By Dustan White, Owner of 911 Restoration of Central Missouri
Disasters from water, fire and mold are sometimes seen as chance happenings to homeowners – easy to put out of mind until severe weather seasons hit, and help is urgently needed. Even homeowners with home service backgrounds find the appropriate response to a flooded house or frozen pipes stressful and time-consuming, with little direction on where to start. My past career in carpet cleaning and insurance adjusting gave me some experience working in different parts of the property damage restoration, but I never understood the depth of the industry until I faced my own property loss in 2005.
From that experience until I opened the doors of my business in 2022, I gained experience in securing jobs, talking to a variety of customers in different situations, operating cleaning equipment, writing estimates and managing up to 60 claims in a month – all of which prepared me for entrepreneurship in restoration. Serving in the Army as a lab tech also contributed to my skills development and the importance of organization ahead of my restoration career. Along the way, I faced personal challenges and my first attempt at business ownership, but my need for a ‘fresh start’ influenced my decision to open my 911 Restoration franchise in Missouri. Now, two years into my family-operated business and 20 years into the restoration industry, I’ve learned even more about being a mobile business owner and providing my community and surrounding communities with a service that goes beyond simply solving a problem.
Providing a ‘Fresh Start’ Experience for Your Local Community During Stressful Situations
As an emergency service brand, our job is to quickly assess and begin treating damage, but equally important is our role as a local resource rather than just a problem solver. Entering someone’s home or property where they may have experienced a significant loss of important items requires sensitivity – what looks like a destroyed dining room table could be an heirloom that holds a great deal of sentimental value to its owner. Helping people with their biggest needs during a crisis and seeing their property restored is incredibly rewarding. If you don’t see that as the end goal from the moment you start the job, your customers won’t have a memorable experience working with you.
Our service area for those experiencing water, mold or fire damage losses stretches from Columbia to Lake of the Ozarks and beyond. Encouraging and maintaining an expectation for the team to provide empathetic responses that make the customer’s life easier is essential. I never want our customers to feel like they’re waiting to hear from us, and I always give out my personal cell number for questions on estimates, timeline updates, or even a shoulder to cry on during intense situations. Prioritizing community giveback and involvement is also important to making an impression as a company that helps in times of need. This can look like donations to the local animal shelter, hosting a barbecue or buying pizzas for first responders – anything that shows your commitment to and gratitude for the community you serve.
Navigating Entrepreneurship with Family
My team includes myself, my son and my daughter – truly operating as a family business. This may cause hesitation for some entrepreneurs, but with the right balance of boundaries and expectations, it can be a huge benefit to the success of your operations.
The biggest thing to keep in mind when working with family is to clearly establish roles and set boundaries. My daughter’s role as office manager is essential for keeping office and field communications efficient while balancing billing and admin tasks. My job is to ensure she has what she needs to succeed without micromanaging. My son works as a field supervisor, a role that requires me to give him space to do his job while providing support and troubleshooting as needed. The other major keys to navigating a family-operated business are to have non-work-related conversations outside of work and to forgive quickly. It’s easy to respond to errors out of stress or tiredness, but at the end of the day, your family relationships shouldn’t be set aside when you leave work. Setting work and life boundaries as an entrepreneur is essential, especially when working with family in emergency response situations.
Adapting to Emergency Service Work from Industries with Similar Skillsets
One of the biggest differences I faced when switching from carpet cleaning to restoration is adapting to emergency work. Carpet cleaning follows a schedule, while restoration is usually a 24/7 world of chaos. When restorative work is needed emotions are often heightened, it is important to have great customer skills and provide patience, empathy, efficiency and urgency. Learning new equipment can also be a big adjustment. Restoration work requires air movers, dehumidifiers, moisture meters and other specialized drying equipment for walls and floors, etc., and with the two services having similarities, equipment setups can also be similar. For example, extraction and cleaning equipment can sometimes mirror a carpet cleaning van with onboard machines and water and waste tank hoses and reels. Avoid buying brand new equipment and don’t take big loans for something you can find that has been previously used. This will help reduce upfront costs as you get your business started. Personally, the addition of 360 photo documentation, moisture mapping, specialized drying equipment, and mastering Google have all helped my adjustment over the years.
At the end of the day, both industries boil down to customer interaction, communication and service – all of which should be amplified in the restoration field when dealing with traumatic and stressful experiences. Owning a restoration business is something that requires a servant’s heart and a clear operations flow that works quickly and efficiently with the customer in mind – something I strive to improve and enhance as my family-run team continues to serve communities across Central Missouri.