How Flooring Software is Like A Bicycle (and why that mattters during an econmic turndown

Q FLOORS

Co-founders Chad and Trent Ogden.

Chad Ogden is CEO/ President at QFloors, one of North America's leading providers of floor covering software. QFloors’ mission is to help flooring dealers achieve operational and financial success. As the product of three generations of flooring experience, Chad has worked in the industry for more than 30 years. Chad can be reached at chad@qprosoftware.com.

How Flooring Software is Like A Bicycle

(and why that matters during an economic downturn)

Ihave been active in sports my whole life. Football was my passion growing up. Then I switched to playing basketball 3 times a week, which I did pretty consistently for 25 yrs. Then, several years ago, I switched from basketball to biking, as getting older also increased the risk of injury. Gradually over the last 5 years, I have become more proficient in biking and recently completed an 80-mile race, which was a pretty big accomplishment for me. I didn't know I had that in me.

Since most people have had the experience of learning to ride a bike, I would like to use a biking analogy to help me explain a somewhat complicated concept within the flooring technology space.

As children, we typically learn how to ride a bike on pretty basic bikes. The bike is one gear purchased from the local Walmart (or equivalent) and can get us to and from our friend's house down the street. As years pass and we become more experienced, we may upgrade to a more sophisticated road bike or mountain bike with more gears, better brakes, shocks, etc.

A bike with only one gear limits you quite a bit. You can go only so fast and far, and getting anywhere entirely depends on your strength and stamina.

A bike with multiple gears helps us get to where we are going more easily, quicker, and with less effort. In addition, these bikes are of higher quality, more advanced, and are manufactured to help us to perform better.

So using the right bike (or the right tool) can make all the difference as you become a more advanced rider.

Every flooring business has to have some tool to run its business operations. When we say “operations,” we are referring to things like: Tracking leads; creating customer proposals; invoicing; sales tax; customer payments; purchase orders; job costing; installer payments; sales commissions; inventory management; vendor/supplier payments; checkbook (checks/deposits/reconciliation); accounting; profitability recording; and a lot of other reports. The software used to manage these things is called business management software, or an ERP software system. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and is a common term used outside the flooring industry.

Some flooring businesses use business software or ERP systems that only have “one gear. “These types of systems would include A bike with only one gear limits you quite a bit. You can go only so fast and far, and getting anywhere entirely depends on your strength and stamina.

Some flooring businesses use business software or ERP systems that only have “one gear .”...These “one gear” systems will only allow you to go so fast or far, and the business owner will eventually wear out trying to keep up as their business grows and becomes more complex.

Flooringspecific ERP systems can provide efficiencies allowing the dealer to do more business with less cost, providing a more profitable business. And the automation saves time and effort, allowing you to go home at night. ...”one gear” systems will only allow you to go so fast or far, and the business owner will eventually wear out trying to keep up as their business grows and becomes more complex.

things like pen & paper, excel spreadsheets, or generic business software (like Quickbooks). These “one gear” systems will only allow you to go so fast or far, and the business owner will eventually wear out trying to keep up as their business grows and becomes more complex.

Other business management and ERP tools in our industry have “more gears,” which can help the dealer run their businesses more efficiently. These tools are often referred to as Flooring Specific ERP systems. You can get a pretty comprehensive list of these tools by doing a google search on “Flooring ERP Software.”

Flooring-specific ERP systems can provide efficiencies allowing the dealer to do more business with less cost, providing a more profitable business. And the automation saves time and effort, allowing you to go home at night.

One caveat is that when using a multi-geared tool, you must ensure you can use the extra gears you are being given. What I mean by this is that in some cases, even though you are getting more gears, if you can’t figure out how to use the tool, you always stay in the same gear. So the software tool needs to have the sophistication of offering multiple gears and simplicity so that riding the bike is fairly intuitive.

With the uncertainty of the future, it's more important than ever to ensure you are running your business at peak efficiency. The right multi-geared tool can help you get where you want to go and save you a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in the process. ■

...software tool needs to have the sophistication of offering multiple gears and simplicity so that riding the bike is fairly intuitive.