Sewer Equipment Celebrates National Family Owned Business Day

June 23rd is National Family Owned Business Day. To celebrate, we sat down with Dan O’Brien, 3rd generation owner of Sewer Equipment. We wanted to talk about what it means to run a family-owned business.

Sewer Equipment was founded in 1941 by H.T. O’Brien – Dan’s grandfather – when he invented the drain snake. And over the last 81 years, Sewer Equipment has manufactured, developed and evolved more and more sewer equipment, pipe cleaning equipment, hydro excavation equipment. “We’re still family owned, and we’ve got a lot more growth coming.” he says.

Family Company

Many family businesses is start out just like Dan’s did, with several family members like his siblings, father & mother and their uncle. They came and worked for the business over the years and helped it grow, but eventually you run out of family. “If you want to grow a business, you have to bring in people from the outside and you have to find employees that are going to come and contribute to that company,” Dan says. Sewer Equipment has been very lucky because so many people in the Chadwick, Illinois, and the Dixon, Illinois area have great work ethic.

Dan attributes the business’s growth to the employees becoming a big family. Thinks it is important that he can treat people like family and make decisions as a family. “And that’s been a big part of our success and a big way we’ve been able to take care of customers, because when the rain is falling and there’s a challenge and a problem, an issue that needs to be addressed right now, we can do it.”

Family Inspirations

When asked what family member has inspired him the most at Sewer Equipment, Dan said it was an easy answer: his mother Joan and his wife Isabella. His mother raised seven kids while his father was frequently on the road. His wife has been raising their three daughters while he has been on the road himself. Yet, she has still found time to create a foundation called the Fearless Angel project. “The families that support us while we get our work done here, it’s a hugely important task, and my hats are off to them.”

Family Success

What has contributed to the years of success here at Sewer Equipment? Sewer Equipment has been making great equipment for years, making it simple to operate and safe. “But perhaps the most important thing that we’ve done is that we have an unrelenting desire to take care of our customers. We build them a great machine and then we give them great service.” Dan tells us. And that great service is oftentimes provided by a dealer network. These service professionals help them when they need maintenance on their machine or repair. It’s all about taking care of your customers. “If you do that, they’ll keep coming back.”

Another thing that’s helped Sewer Equipment’s growth as a family owned business over the years is that we take good care of our employees. Their opinions matter. There is a great profit-sharing program in place that takes care of them. All in all, if the company grows and is more successful, the employees are more successful. Everyone is treated with respect and appreciation.

“My dad told me over the years, he said, take care of the people that work at the company. Take care of the company, make decisions to protect it. And if you do that and you take care of customers, it will keep growing. And he was right, because we’re just getting warmed up in a lot of ways in terms of growth.”