How Jeremy Johnston Bought Two Flooring Companies, Survived Fires & Lawsuits, and Landed a $2M Build

Quinton Comino: So today, we're interviewing Jeremy. He owns two flooring companies, Creative Flooring Ohio, which has been in business since 1978, and then Nice Carpets also in Ohio, been in business for quite some time. So he purchased Creative Flooring in 2020, which you think was a bad time to purchase, but was actually pretty good. And he'll share some of that. He had some setbacks, some things burned down, some lawsuits, stuff just wasn't really going his way, but he worked through it.

Things worked out so well that he was able to purchase a second flooring company. He's really in the heart of Ohio with a ton of opportunity ahead of him with some big developments that are going on, some great commercial contracts that he has with some of the nation's largest builders. So tune in and let's hear how well Jeremy is doing. Getting started, you're with Creative Flooring Ohio. I see that since 1978, you guys have been doing flooring up there. Is that right?

Jeremy Johnston: Yep. That's correct.

Quinton Comino: Are you the original owner?

Jeremy Johnston: I'm not. So I am actually the third owner. I purchased the company in February of twenty twenty, right in time for a pandemic.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Really.

Jeremy Johnston: So it was an interesting time, and I've learned a lot. I actually own two separate flooring companies, two separate brands, that are about an hour apart. And both of them I purchased through acquisition.

Quinton Comino: Okay. Why flooring? Why'd you choose that?

Jeremy Johnston: You know, it really came down to what was available. My dad left me a little bit of money when he passed away, and I decided to try to use that to change the trajectory of my family moving forward. So I started looking for businesses. I was an architecture major for a little while in college for like a year, and I've always liked the construction business, and found a flooring company that was for sale in my price range and decided to tackle it. Prior to going into construction, I was in outsourced call center management. So it's all people, right? It's all about how you treat people and educate people and making sure that people understand the processes and then empower them to execute.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. For sure. So why not? It just sounded like it was maybe the most affordable or available option was flooring. What about an electrical company, an AC company, concrete company?

Jeremy Johnston: Yeah. A lot of those companies—maybe not the concrete—but plumbing, electrical, HVAC really require a licensed technician. They're more capital intensive from a vehicles standpoint as well as unions typically being involved. Flooring seemed like a lower barrier to entry, which is both good and bad because there's more competition. Chuck in a truck can install the floor just like we can. But I really focused on the relationship aspect. Coming from a B2B sales world, I focused more on that and growing with our builders and commercial projects.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. So 2020, you start. And this was the second flooring company you purchased?

Jeremy Johnston: That was the first one I purchased in 2020.

Quinton Comino: Okay. So Creative Flooring Ohio is the first one. Have you purchased another one since?

Jeremy Johnston: Correct. Yep.

Quinton Comino: Oh, wow. And it's an hour away?

Jeremy Johnston: Yep. And I live in between.

Quinton Comino: Great. That makes it easy for you. So why not just expand and try to get that customer base instead of buying it?

Jeremy Johnston: Looking back, I probably should have. But when you expand organically, it becomes much harder from a people aspect. I have to find a place to rent or buy. I have to find a general manager or go over there myself, hire salespeople, establish relationships, etc. When I purchased the company, it came ready with four or five employees and a large following of customers. Plus it happened to be about 15 miles away from the Intel Silicon Heartland project—a $30 billion semiconductor chip fab. I wanted to capitalize on that growth over the next five to twenty years.

Quinton Comino: Wow. When do you anticipate seeing some of that?

Jeremy Johnston: We're starting to see some single-family home builds. Companies like D.R. Horton, Pulte, etc. are beginning to grow there. We'll see the replacements on that in about ten years probably. More so than right now. Some of our custom builders are seeing it for executives moving in. It's a longer-term play for sure.

Quinton Comino: That's pretty good. So you've got four to five employees at the second one you purchased. And then Creative Flooring Ohio—how many employees there?

Jeremy Johnston: Two and a half.

Quinton Comino: In relation to your typical flooring company, that's pretty average?

