market to join Starnet. We've done a good job of recruiting companies. 


Floor Trends: What are you seeing in terms of succession planning? 

Bischoff: That’s another change. The board went through a process of updating our member standards. The old challenge with succession—the business was too attached to the proprietor. We still have those great stories about families transferring the business to the children or somewhere in the family. In addition, we have employees now successfully taking over businesses from the prior owner, but there's this new trend on private equity. That impacts a few of our members because private equity is now interested in the service business. The board decided we should take advantage of the trend and make sure that our members have that as a viable path for succession without having to leave Starnet. That was thoroughly discussed, debated, and that's where we landed. We feel like we have a flexible membership model that accommodates lots of different ownership profiles. We even have ESOPs in the organization now. 


Floor Trends: Do you have plans to go global?

Bischoff: We had a member in the past in the United Kingdom, but I think in the last recession, they weren't able to survive. We've had some discussions with companies, but our focus is really to make sure that we're maximizing what we have. If a company were to phone up from the United Kingdom and say we're interested, we'll talk to them.


Floor Trends: Big picture, what are some of the projects the group is working on? 

Bischoff: It's been a challenge to launch new products. Manufacturers sit in a room, set a budget, make estimates on how many widgets they're going to sell, and it’s going to take two years. We would love for them to come to us and say, “How can you help us shorten this to 12 months, eight months, six months?” 

Another rally point is we're trying to get as much technology deployed across the members as possible. That includes tools, equipment. For example, replacing a hand scraper with machine or visualization of spaces. We feel like we can be a rally point for the industry to get the productivity up. We see a lot of the manufacturers trying to push the members online, but the member expectation is an Amazon experience. A lot of it is not that good yet.

KEYWORDS: business growth and expansion Starnet technology

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Tanja kern headshot 2023

Tanja Kern is associate publisher and editorial director of FLOOR Trends & Installation. She brings more than 20 years of experience covering the flooring, design, and construction industries through print and digital platforms.  


Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • resilient flooring

    The 7 Types of Resilient Flooring

    The resilient flooring category is comprised of many...
    Resilient Flooring
    By: Resilient Floorcovering Institute
  • QuickDrain USA’s ShowerLine linear drain

    Tips for Curbless Shower Installation Using a Linear Drain

    Consider these four tips when planning for a curbless...
    Flooring Installation
    By: Darryl Jones
  • 2024 New Flooring Product Guide

    2024 New Flooring Products Guide

    We explore this year's introductions in area rugs,...
    Floor Coverings
    By: FLOOR Trends & Installation Editors
You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Manage My Account
  • eMagazine
  • eNewsletter
  • Online Registration
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Subscription Customer Service

What Shaw Flooring Network Dealers are Banking on for 2025

What Shaw Flooring Network Dealers are Banking on for 2025

Retailers Share Top Takeaways from Shaw Flooring Network Convention

Retailers Share Top Takeaways from Shaw Flooring Network Convention

Shaw Flooring Network Retailers Report Post-Election Sales Surge

Shaw Flooring Network Retailers Report Post-Election Sales Surge

SolidTech R: Sustainable, High-Performance Flooring from Bottle to Floor

SolidTech R: Sustainable, High-Performance Flooring from Bottle to Floor

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the FLOOR Trends & Installation audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of FLOOR Trends & Installation or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Woodura Herringbone 2.0
    Sponsored byBjelin

    The Herringbone Floor of the Future

Popular Stories

company branding

Branding and Marketing Strategies for Flooring Contractors

Mimi Mulugeta and Michael Barrows

Military Vet Trades Retirement for New Flooring Venture in Alpharetta

how to properly trowel adhesive

Flooring Adhesives Education: The Key to Preventing Costly Installation Failures


Download the Free Moisture Meters Guide

Events

December 1, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

Growth Challenges in the Flooring Industry

What’s holding you back from growth in 2025?
View Results Poll Archive

Products

2025 BNI Interiors Square Foot Costbook

2025 BNI Interiors Square Foot Costbook

See More Products

FLOORtalk podcasts - Listen Now

Related Articles

  • Fuse Alliance State of the Industry Panel.jpg

    What's Next for Commercial Flooring

    See More
  • Creative Flooring.jpg

    Creative Flooring Joins Starnet Commercial Flooring Partnership

    See More
  • Starnet-logo

    Starnet Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership Welcomes John Herbert Company

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • BNI Interiors Square Foot Costbook 2025 Edition

    2025 BNI Interiors Square Foot Costbook

  • floorfinishes.jpg

    Environmental Impact of Materials: Floor Finishes

  • radiant.jpg

    Radiant Floor Heating, Second Edition

See More Products

Events

View AllSubmit An Event
  • October 24, 2025

    Starnet Fall Membership Meeting

    The Starnet Fall Membership Meeting focuses on professional development, networking, and showcasing innovations within the commercial flooring industry.
View AllSubmit An Event
×
“We feel like we can be a rally point for the industry to get the productivity up,” said Starnet President and CEO Mark Bischoff. Photos by Silk + Sage Films. 
Starnet celebrated its 30th anniversary in Colorado Springs, Colorado, offering commercial flooring contractors, manufacturing partners, service providers and industry partners the chance to reconnect and plan in person. Photo by Silk + Sage Films.
Starnet leadership from left: Fred Williamson, new membership; Eric Boender, VP business development; Mark Bischoff, president and CEO; Rob Starr, director of marketing and member services; Pam Herrlinger, executive assistant; Adrienne Clay, member financial operations associate; Bruce Campos, VP business development; and Paul Flieger, CFO. Photo by Silk + Sage Films.
The trade show at Starnet’s 30th anniversary convention in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo by Silk + Sage Films.

We’re rolling out the red carpet of flooring knowledge!

Stay in the know on the latest flooring retail trends.

JOIN TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Directories
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletters
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
    • Breaking Flooring News
    • eNewsletters
  • PRODUCTS
    • Carpet & Area Rugs
    • Hardwood
    • Installation Products
    • Installation Tools & Equipment
    • Laminate
    • Resilient
    • Specialty
    • Tile & Stone
  • A&D
  • INSTALLATION
  • MARKETS
    • Commercial
    • Residential
  • AWARDS
    • Installation Awards
    • Top Flooring Products
  • EDUCATION
    • Continuing Education
    • Webinars
    • Sponsored Insights
  • BUYER'S GUIDE
  • MEDIA
    • FLOOR Podcast
    • Videos
    • TISE 2025 Videos
    • eBooks
  • EMAGAZINE
    • eMagazine
    • Archive Issues
    • Contact
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP