Starting a flooring retail business and sustaining it can be difficult enough, but doing so while also building a well-known and respected brand is even more challenging. Floor Trendsspoke with several retailers from around the country about the histories of their companies, how they built their brands and any tips they can offer to entrepreneurs just starting out.
Carlton Billingsley, general manager of Floors and Moore in Benton Ark., grew up in the family-run retail store his parents founded, which has been in the same location for the past 34 years. “We’ve been through several cycles of the economy, both good times and bad times. One of the things we’ve always done is to be diversified in different types of products. We don’t want to be known just as a flooring store: Floors and More—that’s right in our name. We also sell countertops, window treatments, light remodel services and other products and services that complement our business.”