WOOD FLOOR BUSINESS — Outstanding Retailer Award Winner
Posted on
8/5/2022
Fame Hardwood has been awarded with Wood Floor Business' 2022 Outstanding Retailer Award for displaying adaptability, resilience and growth. Fame Hardwood's founder, Page Nazarian, shares insights into how he started and how he ensures the name of his business lives up to it's name.
Year founded: 2012
Number of employees: 3
Locations: 1
Annual revenue: $5 million
When Page Nazarian opened Fame Hardwood’s doors for the first time, he had two goals: He wanted to work with acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler, and he wanted to work with the world-renowned architectural firm Gensler. Today, he works with both—along with a slew of other high-end clientele and huge projects in Los Angeles and beyond.
That goal-setting mentality has continued to push his specialized luxury flooring business forward. “Every year I sit down and say, ‘Who are the clients I want to attract?’” Nazarian says.
He worked in his parents’ floor covering store in high school and college before going out on his own to focus on hardwood flooring exclusively. He learned a lot from traveling the globe and visiting different manufacturing facilities and retail showrooms. During those early years, he developed what he considers the three keys to Fame’s success: versatility, knowledge and accessibility. “We can cater to clients’ needs based on different styles, lead times, budgets and designs,” says Nazarian, noting that Fame offers wood flooring options from over a dozen countries. To get to the core of what clients are looking for, Nazarian also developed a list of five essential questions he asks upfront to direct them to the right floor. “Nine out of ten times, we take them to the selected floor and they say, ‘Done! That’s exactly what I wanted,’” Nazarian says.
Living up to the name of the business, Nazarian aims to treat each client like a celebrity. “No email, text or message goes unanswered past 24 hours,” he says. “They feel like celebrities and less like patrons waiting outside behind a velvet rope.”
Nazarian keeps his clients informed through Fame’s newsletters, amassing a following of 6,000 designers and architects. “It informs our clients of all the recent updates, and we always pretty much get half a dozen orders on any email blast that we send out,” he says.
Reverence for the product is a through line for the business, where even the samples are carefully bound in a protective wood veneer with a custom leather handle. “Hardwood flooring is an art, that’s why all our samples are treated like paintings,” Nazarian says. This love of craft translated into the development of Acre For Acre, a partnership with American Forests where for every acre of flooring sold, Fame Hardwood plants an acre of trees.
Nazarian has big plans for the future, including expanded headquarters on Melrose Avenue and a national Fame Hardwood franchise offering. With Nazarian’s track record of meeting his goals, Fame seems poised for much more than just 15 minutes.
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