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BINGHAMTON - On Sept. 9, 2011, Susan Jabloň went underwater, not once but twice. That morning, she signed a mortgage contract with M&T Bank for the purchase of a building in Binghamton, which would serve as the new manufacturing plant for her business - Susan Jabloň Mosaics, Inc.
Between -Sept. 6 and 8, the region was pummeled with rainfall totaling 10-12 inches. The deluge from tropical storm Lee followed closely on the rainfall already deposited by the remnants of Hurricane Irene. The Susquehanna River rose to record levels and overflowed the city's retaining walls, flooding downtown Binghamton. Broome County initiated a mass evacuation. That day, Jablon's manufacturing building, as well as 25,000 square feet she leased in Vestal for inventory storage, was submerged in several feet of water. The loss totaled $400,000. While she had just secured flood insurance for her business, the contract didn't take effect until 30 days after the signing. In addition to her inventory, machinery, and equipment, the flood also put her balance sheet under water.
"I was stunned," Jabloň recalls. "I had been in business for 10 years prior to the flood, and I knew that my creative designs in glass tile were popular. I had loved mosaics since my grandmother gave me a mosaic to assemble when I was five. Mosaics are always beautiful and bring joy (bothl to the artist and to the consumer ... Flood or no flood, I was determined to pursue my life's dream and rebuild the business despite the fact that I lost everything."
While she still has debt to pay off from the duet of the Irene and Lee deluge, today the business is thriving. Susan Jabloň Mosaics, LLC was just awarded the "2017 New York State Small-Business Exporter of the Year" award by the U.S. Small Business Administration, one sign of her growing success.
"We have residential and commercial clients in a number of countries," says Jabloň, the company president, "including England, France, Canada, Russia, Japan, the Caribbean, China, and the UAE. I...