How to Rebuild Your Business When You’ve Lost Everything

Chris Schrader’s dry cleaning business in Columbia, Tennessee, has been burned to the ground twice—once in December 2012, and again just three weeks before this conversation. He also received a colon cancer diagnosis two months after the first fire. The second fire, which destroyed a 16,000-square-foot production facility, happened on a Thursday night. Schrader saw smoke from two miles away. By the time he arrived, fire crews from three counties were working the scene. He says he told himself immediately: “This is not about me anymore. This is the livelihood of my whole family. … You cannot panic, you cannot get upset, you’ve got to roll with it.”

The operating principle: no decisions from fear

Schrader has run the business since January 1, 1997, when he took over a four-store operation doing roughly $300,000–$400,000 in annual revenue. Within 24 months he hit $1 million by advertising heavily, putting his family’s face on everything, and introducing home pickup and delivery. But by 2012, after a restoration division had grown the company dramatically, Schrader felt lost. “I didn’t know where I fit in my company anymore,” he says. He had brought in a friend to run the restoration side, his wife was sick with Lyme disease, and he had four young children at home. He prayed: “I want you to help me figure out where I belong. Do what you have to do.”