It took Deborah Cypert, co-owner of Interior Vision Flooring Design in Soquel, Calif., 15 years to jump on board with Floors To Go. However, all it took was one visit to the group’s flagship store in Florida and a meeting with leadership to seal the deal—even though Cybert was initially apprehensive.
“Bobbie [Frandeen, co-owner] and I said, ‘OK, we are not making any decisions in Florida,’” Cybert told FCNews. “‘We are listening to what they have to say and then we’re going to come home and think about it.’ After the meeting we just looked at each other and said, ‘We have to do this.’”
It’s been more than five years and Cypert says the business has grown exponentially thanks to the investment they made in Floors To Go. “The first year our gross annual sales weren’t that different from the prior year, but we made a lot more money,” Cypert explained. “So it was definitely working. This year, I expect our business will triple from when we started [with Floors To Go] in 2018.”
In fact, For Interior Vision Flooring Design the private labeling that comes with a Floors To Go membership has meant nothing less than higher, healthier margins—and the inability to be shopped. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, don’t do private label, it’s going to cost you more money,’ but it really has saved us a lot of money in the long run,” she said. “The private labeling protected us, and we went from 27%-30% profit margins to doing easily 38%-45%.”
The value of big brothers
For Cypert, it’s not all about the money. For example, before joining Floors To Go, being a women-owned business in the flooring industry was a challenge. “A lot of times, unfortunately, we’re still treated like women,” she said. “So when reps would come in, they wouldn’t take us seriously, we wouldn’t get the best pricing, the service was not great with most of the mills. And we were really frustrated.”
But that all changed in 2018. “Floors To Go came in and it’s like we have these big brothers that look out for us,” Cypert said. “If we’re having trouble, like a rep refuses to come in or service our account, we call Floors To Go and say, ‘Hey, I’ve been having trouble getting a hold of this person,’ and that person calls us within an hour. It’s about having somebody to look out for us.”
Getting ‘tech-y’
Floors To Go is one of the only buying groups that has a full suite of technology services that are available for free to its members. This includes everything from websites to marketing materials.
Cypert said it has all been invaluable to the business. “We originally had our website through another mill on another platform, and it just wasn’t making any difference,” she explained. “So we sat down with Floors to Go and implemented a new website through them. Everything’s at your fingertips. Like payroll—I was having trouble getting something resolved [before I turned to Floors To Go, but once I did] a gal calls me out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, I understand you’re having some problems. I’m going to get to the bottom of it and sort it out.’ And she did within three days. It was something I’d been working on since January.”
