60 East Main St.
Marcellus, NY 13108
(315) 673-2081

By Karen Timian, Owner of Best Step Floors Inc.
Best Step Floors, Inc. is a commercial and residential flooring contractor. We remove and prep old flooring as well as provide and install new. Lines include carpet, carpet tile, sheet vinyl, vinyl composition tile, and ceramic tile in floor and wall applications.

The business was started in April, 1987. There were 3 of us: myself, my husband, and Geraldine, a coworker of his at their former place of employment. My husband (Walt) was the on-site man, and Gerry was the chief estimator, I did chiefly the bookwork, payment work, postings and so forth. We hired our own crew, a practice generally not done, as we felt we would have better control over quality that way. Most flooring contractors subcontract labor to another firm that does strictly that: unfortunately, this can also lead to "redirecting of the blame". We didn't want to do business that way.

After a few tough years, Gerry had to leave the business due to family responsibilities. This left Walt and I to come up with a method to buy her out! Another problem we faced was the need to do extra work without warning as it may be the only way to get the job done. This cuts into the profit margin. We have been able to build a reputation as a firm that gets the work done correctly and on time. Several times we've been called to do a job in a restricted time frame (flood repair in a billing facility losing money every day they were out of a place to work), or under sensitive conditions, as in work done for hospitals in patient care areas, open 24 hours!

Suggestions/tips for a woman starting her own business: Understand your business from all angles, office, field, relationships. Know where your financing is coming from. Make sure that you know well your partners, and all are in agreement what the consequences may be for an abrupt change in partnership. Make sure all business agreements are in writing, and try to foresee all circumstances in advance, stipulating the effect of them all to avoid misunderstanding. Dependability and coordination capabilities are important!