Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 106 From Marketing Maven to Flooring Pioneer
Curious about how a digital marketing professional pivoted into a thriving business in the epoxy flooring industry? Our latest episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast features Ryan Workman, the creative force behind United Floor Coatings. Ryan transformed his career path from marketing to building a successful company with locations in Charlotte and Raleigh. We explore his strategic journey, from starting with just a website and logo to making crucial business decisions that eschewed the franchise model in favor of entrepreneurial independence. Ryan's story showcases the allure of low barriers to entry and the possibilities that arise when you're inspired by a client's success.
We also embark on an engaging discussion about the latest innovations in flooring, including a revolutionary plant-based epoxy known for its moisture tolerance and adaptability. This episode is packed with useful tips, such as maintaining your driveway with hydrophobic sealers to prevent water damage and mold, ensuring longevity and beauty. From the decorative flair of flake floors to the practical benefits of flexible caulk for cracks, the insights shared here are invaluable for homeowners and entrepreneurs alike. Ryan also shares his passion for entrepreneurial storytelling, highlighting the diverse paths to success and the lessons they impart. Whether you're looking to upgrade your flooring or find inspiration in business narratives, this conversation is brimming with practical advice and captivating stories.
United Floor Coatings
Ryan Workman
4209-D Stuart Andrew Boulevard Charlotte, NC 28217
(704) 659-6985
ryan@unitedfloorcoatings.com
unitedfloorcoatings.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Good morning everyone and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm here today with Ryan Workman and one of my favorite things to do is talk to local business owners. Welcome, ryan.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. You are the owner of United Floor Coatings here in Charlotte. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey into owning this business.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, so I'll start. You know I'll talk a little bit about United Floor Coatings first. So basically United Floor Coatings is a residential and commercial installer of epoxy, polyurea, polyaspartic floors. We do polished concrete as well for residential garages, patios, basements, kind of anything that's got a concrete surface. We also do industrial commercial work as well. So we've got two locations here in Charlotte and in Raleigh. The Charlotte office is the headquarters, run most of our business, especially our commercial business, out of Charlotte, but we do have a Raleigh office that does residential work as well. We do a little bit of pressure washing, driveway sealing, almost anything concrete related that's not actually pouring concrete. So I've been doing this about nine years now. May will make nine years officially, so quickly blown through almost a decade and doesn't seem like it's been that long since we started and you grew up in Charlotte. I did Union County specifically but was born in Charlotte, so a Presbyterian baby. So you know and been here.
Speaker 2:Most of my life Spent two years in DC after college and you know, then you know, two years in DC was, I think, enough for me and decided to make a move back here.
Speaker 3:So how did you get into this industry? So you know, I think my, I think my path into, like blue collar trade work was a little, you know it's a little unique. I think a lot of people that end up in trade work like this tend to have worked in it before and then they learn it. They end up branching off and starting their own business. My path was a little different. I worked in marketing for a lot of years, specifically digital marketing, search engine optimization, primarily working with people in contracting trades, primarily working with people in contracting trades. So a lot of HVAC, plumbing, electrical, home remodelers, anything. And then, after a couple of years of doing that, I had a client that we signed that was working in this space and at the time I was not familiar at all with epoxy flooring, polished concrete, anything like that, and it was a relatively new industry at that time and these guys were just they were killing it and I kind of started becoming interested in what they were doing because it was a trade that had a relatively low barrier to entry. I was interested in the other trades too, but if I wanted to start a business in those, I would have needed to go to like community college or some kind of trade school to get some type of official training certifications. With this the barriers to entry were a little lower and I was really interested in what they were doing.
Speaker 3:We kind of hit a juncture where they were wanting to expand and I was kind of wanting to work for myself and not necessarily work, and you know, directly in marketing anymore. And essentially you know, we were like, hey well, maybe we'll, maybe we'll have, you know, a location in Charlotte and that'd be their first foray into, you know, franchising and you know. So I added up. But they didn't want to put their name in Charlotte yet unless they were willing to, you know, actually open an office here. So I created a. But they didn't want to put their name in Charlotte yet unless they were willing to actually open an office here. So I created a website. I paid somebody $99 to make a logo for us and I spent four hours on a Saturday putting a website together and I put it live and then just kind of tinkered with it in the evenings and got it ranking like number one for kind of the most important keywords for what we were wanting to rank for.
Speaker 2:And then, within a few months, your mic, your mic is't connected. Thank you, can you hear me? You can't hear me. Okay, I can't hear you at all, but it says on my end that your mic is muted. And I tried to click it and it says you can't unmute your guest. Their mic isn't connected.