Jeremy Johnston: We're probably on the lower end. We don't have as many salespeople because more than half of our business is commercial and builder. We don't have as many retail customers, so I don't have as many salespeople going after that segment currently. But that's a goal—to grow once we have our processes down and can be effective at closing in the home.

Quinton Comino: What sort of processes?

Jeremy Johnston: Both stores came from legacy ERP systems that were Windows-based. Even myself—I’m on a Mac right now. One store has migrated to a web-based platform, but the other I still have to remote desktop in. It's cumbersome. We're moving to Floors App, a web-based program, so the team can use iPads in-home, do measurements, and close right then and there. Customers want to shop in their home rather than coming to a showroom.

Quinton Comino: A lot of them can even shop online, no?

Jeremy Johnston: Absolutely.

Quinton Comino: Do you have the format for that, or are you building it out?

Jeremy Johnston: We do. We partner with a flooring-specific website company. They can send samples to customers in a nice little box, and we have a room visualizer so they can see what it would look like in their room with their photo. They can even slide back and forth to see the before and after.

Quinton Comino: Oh, wow. That's awesome. How long has that been out?

Jeremy Johnston: We've had that since 2021, pretty much since I purchased it. It's almost table stakes in flooring because looking at a tiny swatch is hard to visualize.

Quinton Comino: Do you ever have customers purchase completely online?

Jeremy Johnston: We've had one or two try, but both ended up being scams. They used fake credit cards and sent someone to pick up the flooring. Now we require ID and the card used for purchase when picking up to stop fraud.

Quinton Comino: That makes sense. But ultimately, selling online is a pretty big goal of yours?

Jeremy Johnston: It could be for sure, especially for DIY customers. But if we're installing, we really want to see the site in person because photos can be misleading.

Quinton Comino: Totally. So what does growth look like for you? You've got commercial accounts, which are hard to advertise for compared to retail.

Jeremy Johnston: My background is B2B, so I find that easier. We're changing our pricing and strategy to more of a discount model, driving customers in with sales. On the commercial side, it's about relationships. We recently started work for one of the nation's largest homebuilders. Before finishing our third home for them, they gave us another subdivision with 300 homes. That could be a $2 million customer over 18 months. It's all about relationships, execution, and communication.

Quinton Comino: Wow. So why even bother with the retail side if you're able to secure those sorts of commercial accounts?

Jeremy Johnston: Cash flow, to be honest. Commercial and builder accounts typically pay net 30, net 45 if they want. Interestingly, the builder we started working with pays net 7. Last week, we did seven homes for them with the last ones finishing on Friday, and Monday we walked in to a check in the mail for all of them.

Quinton Comino: Oh wow. They are taking care of you.

Jeremy Johnston: Yes, they are. And it also gives us leverage to go back to other builders who say "we pay net 30 like everyone else" and say "well, no, actually…" But that becomes the challenge. We just did a large Barnes & Noble project—surprisingly they're still building 20,000 sq ft stores—but that was labor-only, net 30. So I have to pay all my installers upfront and wait on that cash. Retail fills those gaps. And the margin on retail is 2–3 times what it is on commercial.

Quinton Comino: Yeah, it makes it all worth it. So what's the typical margin on residential vs commercial in the flooring industry?

Jeremy Johnston: Residential is really 40–50% gross. Commercial is all over the place. I've seen it as low as 15%, sometimes up to 25–30% if there's a good relationship.

Quinton Comino: So how do you make sure you win those jobs, like that apartment complex? You want to be competitive but you need to make money too.

Jeremy Johnston: Absolutely. At some point, any margin becomes contribution dollars because you're not necessarily increasing fixed costs. It takes a lot of bidding to figure out where you need to be. Once you're in the conversation, you can have those discussions. For example, we bid 102 condos in one phase for a builder. I networked with a blinds company that referred me. I asked the builder where my number stood. They said we were within 5% of the competitor. Then they went with them anyway because corporate required the lowest bid. I said, "Why didn't you give me the chance to match?" They did, and we got back in the game.

Quinton Comino: That's awesome, man. So they wanted to go with you but were forced to take the lowest bid. Then you negotiated and landed it.

