Labey Family - Restoration Professionals

In 1997 Tim and Patty Labey needed a change.  They were between unsatisfying jobs, so they used Patty’s $3,000 severance check to start their own business.

They plopped the money down on a used carpet-cleaning machine, which Tim threw in the back of his old Chevy Blazer and started bidding for work in strip malls.

That year, through tenacity and the kindness of friends, the business grossed $40,000, most of it reinvested in better equipment and additional training.  “Then we bought a truck-mounted cleaning system, and then more and more trucks”, Tim Labey said.

What was at first Tim and Patty and “one other guy” grew to a company of 36 – including two of the Labey’s daughters, Tim’s brother, and Patty’s brother, Ed Strom, now company president. Restoration Professionals Inc. is now part of the Port Authority’s Great Northern Business Center South.

The Labey’s, raised blocks apart in Saint Paul, were eager to return.  their burgeoning business was the tipping point that prompted them to approach the Port Authority.

“With the Port Authority site, we could use the land as equity for a bank loan.  And that’s very important to a business like our where cash flow is unpredictable”, Patty Labey said.