The Desserich family has been in the insurance restoration business since the 1950s when president Keith Desserich’s grandfather operated a cleaning business. Keith (left in photo), with uncle Douglas (center, rear) and brother Brian (right), went off and started his own restoration and remodeling business, then came back in 2006 and bought out the family company.
To succeed, things had to be far more streamlined. The company developed a list of 76 “corrections,” or changes in business processes. All but one have been implemented, and RestorAid Remodeling has become highly profitable, paid off $680,000 in debt, increased employee wages by 9%, and received accolades from both the Cincinnati and International Better Business Bureaus.
Business ownership, Keith Desserich maintains, needs to be based on “your abilities and performance and your ability to be an entrepreneur. We want people who can innovate, who can keep it new,” he says. In 2007, Keith and his wife, Brooke, who lost their six-year-old daughter Elena to cancer, started The Cure Starts Now, a nonprofit foundation. Their book about Elena, titled Notes Left Behind, became a bestseller.
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In 2005 RestorAid won the Torch award for Ethics from the Cincinnati BBB, and in 2006 it was a finalist for an international Torch award.