Jeremy Johnston: Exactly. In any market there are usually one, two, maybe three companies willing to go with low margins to execute. This particular builder has specified products with set national pricing, so we're all buying on a level playing field. For other builders it might not be as even because of volume discounts. They'll buy three truckloads where I'll buy five pallets, so pricing is different.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Flooring seems very competitive.

Jeremy Johnston: It is.

Quinton Comino: How do you feel about your decision to go into that five years ago?

Jeremy Johnston: Knowing what I know now, I might not have. But if I hadn't, I wouldn't know what I know now. It's about learning and getting better at it moving forward.

Quinton Comino: What would you say are some big lessons you've learned?

Jeremy Johnston: Control costs. Build relationships. The basics of business. The pandemic wasn't necessarily the best time to get in because it made things look easier than they were. It pulled demand forward because everyone was at home looking at their floors, and then the government sent out stimulus checks. Demand from now was basically pulled into three years ago. So retail sales have fallen quite a bit since. If I'd realized that, I would have stockpiled cash, cut costs more aggressively, and prepared for leaner times. But every business goes through that.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

Jeremy Johnston: There's a housing shortage in America and especially in Columbus, Ohio. It's one of the top ten fastest-growing cities in the nation. Builders can't keep up. One builder wants to do a thousand apartment units this year. Another is planning 10,000 homes in the next two years. It's crazy.

Quinton Comino: Wow. So 2020 was actually a great year to start in a strange way.

Jeremy Johnston: In a strange way, yeah. The beginning was bad. More than 50% of Creative Flooring Ohio's business was selling to Red Roof Inns nationwide. Hospitality sales disappeared overnight. I sent everyone home. It was tough. Then in October, one of my warehouses burned to the ground.

Quinton Comino: No way. How'd you stay in business?

Jeremy Johnston: We had two warehouses. The main one burned down, but the showroom had one attached. We used that to keep going. We were only down a couple of days. It was tough but ultimately a blessing—we rebuilt it better. Later that year, I got sued over a project the previous owner did. Because I bought the company as a stock purchase instead of an asset purchase, I was liable. She knew about it and didn't disclose it. I used the seller's note to cover what I owed. Ironically, that developer and I have since done over a million dollars in business together.

Quinton Comino: No way. Jeremy, you're a salesperson.

Jeremy Johnston: I try. It's about being genuine. I tell customers one of our values is integrity: do it right or make it right. We will screw up—it happens. It's how we react that matters.

Quinton Comino: That's awesome, man. So Creative Flooring Ohio is one business name. And the other?

Jeremy Johnston: Nice Carpet. In Newark, Ohio.

Quinton Comino: Love it. So you service Columbus and the surrounding area, right?

Jeremy Johnston: We do. But we're also in a city with the #1 and #2 largest flooring contractors in the U.S.—father and son. One does half a billion a year, the other $200 million.

Quinton Comino: No way. So there's a lot of market out there.

Jeremy Johnston: Absolutely. It just shows how much work there is and the abundance mindset. Even if we lose something, it doesn't matter. There's room for everyone to win.

Quinton Comino: Totally. I'm with you on that. The opportunity is out there. It's just up to us to go and get it.

Jeremy Johnston: Absolutely.

Quinton Comino: I love that, Jeremy. Thank you so much for your time on the show today. I loved hearing how you navigated COVID, purchased a flooring company, faced setbacks like fires and lawsuits, and kept going. Now it's 2025, we're already in May, and you're still doing well. That's awesome to hear.

Jeremy Johnston: Absolutely.

Quinton Comino: So if anyone needs carpet or tile or flooring in Columbus or surrounding areas, you know where to go—Creative Flooring Ohio and Nice Carpets. Eventually you'll be able to buy everything online, but until then you might even talk to Jeremy himself.

Jeremy Johnston: Absolutely. Me and my team would love to help anyone. Even if we can't, we're happy to answer questions and serve in any way we can.

Quinton Comino: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jeremy. Appreciate having you on the show.

Jeremy Johnston: Yep. Thank you, Quinton.

Quinton Comino: See you.