Nasutsa Mabwa And Sam Simon With Restoration By Simons

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the business radio studio in Chicago, Illinois. It’s time for Chicago Business Radio. Brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm space.com. Now here’s your host.

Max Kantor: [00:00:21] Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kantor. And before we get started, as always, today’s show is sponsored by firm SpaceX, thanks to firm SpaceX, because without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. And we’ve got a good one for you today. Today’s show actually features two guests. We have the president of restoration by Simons, Natsuko Magawa, and the managing director of Restoration by Simons, Sam Simon. Welcome to the show, guys.

Sam Simon: [00:00:50] Thank you. Thank you very much.

Max Kantor: [00:00:53] So let’s jump right in. Tell me a little bit about restoration by Simon’s Oak.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:01:00] Well, our company is Restoration by Simon’s, and we provide commercial and residential water cleanup, water damage restoration, fire and smoke cleanup, and a whole line of specialty cleaning services to our customers in the greater Chicago metro area.

Max Kantor: [00:01:16] How did you guys get into this business?

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:01:19] Oh, that’s a long story. So Sam and I have been doing this for quite a bit. We just have this year our ten year anniversary. But originally we learned about a franchise opportunity as we were looking to some other business opportunities and decided it would be a really good way for us to have a better work life balance and grow our own business while we’re growing our own family.

Max Kantor: [00:01:43] How did you two meet? Like, what are your individual backgrounds?

Sam Simon: [00:01:48] Well, I’ll jump in on this one. You and I, we met as social workers. We were working in child welfare in the mid nineties and we met at the same organization and we, you know, we were social workers initially because we, we wanted to do something that was meaningful and to give back to the community and to help the community. And we did that for a few years. And then we we moved on to our respective careers. And then, of course, after marriage and children, we decided that we wanted to go into business for ourselves. And we happened upon the ServiceMaster franchise. And and while doing our research on the franchise and on the industry as a whole, we saw that this was just another level of of of working. Of course, managing a business and creating a business for ourselves, but at the same time, helping people put their lives back together after disasters like water damage or fire damage or smoke damage. So it was kind of utilizing our skills in helping people.

Max Kantor: [00:03:13] Yeah, I thought that was so interesting when you said social work, because the common denominator there between what you did and what you do now is caring and helping other people.

Sam Simon: [00:03:26] Exactly that we find know we work with people in residential or commercial settings who are are stressed out by the circumstance, by the damage. They’re in a panicked panic state. They’ve they’ve suffered some loss, whether it’s material loss, whether it’s damage to the home. I mean, it’s all initially shocking. And Masuka and I have developed these dispositions, these calm dispositions, and to help the customer, the consumer, see that although this is a type of shock, but ultimately it’s not something that can’t be cleaned, disinfected, dried and repaired totally.

Max Kantor: [00:04:14] And I think that’s such an important thing to bring, especially with a company like yours, when you’re dealing with people who are going through that shock, who are obviously very upset, it’s important to to look at, okay, we can help you clean up, but we can also help you feel okay as well. And you guys are bringing both.

Sam Simon: [00:04:33] Sure. I mean, my my my initial question, when I speak for the first time to a customer that suffered from a water or a smoke damage or a fire damage, my initial question always is, how’s the family? How’s the family? How are your pets? Is everybody okay? And I think by asking that question and they say, well, no, everybody is fine. And that immediately sets the tone for what’s to come after that. Right? Everything is okay. Everything can be repaired.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:05:07] And then we walk them through what the steps are so they know what’s coming because it’s very disruptive to homeowners and to property managers and business owners. But it’s disruption, right. And it can be very chaotic and stressful. And it takes time away from your normal schedule of events and your family. So by explaining to them what’s going to happen, what the restoration process entails, we’re able to help calm them, give them a feeling of stability, and know that it’s going to be resolved and we can restore them back to the pre lost condition before the water damage happened, before the fire and smoke damage happened or what have you.

Max Kantor: [00:05:42] So for someone who has to go through this, whether it be fire damage, water damage or any other type of need where they need you guys, especially cleaning, what do you recommend first steps be if someone has this happen to them?

Sam Simon: [00:05:59] Well. So, for instance, let’s let’s talk about water damage, for instance. I mean, if a property owners had a water damage of. Where do they come from? They need to understand where the water came from. Is the water coming up out of the out of the drains? Well, then that perhaps that means you have a drain blockage. So in that specific case, you probably need to call a plumber first to get that taken care of. So then we can get in there and start our work. Was it a water tank rupture? Have the water tank switched out? In some cases, we can work alongside a plumber. But in the case, for instance, where they’re rotting out the pipes that’s invasive and dirty and messy and they take up a lot of space for that. So sometimes we tend to wait for them to finish because they’re going to kick up a lot more raw sewage. So we we prefer to get in there after. So there’s a myriad of plumbing issues that can create water damages. So in those cases, it’s important to get a plumber out there first and then from there it’s really everything else is logistics.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:07:20] Right? You’re dealing with their content, too. If it’s in a basement, for example, usually people have things in their basement, personal content boxes, what have you. So that has to be removed. Some of it has to be discarded, some of it can be restored. So we talk through all of that with the customer as well.

Max Kantor: [00:07:38] Got you. Now, you two are in the process of writing your first book.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:07:44] Yes.

