Considering opening a flooring business in Mount Dora/Central Florida….looking for honest feedback

Looking for some insight from anyone in the Florida flooring industry, particularly around the Mount Dora / Lake County area.

My wife’s family has been in the flooring business in Alaska for close to 40 years. My wife was the GM of her family business, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar operation, and she has extensive experience with estimating, operations, customers, employees, and the day-to-day side of running a flooring company.

I’ve primarily worked in the public sector over the years, but I’ve also been installing flooring and doing estimates as a side business for several years. It’s been a great side hustle and has provided a pretty nice additional income.

We’re currently in the process of building a home in the Mount Dora area and are planning to relocate to Florida in the spring of 2027. As we look toward that next chapter, we’ve been seriously considering whether it would make sense to open a flooring business down there.

For those of you familiar with the Florida market:

• How saturated is the flooring industry, particularly around Mount Dora, Tavares, Eustis, Leesburg, Clermont, and the surrounding areas?
• Is there still room for a well-established, customer-focused flooring company?
• Is there more opportunity in residential replacement, new construction, commercial work, or a combination?
• How difficult is it to compete with the larger flooring stores and installers?
• Are there particular flooring niches that seem underserved?

We would be coming in with nearly 40 years of family-business experience, experience operating a multimillion-dollar company, estimating/management expertise, and hands-on installation experience.

I’m not necessarily looking for customers or trying to promote anything at this point. Just trying to get a realistic feel for the market before we make a major decision.

If you’re in the industry or have owned/operated a flooring business in Central Florida, I’d really appreciate hearing your honest perspective. Good, bad, or somewhere in between.

Thanks!