Speaker 3:Okay, can you hear me?
Speaker 2:now yes.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Can you? I'm going to have to go back through all that again. All right, I'm telling we're going to Back.
Speaker 3:Okay, hold on.
Speaker 2:Where were we talking about? What brought you? Oh, starting the company, and it is, or is not, a franchise.
Speaker 3:It is not. So we kind of started with the intent to franchise, eventually Hold on.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start with a fresh question. I don't want that get one yet, but I got to mark the time so my guy can edit out these last three minutes.
Speaker 3:Okay, I apologize for that. No hey it looks like it was connected to my phone as well, and when somebody calls my phone it'll kick it off of whatever's not my phone. Gotcha, I disconnected it from my phone now.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's pick up. So, ryan, you were in DC for a while and you're talking to the owners of that company, so was this the same company or you started a whole new company?
Speaker 3:So we ended up starting a whole new company. So basically, when I was basically just trying to do some market research for them down here, they didn't want me to use their name locally because they weren't sure they were going to open anything here. So we basically created a fake company, which was United Floor Coatings, and just tried to see how well we could get it ranked. And the leads started flooding in and, you know, eventually we were like, well, we should either take this down, because people are reaching out to a company that doesn't exist, or we should actually turn it into a real company. And you know, we ended up turning it into a real company. My brothers, you know, really carried the load. For about the first nine months I still had my marketing job. We weren't doing enough work at the time for me to just outright quit my job.
Speaker 3:So he did a lot of the grunt work in the, you know, in the beginning stages and then about nine months in um you, we got busy enough that I quit my marketing job and I actually started doing this full-time and I've been doing this full-time now since January of 2018.
Speaker 2:Wow, did you know before doing this company that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? Honestly, it was never really planned.
Speaker 3:We, like my brother and I, talked about it before we had another. We had another business venture that we had started but never actually followed through with. It was like a resume writing company. My brother had spent a lot of his career after banking working and you know kind of writing he wrote for you know he did some investment newsletters and wrote for some investment websites and did some resume like professional resume writing and stuff as well. So we talked about doing that but never really followed through on it.
Speaker 2:And then you know ended up following through on this one, but no, I never really had like long term ambitions or anything where I was like I absolutely want to work for myself.
Speaker 3:It just sort of ended up working out that way.
Speaker 2:So you have this vision, we can do this. So what sets you guys apart? You know you're in a rare, very competitive space yeah.
Speaker 3:So I mean, I think one of the things that definitely you know sets us apart is you know a lot of the, a lot of our competitors they are. You know their franchises, they, you know, have very specific products that they have to use. And you know, when it comes to concrete, it seems like something to be boring and kind of very much the same across the board, but there's actually a lot of variations in concrete, the conditions that it's installed in, that sometimes not often, but in certain cases we'll have situations where you need a very specific product that'll work in that specific environment.
Speaker 3:Since we're not a franchise, we have kind of free reign to work with whatever products we want. We're not pigeonholed into only using a handful of products.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, I've also always been very interested in like kind of the chemistry of the products. You know, since, being in this industry, and we one of our like, our primary product that we use is a base coat. It's kind of unique in the industry. It's a plant-based epoxy. It has exceptional moisture tolerance. It can go over moist concrete.
Speaker 3:Most epoxies, if you try to put them over moist concrete it's not going to stick. Same with polyureas and polyaspartics. Ours can go over wet concrete will still stick. It'll also hold back an exceptional amount of moisture if it is underneath the concrete. So we have a lot more comfort going out and going into damp environments knowing that it you know that it won't, that it won't peel. Um, it can also go over like oil stained and other type of hydrocarbon contaminated concrete. Um, you know, for most, for most companies, they have the choice between I can, you know I can put a product down that'll handle oil, or I can hit plus some down that'll handle moisture, or neither. Ours will kind of do both and allow us to kind of knock out two problems at once if there's a need for that in a specific environment that's very cool.
Speaker 2:So how long does this last, let's say on your residential garage floor?
Speaker 3:so anything residential we do a lifetime adhesion warranty on and basically what that means is as long as you own the home, if it peels we'll replace the floor. That said, we've done about 2,500 residential installations have had less than a handful that have peeled over the years. You can't eventually wear through the floor.
Speaker 3:I generally tell customers and that's not the warrantyable issue issue I usually tell customers that you should get about 20 20 to 30 years in a residential garage before this needs to be replaced wow, so you know, I think, I think a misconception a lot of people have, um you know, with what we do is that we're just painting the floor, but the products that are being put down by, like professional you know garage flooring companies it's not really a paint.