Max Kantor: [00:07:46] Can you tell me a little bit about it? I see it’s called Restore.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:07:49] Yes. So our book came out about a week ago and it’s called Restore. A Complete Guide to Protecting Your Home as Your Most Valuable Asset From Water and Fire Disasters. And Sam and I coauthored the book and basically within its pages are sections on water, fire cleaning and disinfection and also some information on insurance, because many customers will use insurance for larger claims. And it’s just small chapters. Each section, each topic is very easy to read and navigate. And we wanted to share all of the information and resources we’ve learned over the years with our customers, because we do this so often and we didn’t really find a resource out there to share with customers that we like. So we wrote our own.

Max Kantor: [00:08:36] Well, congratulations. I didn’t realize it came out so soon. So congratulations on the release of of the book. And now you mentioned that within the book you talk about kind of the challenges and successes that that you’ve had running a disaster restoration business for you. In the course of owning this business, what has been the biggest challenge that you’ve had to overcome?

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:09:03] That’s probably has to be answered in a multi response.

Sam Simon: [00:09:07] Which which challenge are you talking about?

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:09:11] In which time period? I mean, the most recent challenge would have been the pandemic, right? As business owners and we are entrepreneurs and we’re very quick on our feet and we’re responsive, we were able to pivot and offer COVID disinfection services in 2020 when the pandemic began and other services were being requested. And we needed to keep the business moving. So we switched to that service line very quickly, and we did that all of 2020 and into 2021. Today we get very few calls for COVID, but still, every week or two we’ll get a few calls in. That would be one example of a really big challenge that we had to overcome and to keep the business moving. In the past, before the pandemic, I would say it’s kind of finding the right team members to join the team, finding enough business to come in on a on a stable level and being responsive to the marketplace in terms of restoration, because the needs change over time, technology and equipment and just being responsive and agile to keep the business open year after year. So it’s evolved.

Sam Simon: [00:10:16] And some of it are understanding the nuances of consumer behavior, the nuances of weather behavior, and understanding how those play into our ebbs and flows in the business. Right. So, I mean, there are there are months where it’s gangbusters and there are there are days and where things are kind of calm and like traditionally the month of June is a little slower because it’s great weather. It’s it’s there there’s less rain. Rain happens to be a small part of our business. Right. The inclement weather. But so it tends to be a little more slow and steady. Then when you get in the rainy months of spring or the rainy months of fall or the freezing months of winter, sometimes that goes haywire. So it’s understanding those weather patterns, it’s understanding consumer behavior. And that takes some time. That takes a few years to understand and say, oh, yeah, remember, June is slow, remember, September is busy. And so you kind of get used to that and and you learn and you grow and you make adjustments to your business to, to align with that information.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:11:45] And I would say another thing that we’ve done is we’ve grown and gotten a little bit more mature in our business as owners, is focusing on the services that we do really well and having processes internally so we can succeed and meet our customers expectations consistently. That’s really important. We want more than anything always for our customers to be pleased and satisfied. So making sure we really are good at what we do and not just trying everything as some companies do, just focusing in on our strengths has helped us be more successful as well.

Max Kantor: [00:12:17] So that was the challenges that you guys have had to overcome. On the flip side, I want to ask each of you, what is the most rewarding part about what you do?

Sam Simon: [00:12:30] I can start that. I mean that. I’m sure Nasser agrees. We love getting in there. In a person’s time of need, in a person’s time, in a person’s time of panic. And and fixing the situation restoring the situation back to what it was before the damage occurred. We we we like to see the relief on our customer’s faces. We like to see the smiles on their faces. And let’s face it, we like to thank yous. We like the. Hey, Sam. Thanks. Or. Hey, nice. Thank you. We get satisfaction and fulfillment out of again. Out of helping people.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:13:24] Yeah. And we meet the needs of the customers because they have a problem. They call us because they have a problem they can’t solve or they don’t have the capacity to solve it. And helping them through that. And it can be very chaotic sometimes and sometimes not so much. But the really big projects that seem very stressful and challenging for customers, we were able to navigate through that and makes us feel like we’ve accomplished something because we’re helping others. We’re very passionate about what we do, but making sure that they’re calm and satisfied and finishing the project from beginning to end is very rewarding for us because we want them to be pleased and help them solve their problem, right? Because that’s why they called us in the first place. So it is rewarding every week as we help each customer.

Max Kantor: [00:14:08] Now. If someone listening wants to learn more about restoration by Simon’s or your book Restore, what’s the best way they can learn more about you to?

Sam Simon: [00:14:18] Well, they can they.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:14:19] Can.

Sam Simon: [00:14:20] They can certainly come to our website at ServiceMaster restoration by Simons dot com. They can go to our Facebook page which is Facebook at ServiceMaster restoration by Simon’s. They can. Or they can look up our book, which is on Amazon.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:14:42] It’s called Restore and they’re under the book section because there’s other items maybe similar. Sometimes it’s best to put in like restore water or restore fire, but it comes up right away and it’s live on their website. So that’s another place to find us.

Sam Simon: [00:15:00] They can always reach us by phone at eight, five, five, nine. Simons.

Max Kantor: [00:15:04] Awesome. Well, Nsukka, Sam, you guys are both doing great work and we appreciate all that you’re doing for the community. So thank you so much for being on the show today.

Nasutsa Mabwa: [00:15:13] Thank you.

Sam Simon: [00:15:13] Thanks, Max.

Max Kantor: [00:15:15] And thank all of you for listening to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kanter, and we’ll see you next time.

Intro: [00:15:24] This episode of Chicago Business Radio has been brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm Space.com.