Tony Batista is the founder of Floors 2 Luv, a multi-million dollar flooring company in Houston, Texas running 10 crews and completing over 300 jobs a year. After nearly two decades in business, Tony is now in year three of a five-year succession plan — handing the company to two of his own people with no broker and no private equity involved. The result? The biggest revenue year in company history.
Tony's path to flooring was anything but obvious. Born in Cuba, he immigrated to the U.S. at ten years old, served in the Air Force, and built a career in the airline industry working for Eastern Airlines, Aeromexico, and Delta. A failed partnership in his first six months forced him to learn the flooring trade from scratch — and that forced education became the foundation for everything he's built since.
In this episode, Tony breaks down:
- How he structured an ironclad six-month partnership agreement that let him walk away clean when things went sideways
- Why he only closes a third of his 700+ annual estimates — on purpose — and what that tells him about his pricing
- The succession plan he designed himself using contract skills from his airline career, and why the business grew more after he started transitioning out
- How he runs a perfect 100 score in BNI and treats networking as a system, not a side activity
- What it means to get up every morning and find something to improve after 17 years in business
If you're a trades business owner thinking about how to exit, how to structure a partnership, or how to build something that runs without you — this one's worth your time.
00:00 Meet Tony Batista — From Cuba to Houston03:12 Air Force, airlines, and how he landed in flooring08:45 The failed partnership that forced him to learn the trade14:20 How Floors 2 Luv gets customers and why remodeling dominates19:30 700 estimates, 33% close rate — and why that's by design25:15 Structuring partnerships the right way from day one31:40 The five-year succession plan — no broker, no PE38:10 BNI, networking as a system, and the givers gain philosophy47:00 Biggest year in company history and what's next for 2026
Meet the Guest: Tony Batista
Visit: Floors 2 Luv
Meet the Host: Faiez Rana
Brought to you by Offshore Launch
We run the back office for home service shops running 2-10 trucks, so busy owners can work on their business instead of in it.