Speaker 3:It's really like a very high density. You know durable plastic coating. You know it's not like it's not paint. This product's about 10 to 15 times thicker than a traditional, like just a paint with the across the floor.
Speaker 2:So I'm looking at your website and I see that, like patio coatings, is that for like a flat surface concrete patio?
Speaker 3:no-transcript like kind of the flake floors that people are familiar with. But there's a lot of styles of flake um, some that don't even necessarily look much like a flake floor. Some of these are designed to look more like terrazzo um. So there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of variety. We also have, uh, you know, what are known as like decorative course floors, which is basically colored sand, um, thrown into epoxies or polyureas or polyaspartics, and it'll, you know, it'll create like a decorative pattern. You know, with that as well, um, you know, the sand ones we tend to do more in like wet environments, around pool decks, things like that. But you know, we mostly, mostly do the flake force so what would someone put on their driveway?
Speaker 2:I noticed driveway ceiling is feeling is one of your options yeah, so typically in dry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, on driveways we typically are only doing um, like hydrophobic sealers. We don't do a lot of decorative stuff on driveways just like hydrophobic sealers. We don't do a lot of decorative stuff on driveways. We're really just trying to give people a product that will extend the longevity of their driveway. Essentially, what it does is it makes water bead up on the surface. It creates a chemical reaction in the concrete and the water will kind of bead up on the surface rather than soaking it. It also keeps dirty water or fluids from the cars from soaking in and also keeps dirt, you know, and your dirty water fluids from the cars from soaking in. And when water is not soaking in, it keeps mold and mildew from growing.
Speaker 3:So you know how over time you get your driveway pressure washed it looks nice and clean and then a few years later it's back to being a dark color again. This kind of extends the life of like freshly cleaned concrete so that you don't have to have a pressure wash as often. It lasts about seven to ten years and it's actually a very inexpensive product and service to have done. So we usually try to have people do that at the same time they're having their garage floors done, because then there's no minimum trip charge in that case we're already out there. So it's a relatively affordable adder to add on while you're there to go ahead and have that done to keep your driveway looking clean and then less likely to form cracks and mold and mildew over time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'd probably hate to drive on it when it looks that good.
Speaker 3:It takes it back to looking new and if you do it when your driveway is actually brand new, it kind of keeps that very white, new-looking concrete look for a very long time.
Speaker 2:So let's say you have some cracking in your driveway. Does this go over that, or how does it work?
Speaker 3:So cracking, we typically just will chase it out, fill it with a flexible caulk. I mean that's really the best way to it's really the best way to repair driveways.
Speaker 3:I mean, you can do a, you can do a coating that'll hide the cracks, but in general you know the, the coatings on the driveway just aren't aren't always the best option Um you, we can do acrylic sealers and things, but those tend to turn more into like a maintenance issue over time, because it's usually more of like every three to five years you're going to have to have it resealed with a product like that again, versus the one that we put down. While it's not decorative, you know it does seal and protect it, for, you know, seven to ten years I love it.
Speaker 2:I like your practical approach. You know you. You know what smart and what may not work. That's awesome. So are there a lot of misconceptions in your industry? Uh?
Speaker 3:I mean there are and there aren't. Some are pushed by people in the, you know, in in the industry itself. I mean, one misconception that I mentioned earlier was people thinking it's paint. I've kind of gone over that. It's a product that's a lot more durable than paint. But there's also a lot of people now that they've been advertised to on social media for a very long time. That will promote the type of product they use maybe a polyurea or a polyaspartic over an epoxy.
Speaker 3:And I like to educate consumers on. Hey, there's three to four different types of resins that are typically used. They all have their advantages and their disadvantages. So we get a lot of people that contact us. Now it's like this company says this type of product is not a good product to use, and it's like in some cases it's not.
Speaker 3:It's not that it's ever a bad product to use, necessarily. It's just like. In some cases it's the better product to use and what they're pitching may not be the best product for your specific use case. For most of our customers, really any of the four major resins, which are epoxy, polyurea, polyspartic or urethane, are suitable for 90 of customers um you know, I just like to take more of an educational approach and stuff with customers and make sure that they're getting, you know, the best product that they.
Speaker 1:You know that they need Kind of going back to what.
Speaker 3:I said earlier too, about not being franchised and not being pigeonholed into you know a couple of product choices, like buying paint.
Speaker 2:you know there's different qualities. You've got, you know, less expensive and then really over the top. I didn't really think about that in this application. So you know, getting quotes from various companies it's probably hard. It's not apples to apples.
