When your company provides sports floor finishing solutions for more than 200 school districts annually, the summer is no time for vacationing, it’s the busiest time of the year.
“We don’t really complete that work in a year, we do it inside about four months,” laughs Floor Care Concepts & Supply co-owner Dave Orszula.
Orszula founded Floor Care Concepts in Grand Rapids, Michigan just over two decades ago along with partners Bill and David Gezon. Previously, the Gezon brothers owned C.W. Mills Paper Company, a West Michigan distributor of paper products and supplies for schools, offices, and custodial work.
While Bill Gezon has since retired, the two Daves continued growing the company and have established an energetic team of experienced experts with the mission of making facilities and flooring perform to the fullest potential. Orszula’s focus is on sales while Gezon calls himself a “numbers guy” who watches the bottom line.
Dave Orszula and Dave Gezon, partners at Floor Care Concepts
Now that school is back in session, Orszula and Gezon had time to talk with us about how they’ve found success. However, things haven’t slowed down much because a portion of that success comes from finding ways to continue working all year long.
Getting Off the Ground
Gezon explains how when the company started, the strategy was to approach sales like a distributor. That included selling products, which schools and other facilities use to keep their sports floors in good condition.
“We took something that nobody else had and made it so our customers really wanted that product,” Gezon explains.
When it came time to start a team, Gezon and Orszula focused on sales first and then added finishing crews, sanders, and installers. Unlike many others in this industry, they take an aggressive approach to finding work.
“Most contractors and installers wait for bids to come to them,” says Orszula. “We have a sales force out on the road that creates the work that comes to us.”
“Our sales staff calls on our customers like distributors,” adds Gezon. “Even though it may not be the season for the floors to be refinished, they’re still making calls all year long.”
The Return on Relationships
Another one of the keys to Floor Care Concepts’ ongoing success has been staying connected with customers and establishing strong affiliations with manufacturers such as Action Floor Systems®.
“It’s all about the relationships you have between dealers, manufacturers, and customers,” says Gezon. “When that works, you’ll see growth and make good profits.”
Floor Care Concepts’ connection with Action Floors began around six years ago. That’s when they expanded the service side of the business, adding sports floor installations to sand downs, screens, and recoats.
Action Floors Midwest Regional Sales Representative Gary Zander works directly with Floor Care Concepts and says the opportunity made perfect sense
“When they’d get requests for repairs or installation, they were passing that work along to someone else,” Zander says. “We knew they were a good fit for Action Floors because they already had a sales team and a lot of the equipment they needed.”
Floor Care Concepts exclusively sells and installs Action Floors’ hardwood maple and synthetic sports flooring systems. The two owners say the working relationship with Zander and Action Floors has definite advantages.
“When there are new products and new equipment, we want to stay on the cutting edge,” says Orszula. “A lot of that information comes from having access to a guy like Gary who can come along and show us different things.”
Orszula mentions implementing dustless sanding equipment as just one valuable suggestion. It helps Floor Care Concepts maintain indoor air quality and requires less cleanup, making the sanding process more efficient.
Floor Care Concepts has earned the trust of its customers by providing exceptional service, industry expertise, and by diversifying its offerings. The company has an excellent reputation among its core customer base of K-12 schools in the region.
“They have strong relationships with the school districts, which leads to referrals through word-of-mouth,” says Zander.
A proactive sales team and loyal customers means additional work is automatically generated, even during slower seasons. When customers have an insurance or repair job, most will automatically call on Floor Care Concepts for help.
“We offer a wide variety of products and services that keep the customers coming back,” explains Orszula. “For instance, Action Herculan has been a big deal for us. We’re installing tracks, weight rooms, and pickleball courts. Plus, we sell gym floor coverings and maintenance programs. So, we see our customers on a regular basis all year long.”
What Would McDonald’s Do?
A link between a fast food chain and the sports flooring industry may seem like quite the leap. However, Orszula and Gezon have taken a major cue from the way McDonald’s operates. As with the hamburger giant, Floor Care Concepts strives to develop repeatable processes that make each job run efficiently.
“It’s about determining how to duplicate your system, just like McDonald’s,” Orszula says. “The installs are obviously going to be a bit different here and there. But, the sand downs, screens, and recoats can be duplicated over and over again.”
Orszula and Gezon aren’t revealing the details of the systems they have in place. Much like what you’ll find inside a Big Mac, they say it’s their “secret sauce.” However, some of the vital components of efficiency have been a willingness to make small changes to their processes while hiring the right people and providing ongoing training.
“It comes from years of fine-tuning,” says Gezon. “We have sanders who have been working their trade for 35 years. So, they know what they’re doing. We get those guys to train the next guys.”
Gezon and Orszula firmly believe in keeping an internal staff of crews. While they may contract out when necessary, having in-house teams helps create the consistency needed to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
“We’ve definitely found that when we can keep our own guys on staff and happy, the process gets easier every time,” says Orszula.
The ability for Floor Care Concepts to retain their in-house crews is directly related to the constant efforts of the sales team. Sales brings in work year-round so that crews are kept busy, and the consistent quality delivered by the company’s skilled crews keeps customers satisfied and loyal.
Gezon, Orszula, and the rest of the team at Floor Care Concepts are planning for steady growth in the years to come while maintaining the loyal customer base they’ve built over the last 20 years.
“We want continual growth but not exceptional growth,” says Gezon. “We grow around 10 to 20 percent a year, and we like it that way because it’s manageable.”
Discover some of the work Floor Care Concepts has completed here on our website. Find out how they helped outfit a pickleball facility with professional quality synthetic floors and how they provided a variety of flooring solutions for a large high school sports facility.
Action Floors is proud to work with prolific industry leaders like Floor Care Concepts, and we’re always open to working with new connections. If you’re interested in offering Action Floors hardwood maple sports floors or synthetic flooring, call us today at 1-800-746-3512.
