Money Matters

Businessman Who Rebuilt After 9/11 Shares Lessons Learned

September 13, 2005

You can never really prepare your business for a disaster like Hurricane Katrina. But one businessman who rebuilt after 9/11 has some advice for those who want to be as prepared as possible. Paul Messina filed the following Money Matters Report.

Brian Drum's office had always been located just a block from the World Trade Center. That proximity became a bad thing on 9/11 and Drum had to re-build his business.

“It took two and a half years. It was a long journey. And the journey started many weeks after 9/11,” says Drum.

He brought Drum Associates back from the brink and was named New York’s Small Business Person of the Year for 2004. Drum has also developed advice for other businesses hoping to be prepared in case disaster, like Hurricane Katrina, strikes.

“I think that you should get your bank lines of credit in order ahead of time. You should always have them available. I was fortunate that I had a bank line of credit. I could've gotten a much larger one and I think that would've been much more helpful,” says Drum.

Drum adds that your vendors can also be a source of credit, if you know them well. Another way to prepare is telecommuting.

“9/11 we were not set-up for telecommuting. We had a few people who had computers out of the office, but we didn't have the right connections, we didn't have the right access points, and it would have been a much better way to communicate with each other. It was missing,” says Drum.

One thing that shouldn’t be missing is your data. On 9/11 Drum Associates accidentally had it's data in a safe place.

“Fortunately the person who's responsible for bringing back the tapes the next day forgot about it,” says Drum. “So we had the Monday 9/10 stuff out of the office at the time, which was unplanned for. Now it's a matter of course that we do that all the time.”

Other advice is simple. Pay attention to those building fire drills. You might actually need that information someday. And keep your employee contact information current.

“Make sure you have more than just your corporate email address,” says Drum. “Have a second email address. Make sure you know all the phone numbers that you can possibly have. Make sure you know where they are so maybe you can send them something, if need be.”

Drum's daughter Carly joined the company to assist with it's re-building. She says one specific change helped it recover.

“After September 11th he really opened up to everyone and he let people know what was going on,” says Carly Drum of Drum Associates. “He told them what our financial were. He told them "I'm in this. I'm gonna get paid last. You guys are gonna get paid first.”

“It's very hard to be prepared for a catastrophe. Nobody expects it. It's always a surprise. And nobody likes surprises,” says Drum.

– Paul Messina

For more information:
www.drumassociates.com