Floor entrepreneur sees brighter days

Bud Hurter, who was forced to shrink his carpet and flooring business in Bradenton by more than 50% in the recession, has begun to see a peep of recovery.

“We are starting to pick up a little bit,” says Hurter, owner of the Carpet Depot. “We are surviving.”

Overall sales volume is still down, says Hurter, and profits have shrunk by at least 10%, but there are some positive developments. For one, the firm's list of prospective clients, mostly retirees from the Midwest and Northeast, is growing, Hurter tells Coffee Talk.

Moreover, the value-per-project at the firm, which Hurter founded in 1994, has more than doubled, from a range of $2,000-$4,000 to a range of $10,000-$13,000. “In the past,” says Hurter, “we didn't get those jobs.”

The source of the revival, no matter how nascent, is a concentrated move to slash expenses paired with an increase in attending networking events. Hurter says expense cuts ranged from employees, where the firm went from eight to three, to advertising, where the company held off on any new contracts. “Things we had control over,” says Hurter, “we cut back.”