Micah Pye, talent acquisition specialist, Shaw, served in the U.S. Marines as a F-18 mechanic and took those skills to Shaw where he found a career that allows him to give back to the military veteran community.

In the second of our Technology for Retailers series, QFloors President Chad Ogden discusses gotchas with credit card processing and how dealers can recoup huge savings through surcharging—and the rules for doing that legally.

Want to make 2023 the year your retail flooring business is more profitable, more efficient and ready for growth? In the first podcast of our new technology series, QFloors President Chad Ogden shares his five ways technology can improve your business.

Jennifer Todd, owner, LMS General Contractors and founder, A Greener Tomorrow, speaks with us about the numerous challenges she has faced entering a historically male-dominated industry. Holding a number of roles, including project management and superintendent, Todd started her own business 16 years ago and has used it as an avenue for recruiting a female workforce. Out of that grew A Greener Tomorrow, a non-profit organization that provides education and career opportunities in the construction skilled trades to underserved populations with a focus on empowering women. Todd's perspective on a solution to the labor shortage is simple: address the needs of your employees so that they can be successful. 

Aztec Carpet & Rug is celebrating 40 years this year and got its start as a workroom, producing custom rugs. Jim Rodriguez, president, tells how his family got into flooring, starting with his father's desire to exit the sharecropping world by joining the U.S. Army. Following his service, he became a carpet helper and then went on to work for a large carpet chain as a flooring installer. He eventually went out on his own and Aztec Carpet & Rug was born. Rodriguez shares how the family has managed to remain successful over the course of 40 years, how they have had to pivot in the hard times and how they landed some pretty big clients. 

Shaw Industries offers a wide range of resources to its military veteran workforce, including ShawVet, Hiring Our Heroes and Home For Our Troops. Micah Pye, talent acquisition specialist, served in the U.S. Marines and has been working for Shaw for the last seven years, recruiting both former service members and non-service members alike. He shares his military experience, how he now uses this experience to help other service members integrate into civilian life and establish a career in the flooring industry through Shaw, and how Shaw's programs work to benefit their military workforce and those in the community. 

Steve Abernathy, COO, World Floor Covering Association (WFCA), talks about how imperative it is for the industry to support flooring installation training and how the Floor Covering Education Foundation (FCEF) and the International Certified Flooring Installers (CFI) association are working to recruit, train and place the next generation of installers. He reveals that CFI is celebrating its 30th anniversary at the convention this fall where it is partnering with the Flooring Contractors Association (FCICA) and hints at what attendees can expect.