Speaker 3:It's not. And there are a couple of bigger like national companies that have moved into the area now and you know they very hard pitch one day systems and we do one day systems in the summers and stuff as well but their whole business model is built around using products that are that are going to allow the job to be done in one day, like no matter what. And you know they tell a lot of you know they tell a lot of stories about why that's like absolutely the way you want to go and there's nothing necessarily wrong with the?
Speaker 3:product that they have. But but they're also kind of, like you know, introducing false narratives into the industry as well.
Speaker 1:That make people sometimes choose something that may not be best for their specific use case.
Speaker 3:You know, we kind of, like I said, we kind of offer all four and you know, depending on what people want, you know we take into consideration, you know what they may want, but then also like their specific site conditions and whether that's the best product for them so let's say it's a garage floor, how long does it?
Speaker 3:typically you know from start to finish that someone would not be able to get into the garage, so for most of our, most of our installations, it's it's going to be a two-day, you know, two-day install, and when it's hot in the summer, we can often knock them out in one we do have a couple of products that we put.
Speaker 3:you know that we put down. That might be a three-day installation, but in general, you know, kind of June through August we're running one-day systems, mostly in garages, just because it's so hot that even the slower-curing products can still cure fast enough in the summer to allow for that. But the rest of the year it's typically a two-day installation. First day is usually close to a full day, then the second day is usually just a few hours. And then the following day, people can start getting back on the floor. I love that.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:I just said, it's a relatively quick process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is. I didn't think it would be that fast. So, now that you've owned and operated this business for nine years, what are you most proud?
Speaker 3:of. I mean I think just kind of building something from scratch. I mean we figured it out kind of as we went. Maybe that wasn't the best way to do it in hindsight, but I think I learned. You know, I learned a lot along the way. I didn't really have the support of like a parent company or anything. We made mistakes and we had a lot of successes and we've had a lot of learning experiences. I always joke with people that in the early days I definitely spent more money learning how to not do things than I spent going to college.
Speaker 3:So, we've learned a lot over the years. Now we know what to do, what not to do, and if there are things that we don't feel comfortable with, then we just kind of stay away from them. You know, versus in the early days it was. You know, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 3:And now it's kind of like that one's probably not the best project for us to take on, but it's, you know, I guess I've been proud of, you know, kind of building something with my brother. You know, employing people. You know we have about, we have, you know, 10 to 10 to 12 employees typically at any given time.
Speaker 3:So you know it's cool, like being able to impact people's. You know people's lives, give people jobs, and you know it's also just. You know most businesses. What is it? Most businesses fail within a year. You know, so it's. You know, even when there are times where you know maybe I'm feeling negative, you know about. You know about something.
Speaker 1:It's like well you know, here we are nine years later still still existing, still succeeding.
Speaker 2:So you know, I think that's something to kind of be kind of be proud of you're doing something right, obviously, so tell our listeners how to find you guys at united floor coatings yeah, so I mean they can find us online at united floor coatings. com.
Speaker 3:Uh, find us facebook, instagram. You know, it's just united floor coatings is the username on there. Um, you know, they can. People are always free to stop by our office as well, but it is by appointment only in our office we are a small company.
Speaker 1:So you know we're kind of in and out of the office, all the time.
Speaker 3:A lot of people that work here wear a lot of hats, so kind of everybody is doing sales, sometimes helping with installations. Just a little bit of everything, so there's not always somebody here, but generally we prefer to be contacted just by calling us or by going to unitedfloracodingscom filling out a contact form.
Speaker 2:And what's your Charlotte phone number?
Speaker 3:704-659-6985.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Well, it's been a pleasure, ryan, congratulations on your success. Building something from scratch that's not easy, and it's really paying off, I can tell. Well, thank you for having me. It's been a it's been an interesting ride mostly fun.
Speaker 3:But you know there are, there are always days where sometimes you're like you know, why do I work for myself? Um, but you know, overall it's been it's it's been a good time. So you know, I appreciate you having me on. Let me talk about my story. I always kind of like to share, um, you kind of share the story of how I started the company and I I always love hearing the stories of other people as well. Like you know, that's one of the things I do miss about my marketing job, which is being able to listen to other business owners and hearing their stories about how they got to, you know, kind of work for themselves. So you know, now that I, you know, have been on your podcast, I will make sure that I kind of follow along and listen to other people and their stories, but it's always fun, it's really fun.
Speaker 2:Everybody's journey is unique.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much, Ryan. All right, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.