National Mom & Pop Business Owner's Day

3/29/2021 (Permalink)

March 29^th is National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day, a day that honors all small business owners.  SERVPRO of Appleton uniquely qualifies as both a big business and a small business. 

SERVPRO Industries was originally launched in 1967 by Ted and Doris Isaacson as a painting business in Sacramento, California.  But with their background in cleaning and restoration, they transformed the company into a franchisor of cleanup and restoration specialists.  They sold their first franchise in 1969.  By 1988, there were 647 franchises and the corporate headquarters was moved to Gallatin, Tennessee.  Today there are over 1,900 franchises in the United States and Canada.

According to Wikipedia, “Despite the franchise structure of numerous relatively small entities, SERVPRO has the capacity and organizational competence to respond to large-scale disasters, including major corporate and government contracts…”  This means we are uniquely positioned to respond to major disasters, much like a large company, while remaining a locally owned, small family business.  

Small businesses are a vital part of the U.S. economy.  According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are more than 27 million small businesses in the United States.  59.9 million people or 47.3% of the private work force are employed by small businesses. 

SERVPRO of Appleton was founded in 1992 by Mr. Kelly Rousso.  Kelly’s first employee was Debbie Soloway.  Together they built a thriving business.  In 2014 Kelly sold the business to C.J. Snyder.  Debbie and a few other key employees, like Joyce Ebajan, stayed on and helped C.J. grow the business to close to double its size in 2021 from when he purchased it in 2014. 

Today SERVPRO of Appleton employs approximately 30 people.  C.J.’s wife and 3 grown kids have all worked for the business at various times.  In addition, we sincerely view all our employees as part of our SERVPRO Family.  They are true heroes helping people during their time of need.