Arizona flooring company with a focus to succeed
Flooring companies usually focus on selling products with the highest margins. But Kyle Hedin, founder of Illustrious Hardwoods, is taking a different approach. He believes that the way to succeed is to sell products that genuinely meet customers’ needs. He says that applying this strategy has allowed him to grow a thriving flooring enterprise from virtually nothing.
Illustrious Hardwoods’s slogan is “finishing what nature started.” To this end, the company focuses on installing engineered flooring - an alternative solid hardwood - luxury vinyl plank and laminate. It also offers dustless tile removal and adding shiplap or rustic barn wood to walls.
Finding products with minimal downsides is important for Kyle. Traditional hardwood flooring requires regular maintenance and warps easily, his firm says, but engineered flooring doesn’t experience the same expansion and contraction issues.
Illustrious Hardwoods has worked on dozens of projects under Kyle’s leadership. The brand is exceptionally transparent about its work, with detailed galleries of installations on its website. High-definition photographs of customers’ homes showcase the firm’s craftsmanship.
Kyle founded Illustrious Hardwoods in June 2016 and began offering customers basic flooring services. In May 2018, he successfully earned his state contractor’s license, giving him a legitimate claim to be a professional in his industry. He is still the only certified flooring installer for laminate and hardwood in the Phoenix area.
Interestingly, Kyle’s journey to professional flooring wasn’t direct. Originally, he wanted to go into the entertainment business. Kyle studied at the Art Institute of Phoenix and received a degree in Digital Filmmaking and Video Production in 2009. He then used his education to launch a reality television career that lasted around seven years. He worked his way up the ranks, eventually becoming a camera operator.
But things changed when demand for reality shows began to subside. “I needed a job after not getting calls to work on reality television shows anymore,” Kyle says.
Kyle had always had a sense that the entrepreneurial life was for him. “I wanted to be my own boss and run my own company,” Kyle reports. In previous jobs, he found it hard to get on with his boss and often had disagreements. In some cases, he lost his job when more senior colleagues didn’t share his vision.
After his show business career stalled, he looked at his skills and personality and asked what he could do. For him, flooring was the obvious choice. At school, he had enjoyed working with his hands and wood, so he looked for a career where he could “put the two things together.”
After calling around thirty local flooring contractors, two agreed to hire him. He spent the next two years building his experience so he would be in a position to launch his own business later on.
Gathering knowledge allowed Kyle to identify unexpected problems about the industry. He found that many flooring companies were “all about [the] sale” and not about finding suitable products for customers.
Kyle resolved to change this. He began by educating himself about all the flooring solutions on the market. By putting education first, he was able to help his clients make informed decisions on which products were best for them.
“I will never sell them a product that doesn’t fit their lifestyle,” Kyle claims. In fact, Kyle is known for taking himself out of projects in situations where his firm does not offer the best solution for the client.
“I have found that honesty and integrity go a long way,” Kyle continues. “I will get referrals from those people just as much as I do from clients whose floors I have done.”
Kyle is more than an entrepreneur. In his spare time, he spends time with his kids through Cub Scouts, regularly going camping with them. When he has a day free, he likes to go trout fishing. Kyle also runs a podcast for the flooring industry, regularly interviewing professionals in the field, asking them to share their insights and knowledge with others.
Kyle would like to see Illustrious Hardwoods morph into a retail operation with a turnover between $5 and $10 million per year. He envisions hiring office support staff, sales teams and multiple installation crews. Eventually, he wants to build out business systems that don’t require him to be at the helm. This way, he can focus on his passion - business consulting - helping other contractors grow and achieve their dreams.
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