Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1511664
PalletCentral • November-December 2023 15 Tina Yanssens Vice President Iron City Wood Products T he idea of Iron City Wood Products began on anksgiving weekend 1987 and came to fruition on February 1, 1988. My dad, Dave Muslovski, was let go as the salesman for a small pallet shop. He went to his business associates and asked to use them as personal references, with plans to apply as a mechanic at US Airways. ey encouraged him to start his own pallet shop and vowed to support him. I remember my dad sitting at the dining room table writing up a detailed business plan to take to the bank. Several family members also believed in his plan and went to their banks and took second mortgages to help raise the capital necessary to secure land, a tractor, trailer, forklift, and tools. My uncle repaired the pallets and my dad made sales calls, while making deliveries and performing vehicle maintenance in the evenings. My mom, Denise, took bookkeeping classes at the local career center and set up an office at home. I was 12 years old during this transition, literally growing up in the business. I went off to college to become a registered nurse, and eventually came back to help run the office. My nursing career helped us develop a safety culture, problem solving skills, and an ability to triage any obstacles we encountered along the way. Nurturing the Family Business I believe a major contributor to our success has been the great team of advisors with whom my parents surrounded themselves. We held routine meetings with all advisory members and family members present who were working in the business to ensure we were all on the same page. We are fortunate to still have the majority of this team with us today. As members of the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, my dad and I attended a Succession Planning Luncheon. at chance encounter led to the addition of Roger Warrum and the Family Business Institute to our advisory board in 2005. ey helped us create a long-term strategic plan. Quite honestly, up until that point we were not sure if we were planning on a succession or a transition. ey helped us work out those details as we dealt with my dad's hesitations for a succession plan. As a first-generation entrepreneur, he regretted at times the countless hours had been pulled from away from family issues to sustain growing the business. He did not want to pass that burden along to us. roughout the years, we have been working to build layers of management, delegate tasks to support staff, and use technology to allow us to be active family members as well as owners. Truth be told, though, our own kids have grown up in the business as well, and know the sacrifices it can require firsthand. Someone once described it best when they said that Iron City was another family member that required nurturing. e best advice that Roger gave was to decide if we were a family business (family first) or business family (business first) when at work … both are okay, but all family members must be in full agreement. A Plan That Supported Our Tragedy Our advisory board and emergency action plan was extremely instrumental in keeping us on track when my dad was tragically killed on June 17, 2010 by a distracted driver. e year before the accident, we had already been starting the succession from my parents to me and my husband, DJ Yanssens, but we were still early in the process. DJ and I met with the employees that same day of the crash to ensure them that we were ready for the challenges ahead. We talked to our biggest customers and vendors explaining that despite our staggering loss, we were ready to meet their needs. I can barely remember the first three years after my dad passed away because we were so busy. We moved our facility from the original property that my dad had bought on a land contract in Campbell, Ohio to an 18-acre retired steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio. is provided us a larger concrete pad to inventory Iron City Truck delivering pallets.