Authority Magazine: Bryan Park Of Footprints Floors On 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Service-Based Business

Bryan Park started the flooring service brand Footprints Floors in 2008 out of necessity after being laid off from his job finishing floors. Since then, the brand has become a prominent national franchise with over 160 territories, specializing in installing hardwood floors, carpet, tile floors, backsplashes and laminates.

“Every once in a while, your soon-to-be-a-pastor brother-in-law will put his fist through a customer’s wall. And if it’s not that, it’s something else,” he said. “What separates a good business owner from a bad one is how they react to those situations. We don’t profess to be perfect, but we promise to make things right if anything goes wrong. That’s the best you can do.”

Park discusses that with every business, especially new businesses, there will be ups and downs. Those hard times, in the beginning, can be worth the struggle of pushing through. Park has found that demonstrating his company’s values to his employees is one of the most important things he can do as a business owner and helps the brand continue to succeed, even through the more challenging times.

“The key is, as a CEO and with our overall staff, we live what we preach,” he said. “We put other people first and figure out what serves them best. It’s not about what will serve us or the bottom line. And we’re hoping that is contagious and passed down through our franchisees to their customers and staff.”

In Park’s experience, the five things every founder should know before starting a business are to put people first and be a people-oriented business, operate out of integrity and do what’s right, have a developed business model, run your business based on math, and finally, delegate.