Finley is small business success story

“I want to emphasize the value that people can get here on both sides, along with the level of respect that we’re going to give our customers,” Anthony said. “It’s something that we pride ourselves on.

“We want to be there for the customer, not only to sell them something that can be tangible for the rest of their lives, but we also want to gain relationships. We’re not to going to just put a file in a drawer and forget about it. We want to be there for them down the road.”

Every Saturday, the Intelligencer publishes a “Meet Your Neighbor” story on local residents who deserve to be recognized for their work in the community. To make a nomination, email Scott Marion at smarion@edwpub.net.

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Basic beginnings

The idea for Finley Flooring originated in 2001, when Anthony was 19 years old and his son Anthony Jr., was born.

“I was working for Terra Properties in Highland, and I went to my boss, whose name was Scott, and told him we were expecting a child and I asked how I could make more money,” Anthony said. “He told me I needed to learn a trade and electricity and flooring were what they had available.

“I took electricity and for about three weeks I did that, but it wasn’t clicking for me. It didn’t take me long to realize that when you go into a room and turn on a light, nobody says, ‘Wow, that electrician did one heck of a job.’ I went back to the boss and told him I wanted to do flooring.”

Initially, though, Anthony was disappointed as his boss told him that the lone training job for flooring had already been filled.

“My heart was broken, but a few weeks later one of the installers hurt his knee and they asked if I wanted to fill in,” Anthony said. “I filled in for a couple of weeks while he rehabbed his knee, and I took to it immediately.

“The fact that we were able to change something that was not pretty in the apartments we were working on and turn it into something nice, that was rewarding.”

Not long afterward, Anthony was able to start working for Terra Properties as a flooring installation helper. He soon became an hourly lead installer, but the economic crash of 2008 altered his career path.

“Employers were letting go of their employees and I was one of them,” Anthony said. “As I was sitting in the office with Rob Bowman, who is the owner of Terra Properties and was then the mayor of Highland, he told me he had to let me go. I was a heartbroken kid, and I didn’t know where I was going to turn.”

Bowman, though, had gotten Anthony an interview with Randy Luitjohan from Luitjohan Flooring America in Highland.

“I met with Randy, who is a fantastic guy, and he told me I was hired,” Anthony said. “He brought me from doing flooring the apartment way and showed me how to do it the right way.”

‘I had this vision’

Anthony worked for Luitjohan for four years before Luitjohan gave him the opportunity to be a subcontractor. He did that for several years before deciding to open his own flooring showroom.

“It was all the way back in the warehouse and it was a 15 x 50-foot space off a loading dock with no drywall, but I had this vision,” Anthony said. “I called my wife, who was working at CR Holland (Real Estate) in Shiloh, and we met for lunch, and I told her I wanted to open a showroom.

“She told me I was out of my mind, but I already had this little warehouse space rented because I was doing so much subcontracting work and I needed a place to store things. I put up drywall and turned it into a showroom.”

In 2018, Anthony opened Finley Flooring as a brick-and-mortar business after working as a subcontractor under the same name since 2010. Overall, he has expanded four times to fill his current space on Broadway.

Finley Sleep Solutions, meanwhile, has a more recent origin.

“That came right before COVID hit. My father was sick and ended up in the hospital and he passed away,” Anthony said. “My mom (Dawn Finley) was an asset protection manager at Walmart and her health took a turn for the worse . This space (where Finley Sleep Solutions is now located) had been sitting vacant for a long time and I asked my mom to come work for me on the mattress side.”

Along with many small business owners during the pandemic, Anthony faced numerous challenges in keeping his business afloat. Adding Finley Sleep Solutions alongside the established flooring business made it even more challenging.

“COVID really shook us all and when it first broke, I remember watching the news and they were saying everybody was going to have to close their business,” Anthony said. “At that time, we had 10 employees working for us and I’m proud to say that I did not lay off one employee during that time.

“The way that Highland and the surrounding communities supported their small businesses is so underrated. The community is amazing because we thought for sure that we were going to have to close our doors.”

Circling back to family

The family connection for Finley Flooring and Finley Sleep Solutions includes Anthony’s son, Anthony Jr., 22, and his daughter, Alexis, 21. Both are graduates of Highland High School and Anthony Jr. is studying engineering at the University of Louisville.

“My son works with me hand-in-hand and we have basically done this as a family,” Anthony said. “We’ve tried bringing in outside people, but it seems like family are the ones that really cares. Plus, it’s hard these days to find people who want to work for you.”

Having a flooring store and a mattress store next door to one another adds to the convenience for people looking to upgrade their homes in both areas.

“They kind of go together and I got my passion from flooring because it can be so transformative,” Anthony said. “You can go into someone’s house and take a space they fell out of love with, whether it’s a laundry room or a bedroom or something else, and you can fall back in love with it. We want people to fall back in love with where they are living.

“New flooring and fresh paint can put a gleam in your eye and being able to walk people through that journey is phenomenal. We’ve done several million-dollar houses and we’ve done $100 jobs, but even seeing the look on someone’s face when we re-stretch their carpet and that hump is no longer there, that’s satisfying to me.”

Likewise, when Anthony decided to open Finley Sleep Solutions, he wanted to do more than just sell mattresses.

“I wanted to sell sleep experiences and sell a better night’s sleep,” Anthony said. “We spend over 40% of our lives in our beds and we’re only as good awake as we are asleep. The amount of back pain, fatigue and lack of energy is all caused by your REM sleep, and you can’t have a bad night’s sleep and expect to perform the next day.

“I signed on with Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Stearns & Foster and BedTech because they all stand behind my culture of wanting to sell something more than a mattress. You can put a mattress in a box and stick it on a shelf and say it will give the best night’s sleep, but with all of our beds, you can try them for 120 nights and if you don’t like it, you can bring it back.”

As a Highland native, giving back to the community through his businesses is a priority for Anthony.

“We love being part of the community and every year we have a Christmas party where we bring in Santa and reindeer for pictures with the kids,” Anthony said. “We also do a toys for tots kind of giveaway. As small as our platform is, we want it to get bigger so we can do more.”

For more information about Finley Flooring, visit https://finleyflooring.store/, call 618-882-6680 or email finleyflooring@gmail.com.

For more information about Finley Sleep Solutions, visit https://www.finleysleepsolutions.com/, call 618-882-5096 or email restright@finleysleepsolutions.com.

Store hours at both locations are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. The stores are closed on Sunday.