It was November, 2017 and I was driving down the road thinking about starting a new business but had no idea what. I thought about everything from opening a Subway, liquor store, hi-fi audio store and so many other ideas I honestly cannot remember now. Every idea was followed with ‘yeah but…’ and then I would mentally list 5+ reasons why each business model wasn’t a good fit for me personally. Then I began to think about what I have been doing for the last 11 years, flooring and if there was something I’d been missing or not focusing on.
Then it hit me like a bolt of lightening. Carpet. Of all things I loved selling, Carpet was by far my favorite. Why? It is the simplest of all floor types from a sales perspective. It doesn’t carry the sexy woah factor’s that wood or tile bring but carpet is still in most bedrooms and makes people smile from ear to ear no matter what grade of carpet they put in.
I started to think about my realtor friend’s and how they always need quick turnaround carpet for homes they were selling. I had some really well priced carpet I could sell time and time again and everyone loved the options and price points. The pieces for my business model started falling into place. If I can hit three sales pressure points of Price, Quality and Speed I might just have a great niche product here.
The more I spun the idea in my head, ran it by my friends and questioned the idea from every angle, I became obsessed with the business model. I remember throwing around business names and for a while the running favorite was Carpet Today. Then my wife said ‘what about Carpet Now?’. It was immediately known as the right name. So my next question was ‘great but is the domain available?’. I looked online and yes, technically speaking it was available…. but with a price tag of $6,000! That was $5,985 more than I was hoping to spend. So I decided to sleep on it.
That night I had a dream that took place in the future and I was at a restaurant within a resort sitting down for a business meeting with my two business partners. One partner was unidentified and the second partner was my good friend Wade. In the dream I was in a carefree mood, waving to other people at the restaurant that I knew and Wade said “hey, you ready to get started?” I replied “yeah sure, one sec” and continued to wave to my friends passing by. Wade interrupted me again “hey, are you ready?”. I then shook it off continuing to socialize. A third time he interrupts much more directly “Ben, are you ready? We have a lot of work to do and we need to get started now.” I immediately understood that I need to buckle down and get to work for this was my window and I could waste it if I’m not paying attention. That was the end of the dream and I woke up the next morning fired up
In January, 2018 my dad and I launched the company Carpet Now and began searching for our first employee….
To be continued…
