Nana Boateng is the founder of Alliston Flooring, a firm he started after his former employer, the owner of the Toronto-area flooring company, turned down his pitch to open an Alliston location.
Before launching his company, he worked at the flooring company as a manager, which put him in a unique position to see an untapped market around him. After launching his firm, Boateng’s focus was initially on servicing contractors, but he later ventured into the retail aspect of the business following a significant demand as a result of market changes.
“I had a talk with my wife, and just jumped ship,” he said. “My pay basically went to zero, which was quite substantial at the time, and we had a new house in Alliston and a new baby. If you had my life at the time, you might have thought that I was crazy. But that’s what we did and that’s how we started.”
Alliston Flooring serves the South Simcoe Region of Ontario and surrounding areas like Alliston, Aurora, Beeton, Barrie, Bradford, Cookstown, Everett, Innisfil, Lisle, Loretto, Mono, Mulmur, New Market, Oro-Medonte, Rosemont, Schomberg, Shelburne, and Tottenham.
Boateng works mainly with restoration contractors, while the showroom and warehouse at 169 Victoria St. W. focus on foot traffic from retailers. According to Simocoe, some of the notable projects of the company include Matthews House Hospice, the Banting Square condos across from the high school, and the Safari Kids Indoor Playground.
Boateng says business has been good despite some challenges. “It’s been a good ride so far,” he said. “But have there been challenges? Absolutely. It’s never easy whether you’re Black, colored, white, or whatever it is when you start a business. It’s one thing buying a franchise, and it’s another when you start from scratch.”
Boateng, 36, is originally from Ghana but came to Canada in 2005 as an international student when he turned 19. He moved to Alliston from Brampton in search of a more affordable place to live.
The father of three later got a job as a manager for a Toronto-area flooring company, where he quit to set up a similar company in Alliston in 2015.
