Getting Started 4 min read
From Home Builder to Metallic Epoxy Artist: Efrain's 14 Years in Alabama Decorative Concrete
One restaurant floor changed his career. Today he runs a single six person crew, qualifies every lead from photos and does the artwork on every floor himself.
Key takeaways
- Efrain was a real estate agent and home builder until a friend's restaurant needed a metallic epoxy floor 14 years ago and nobody in Alabama did that work.
- He runs one core crew of six. They prep and base coat, he does the artwork, and they top coat.
- He qualifies leads from photos over the phone and only drives out once the ballpark price fits.
- He expects decorative floors to take another 15 to 20 percent of the traditional flooring market in five years.
Fourteen years ago, Efrain was building houses in Alabama. A friend asked him to build a restaurant, and the friend wanted a metallic epoxy floor.
Nobody in the state did that kind of work. So Efrain hired an installer from Atlanta.
The first day was not impressive. “I left the restaurant when they were just doing the base coats, really nothing too impressive,” he says. “But the next day, when I saw them do the artwork,” he made up his mind in a fraction of a second.
He told the installer he would handle the marketing and sales, and the installer would do all of his work. At the time, Efrain had four houses under construction.
“I finished the four houses and after that I’ve not done absolutely anything else but this line of work,” he says.
A fan first
Efrain served an apprenticeship with that installer, and took classes from some of the best known names in the trade. He describes himself as a fan of the work before he ever did it.
“I’ve been a fan of the industry and a fan of the work and then ended up being one of the guys for this type of work,” he says. “I’m blessed, brother. I’m living a dream. I’m a kid that just woke up and decided to do something he loved and was able to monetize it.”
“I’m a kid that just woke up and decided to do something he loved and was able to monetize it.”
One crew, one process
Efrain’s company does metallic epoxy and a lot of concrete overlays. Concrete overlays are thin decorative layers applied over existing concrete, which can be stained, textured or finished to look like new.
Because the work is so artistic and specialized, he keeps a single core crew of six.
“They work together every day. That way the process repeats itself,” he says. “Nobody’s new, nobody has to rediscover what they’re doing.”
The crew handles prep and base coats. Efrain comes in to do the artwork. Then the crew top coats the floor.
Quoting from photos
Efrain does not drive out to every lead. He asks for photos first.
“When you do become aware of what you’re doing, you’re gonna be able to gauge the condition of the concrete based on the pictures,” he says. “You can look at a picture like a doctor look at x-rays, right?”
From the photos and the square footage, he gives a ballpark estimate. If it fits the customer’s budget, then he meets them in person.
His reason is simple. “I don’t have the time to go to a hundred estimates,” he says. “We stay booked year round.”
For homeowners, that means good photos of your floor will get you a faster, more useful answer from a busy specialist.
He is the sales funnel
Efrain spends heavily on Facebook, Google and other ads, and he treats sales as the engine of the business. That is why he still answers his own phone, even on vacation.
“That’s the reason they can go on vacations. It’s because I’m picking up the phone,” he says of his family. “That’s how I’m paying for college for my daughter.”
He calls it a balance. Family time matters, but so does the responsibility that comes with owning the business. And he is not ready to hand his leads to software.
“I’m just too much of a control freak to allow an app to qualify my leads and follow up,” he says. “I’m still one hundred percent sales funnel driven, and I’m the sales funnel.”
No coupons at the top of the market
His website once offered a coupon worth up to $500. It is coming down.
Efrain says his jobs are custom work in “the top five to one percent” of his market. “The people that hire me are not looking for coupons,” he says.
A bigger share of the floor
Efrain is confident about where decorative floors are heading. He expects the industry to take another 15 to 20 percent of the traditional flooring market in the next five years.
His reason is that other options look the same everywhere. “The choices of LVP and tile are not popular. They’re not trending, they’re the same thing every single time,” he says. “People are just bored.”
Some of the floors the top installers are producing, he says, are “absolutely unfreaking believable.”
If he started again today
Before coatings, Efrain worked in real estate, where he was an early adopter of social media marketing on YouTube. If he had to start over, he would double down on that.
“I will just scrape the money so I can dump it into my social media ad campaign and I will just set it on fire again,” he says.
To him, the product almost does not matter. You could sell water bottles the same way. “The mechanics of marketing and sales never change,” he says. “It’s just the product and the service that you’re putting forward.”
Watch on Epoxy Growth Guy
Clips from the interview
See Efrain tell it in their own words, on Instagram.