It was 9:09 on a Sunday morning when Larry Groipen received a call alerting him that something terrible had happened to his business, ERC Wiping Products. The fourth big snow storm of the winter had hit the town of Lynn, Massachusetts, the night before, and now the ERC Wiping Product’s water alarm, sprinkler alarm and burglar alarm were all going off. It wasn’t until Groipen turned on the news that he fully understood what had happened — disaster had struck. “The roof collapsed in one section, and the force of the collapse blew out the front section of the building that faced the street,” Groipen explained. The damage seemed insurmountable. And yet, within two days, ERC Wiping Products was up and running again.
According to Groipen, the company’s quick recovery was due in large part to the well-thought-out disaster preparedness plan, which Groipen and his management team had been developing for years. “The paranoia factor had been sitting in our minds, and we had taken the time to develop lists of contacts and who we would call first, what we would do second, and we also broke it down into what we would do if we had a problem for a day, a few days, or an extended period of time,” Groipen said.
Creating the Plan
Groipen and his management team had done something all small businesses should do: They brainstormed every possible disaster scenario and the problems they could entail, and then they devised strategies for dealing with those problems. For example, Val Sweeney, ERC Wiping Products vice president, explained, “I’m on the customer side of the business, so I asked myself: What are we going to do if our electricity is shut off and we lose our phone? If someone calls, I don’t want them to get a busy signal. So we established a customer re-direct service. If a call comes in and our phones are down, it is re-directed to my cell phone or Larry Groipen’s.”
As a result, when the roof collapsed, customers could call and even if they didn’t get through, they could leave a voicemail. From the customer’s perspective, it was business as usual.
Groipen and his management team also considered what would happen if they couldn’t get into their facility. To address this, they made multiple backups of their computer system; one backup that they kept off-site and the other backup was maintained in the cloud. They also spoke with their software company and set up a plan that would enable them to restore the entire system in a short amount of time. And just in case their facility was completely destroyed, they kept the names of a couple of trusted real estate agents who could help them relocate temporarily or, if necessary, permanently.
The Importance of Good Relationships
As simple as it sounds, maintaining good relationships is an important part of preparing for a disaster. When a 2010 flood demolished Jamie Silvestri’s NAPA Auto Parts store in small town Westerly, Rhode Island, he sat on the old steps of the store with his wife and wondered whether they should close or try to come up with the money to keep going. The store would have to move to a larger, more expensive location, and the entire inventory would need replacing. Despite these challenges, Silvestri and his wife felt they couldn’t close. “We had 35 families depending on us to keep the doors open every day. So we decided to trudge forward, not knowing if the move was going to work or not,” he said.
The community and business contacts came out in droves to lend a hand. Silvestri said, “This is a very hometown community. I grew up here and have very deep-rooted relationships. I am on the town council, local Boy Scouts and local church. All those friends that were made over 45 years really stepped up to the plate. They would bring us coffee, snacks and pizza. They would babysit some of the kids of the workers who were still here.” And within 12 days, Silvestri was ready to reopen his store in its new location.
After the ERC Wiping Product’s roof collapsed, Groipen experienced a similar outpouring of support, receiving offers of help from employees and his fellow chamber of commerce members. Groipen said, “We also got calls from our competitors both near and far and some of our suppliers who saw what had happened on TV. For example, my box manufacturer said that he would ship my boxes to anybody who would fill orders on my behalf. So having a good reputation made things a lot better.”
For Silvestri, some of the most crucial help came from a business contact at the NAPA company who, over the years, had become a trusted friend. “I was fortunate that I had someone who could look at the situation from a bird’s-eye perspective and be emotionally detached from it because my wife and I were just devastated,” he said. Having someone with business savvy who he could trust to oversee the situation was vital.
“There were points during the 12 days I just didn’t know what to do next, and he could take over for me while I regained my composure,” Silvestri explained.
Finding the Money to Rebuild
In the aftermath of a disaster, the first call a business owner makes is often to his or her insurance agent. But cashing in on a claim can be a long and difficult process, requiring owners to compile documents going back years. However, it is possible for business owners to plan ahead, reducing much of this labor and speeding up the time it takes to get this much-needed financial relief.
Conrad Kreuter, owner of the Long Island, New York, business Moriches Boat & Motor, got a crash course in how to deal with insurance agencies when Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012. Like car wash operations, Kreuter’s marina provided a service. Therefore, his first priority was to stay open, so he could continue to provide that service. This was a massive undertaking considering the storm had nearly demolished Kreuter’s boat yard and retail space. “The boats that we had stored in the area were all a jumble, like pick-up sticks. The waves were so high for so long that they had smashed through the windows and the walls,” Kreuter explained.
Kreuter’s insurance agent was at the site the very next day. “My philosophy with the insurance agents, as it was with every other governmental agency we were dealing with, was to make their job as easy as possible. My agent would ask me for things like proof that I was the owner of the building. To do that, I needed a copy of the deed, which I could get from the county. So I would stop what I was doing, get in the car, get the document, scan it, and email it to him. By the time the final adjustment was ready to be done, he had volumes and volumes of paperwork, hundreds and hundreds of pages of stuff,” Kreuter said.
Business owners can prepare themselves for this process by saving all proof of purchases, such as the deed, invoices and receipts. These records should be kept off site and, if possible, saved electronically. Today, Kreuter has come up with an easy way to keep proof of purchases: He orders all his building supplies from a company that tracks his purchases for him. If he ever needs it, he can go back to the vendor and ask for a list of everything he’s purchased over a set period of time. This serves as proof for the insurance company.
According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, a quarter of all businesses never reopen after major disasters. Even those that do survive struggle to recover from the financial and emotional toll disasters take. Car wash operations are especially vulnerable to natural disasters because so many have costly equipment exposed to the elements. Fortunately, there are steps owners can take to protect their operations. If owners plan for the worst-case scenario, cultivate lasting business relationships, and maintain careful purchasing records, there is a good chance that, even if disaster does strike, they’ll be up and running again as soon as the dust settles.
