According to Vital Flooring & Renovations co-owner Keith Orndoff, there is never a good time for a small business to expand. Nonetheless, he and co-owner Daniel Johnson are taking the leap and officially opened a new store in Aurora last Friday morning.
“We have been previously doing work out here for some clients and we just thought it was a really good opportunity to come to Aurora because we have a lot of clients already out there and we wanted to bring our full service to Aurora and offer that as well,” Orndorff told The Weekly Villager.
Having opened their first store in Eastlake only eight months ago, Vital Flooring & Renovations, a flooring company that also assists with small renovation projects for homes and commercial property, now has set up shop in Aurora.
Orndoff and Johnson welcomed several visitors to the ribbon cutting ceremony, including Aurora Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Karen Bosley, ACC Board Member Kyle Hersh, Director of Economic Development Holly Harris Bane and Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin.
Bosley presented the business partners with the official paperwork inducting them into the ACC and also a window sticker that stated the business was now a member.
As the two cut the ribbon for their new location, Orndorff expressed his gratitude to the ACC and community for the warm welcome.
“We are glad to be here and hopefully we will build a big community here and do good things,” he said.
Orndoff, who has been a flooring installer for 20 -plus years, and Johnson, who has been in the remodeling business for 15 years, have known each other for several years because Johnson had been an employee of Orndorff’s previous flooring company, Dynamic Restoration.
Orndoff said he was interested in opening up a store and he and Johnson agreed to become business partners.
“We were working together, our wives were best friends and we decided to come together as partners and create Vital Flooring,” Johnson told The Weekly Villager. “We have been doing pretty well and it has been going well for us.”
According to Orndoff, despite having a store location in Eastlake, he and Johnson had plenty of clients residing in Aurora and their business had been spreading rapidly by word of mouth, so they decided the time was right to expand.
“I think we were always on the hunt for another location right off of the bat and Aurora and Solon were in our market,” Orndorff added. “We were keeping an eye out for a good location. It was months of work looking for the right place and the right opportunity for us and we came across the place we are at now and just knew it was the store.”
One feature that the new store offers that the Eastlake location does not is the selection of Sherwin Williams paint displays because the Aurora store is a Sherwin Williams dealer.
Orndoff said what also separates the Aurora store from the Eastlake location is that the new store will bring in some higher end lines and other unique products that the community has never seen before.
“It’s wonderful to always see commercial enterprise come to the City and I am excited that they decided to relocate here,” noted Mayor Benjamin. “We have a lot of residents with new homes and a lot of residents redoing our home and Vital Flooring is certainly providing a need for such undertaking.”
Orndoff also expressed that Vital Flooring takes great pride in customer service and that he and Johnson are very hands-on with every project the business contracts. There is not a single job that either he or Johnson are not involved in and make sure that any customer deals directly with one of the two partners.
“Daniel or I do the estimates so the customer actually has contact with the owner of the store throughout the whole thing,” Orndoff said. “We put our personal phone numbers on our business cards so they can contact us at any time. We are trying to make it a different experience out there and are trying to be more hand-in-hand with customers.”
Despite the two store locations being more than 30 miles apart, Orndoff said he and Johnson will still split time between each store but they already have capable project managers in Eastlake that can oversee operations while they are busy getting the Aurora location off the ground.
“It is not about the sales, it is about the install and giving the customer what they want and what they need,” Orndoff said. “I am specifically certified in carpet and hard surface so I don’t come in as a salesman but as an actual installer so that is how we are going to determine what is going to work for a customer.”
