When
a tornado hit Tuscaloosa, AL last year, a local Express Oil Change
& Service Center franchise got pulverized in 45 seconds flat.
Nothing except for a lone lift station was left standing. Even the 14
vehicles left on the property were completely destroyed. The owner, John
Carney, was left to pick up the pieces - and it wasn’t easy.
He
almost wasn’t allowed to rebuild at all, since his city’s building
codes had been complicated after going into business 25 years prior. He
had to switch his entrances and exits, use different building materials,
and add additional parking spaces, incurring almost $300,000 in extra
costs. His insurance ran dry four months before being able to open and
he had to pay his employees out of his own pocket, including benefits -
an additional $175,000. All of this was done by using his and his
brother’s home equity credit.
Although
most of his street is still empty from the tornado, John did about 90%
of his old volume in the first two months. When he reopened in August
2012, John had a line of people that waited for 20 minutes. He credits
his success to the fact that he is honest with people and tries to do
the right thing for the community.
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Posted by: Judy | January 13, 2013 at 03:16 PM