COSE Update - September 2008 - (Page 11)

Business interrupted You don’t think it will happen to your company—a fire, death, plant shutdown. But what if it does? Business owners share how they coped and what they learned when business was tragically interrupted. By Kristen Hampshire he busiest time of year for Arslanian Brothers Carpet & Rug Cleaning is spring. People with heirloom Oriental rugs and generations-old Persian keepsakes—rugs passed down like family jewels—rely on Arslanian Brothers for cleaning, mending and even storage if a family has downsized and needs a place to keep a prized floorpiece. There were 1,200 of those rugs at Arslanian Brothers on May 14, 2007, when an electrical fire destroyed the headquarters on Miles Avenue, across from Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland. Fire officials spent about two hours taming flames that erupted at 8:30 p.m. One fire official told The Plain Dealer the building was “a total loss.” “That fire was probably the worst day of my life,” says Ted Arslanian, 70. He had planned to exit the business that year; his brothers would work there a few years longer before completing a family succession plan. “At that time, I didn’t know if we would recover,” Arslanian says. t Fireproof file cabinets storing all company data dropped through the second floor; records were ruined. When Ted, Hank and Armen Arslanian—brothers and owners of a business where 11 family members work— called in staff to help recover what was left inside the file cabinets, they plied open drawers to find charred, water-damaged paperwork that left scant clues of the loyal customers who would begin to file claims on their heirloom rugs. One customer in Gates Mills lost 53 Oriental carpets. The company’s flatbed rug washer—rare equipment in a slowing industry (“Rug plants aren’t being built anymore,” Arslanian says)—was rescued from the fire, but damaged so badly it would need $100,000 in repairs, not to mention new hot water and soak systems, and a drying facility. The total tab was a half million dollars. But the destroyed rugs’ cost was an X-factor. “We could always buy more equipment and we could borrow money if we had to,” Arslanian says. “The unknown was the rugs. We didn’t know if it would cost us $10 million to replace them, and we didn’t know how claims would settle out.” Arslanian Brothers didn’t have business interruption insurance. They had limited coverage on their 90-year-old building, simply because of its age and location. Arslanian knew that going by customers’ values for the rugs, he would quickly exceed the company policy (he prefers not to share the coverage amount). Get PrePareD cose has harnessed the area’s top resources to help you prepare your business for any interruption. Emergency Preparedness Workshops West – 9/9, 8:30-10:30 a.m. corporate college West, Westlake east – 9/10, 8:30-10:30 a.m. corporate college east, Warrensville heights And at the conference 10/22 Even Small Businesses Need a Crisis Communications Plan 10:45 a.m.-noon 10/22 Security and Liability Issues 10:45 a.m.-noon 10/22 Protect Yourself from Employee Fraud and Theft 2:45-4 p.m. 10/22 Securing and Insuring Your Business in the Technology Age 2:45-4 p.m. cose.org/sbc or (216) 592-2222 september 2008 • cose update • 11 http://cose.org/sbc

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of COSE Update - September 2008

COSE Update - September 2008 Contents Memo Upfront Vision Tech Business Interrupted The “Bigness” of Small Business What’s the Plan? People Telecom Advocacy Communications Health Pipeline Connect Arts My Cause Plugged In

COSE Update - September 2008

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