May 1, 2023 • 10 mins
Arslanian Brothers, the name you can trust! In the summer of 1959 on break from a full football scholarship at Michigan State University, a young Ted Arslanian was sent by his father to help his uncle in Philadelphia in the carpet cleaning business. Ted fell in love with the idea of starting his own carpet cleaning business back in Cleveland and convinced his dad to help him set up shop in a warehouse in Cleveland’s Southeast Side neighborhood. His father painstakingly agreed to allow Ted to leave Michigan State and begin the business——Arslanian Brothers Carpet Cleaning! Well over 60 years later and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses cleaned, Arslanian Brothers continues to proudly serve Northeastern Ohio. Furniture, grout and tile——even blinds along with area rug cleaning and repairs are expert trademarks of the Arslanian Brothers Carpet Cleaning Company! Ted Arslanian President/Founder.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the podcast about the businessof running a business. This is iHeartRadio's
Cleveland's CEOs you should know, andI'm Keith Hochs. More than sixty years
ago, a former college football playerfrom Michigan bought a warehouse in Cleveland and
began a family legacy in a completelydifferent field from football, rug and carpet
cleaning. And that business has beena lasting legacy that still exists today and
(00:24):
the same founder, Ted Arslanian,still comes to work each and every day
to help the business thrive. Wesat down with Ted to find out more
about why he still does it.I can't imagine there are that many businesses
in Cleveland that were started in nineteenfifty nine where the owner is still running
the company right right, still theresix days a week, first one there,
last one to leave. You mustlove it, then obviously I enjoy
(00:47):
it, I really do, youknow. I lost my wife about four
and a half years ago. Sincethen, this is my home. So
this is your home. Cleveland ispart of your the fabric, It's in
your DNA. How has the business, though, what you do changed over
these many years. Well, whenwe started in business, I mean we
(01:11):
I was twenty years old. Yeah, I didn't know very much. I
was lucky to move into a buildingthat my family owned. It was an
old movie theater that closed in nineteenforty nine and it sat empty for many,
many years until I decided in nineteenfifty nine that I want to go
into this business, and this propertywas available. I started. I went
(01:34):
to college for a year. Infact, I played football. I heard,
I'm excited, I want to hearabout this. Well. I went
to Michigan State on a football scholarshipand a position, and yeah, I
was good on a local level.I was an all scholass thick and second
in the state and wrestling good athlete. But when I went to Michigan State
(01:56):
and they were number one in thenation for a while for sure, by
the way, freshman couldn't play ballat that time, then I realized.
I thought when I went to college, I could go to the next level
in football. That was my ambition. When I got there, I found
out that we got the best ofthe best in the country there. They
were bigger and faster me, sothat wasn't going to happen. So after
(02:19):
my freshman year in college, Iwent to New Jersey to work for a
family member that had the same typeof business. We have a rug business.
They sold rugs, clean rugs,and I decided that this is what
I wanted to do. Wow,I mean it's crazy. I dropped out
of college after one year. Iwas twenty years old. I came back
home and looking for a piece ofproperty and Dad said, well, we
(02:44):
have this old building that it wasthe housing movie theater. If you want
to renovate it, you can movein there. And you're still in that
building. No. We were inthat building for forty seven years and we
had a fire there in two thousandand seven. It forced us to move.
The city wouldn't let us build thereagain. There's too much asbestos in
(03:06):
the ground. So we moved toour present facility in Warrensville Heights, also
on the same road, Miles Road. We can't get away from Miles Road,
but a nicer facility. It's greataccess to the freeways and much larger,
and we had the opportunity of rebuilding. It's not too often that you
can go into rebuild a factory.Right the old building, we said,
(03:30):
if this room could have been larger, this area could have been higher.
We had that opportunity. We sawall the shortcomings from our old facility and
we build a perfect building and it'sworked out very well for us. Well,
and you've mentioned access to the freeway. One of the hallmarks of your
advertising is the twenty percent cash andcarry discount. Right. I was always
curious. It seems like a lotof work to roll up an area rug
(03:53):
and bring it into a facility.Do a lot of people do this?
A lot of people do it there, really, and we get a lot
of people from for example, Wooster, coming in from areas we don't go
with service in the whole state ofOhio. I don't think there's more than
three rug cleaning plants. Right.The next closest real plant is in Columbus.
(04:15):
So um. We even thought aboutsetting up some satellite offices, but
that's up to the next generation.Well, area rugs are a unique business,
right, I mean, there're heirloomsthere in some cases, you know,
they're part of a long family historyin tradition. I imagine you have
people bringing in rugs that were aroundfor a couple hundred years old, right,
(04:38):
Absolutely, And we're lucky we havea great repair department, and in
fact, we have a gentleman thatheads up our department from Iran. I
used to say Iran. He saidno, I yes, and he was
a weaver there and we're lucky.He's been with us for several years now
and he's terrific. I mean,he can identify rugs from what area they're
(05:00):
from, what family made them.It's really true. Are they back in
fashion? I mean I would imaginestyles. I mean I have a mid
century modern home and it was outof fashion for a while, and now
they're very back in, right,back in. It depends on where you
live. If you live in aHeights area, they're in fashion. Yeah.
If you live in you know,Avon Lake, no more modern mass
(05:23):
certain areas of the city still haveoriental rugs and they're very much in right.
What. Um, what is theoldest rug that you can that you're
aware of that your company maintains arecleaned a couple of a couple of hundred
years old? I mean, andwe do work for museums and um,
and we also sell rugs, okay, and people are buying them, right,
(05:46):
people are buying them. What arethey What are they looking for in
a rug? What are people lookingfor nowadays? Well, younger people are
looking for lighter colors, more pastels. They're still buying hand knotted rugs,
but we still get customers looking forthe old traditional oriental rugs. Yeah,
and that's what I have in myhouse. An oriental rugg does something to
(06:08):
a room that domestic rug does notdo. This is a very stately look.
You're gonna have to forgive my ignorancebecause I was curious, like,
do you dovetailing on that idea thatyou're a weaver can identify where the rugs
were made? Right? Absolutely?That would have to imagine be the value
proposition if I want to if I'mgoing to come in and pay, you
know, a decent amount of moneyfor a rug, much more than you'd
(06:30):
pay at home depot obviously, orlows or a carpet store, do you
can you do? You'd get toknow the history of this rug, like
where it was made? Do youguys know most of all that? So
you can ask if someone's asking andhe knows that he knows what families made,
directs, unbelievable, Iran and allthese different areas, he knows that
the rugg is you know, fromIndia, from Pakistan. We've done a
(06:54):
lot of studying. I think Iknow a lot about rugs, but his
knowledge is is just great. Andthat's where most of them are made.
Or Iran, Pakistan, India.Since the embargo from Iran about twenty years
ago, we're not getting rugs fromthem. We can get them, um,
you know, through England and throughimporters, but most of the ruggs
they are from India, Pakistan,Afghanistan, Armenia, Right, Turkey.
(07:18):
Wow, such a unique piece ofheritage right that you're operating in. It's
it's very very interesting. You haveto stop in some of the day.
It's it's I will yeah. Didyou you mentioned the next generation? Right?
And you do some things besides arearugs. What's the future for the
business. Well, we sell rugsas well. We have a rug department.
(07:41):
A son in law runs that department. My brother Hanks uh son in
law runs that department. We doblind cleaning. We have a blind cleaning
system. We do it for othercompanies. We have a large implant rug
cleaning operation. We pick up intothe rugs as well as customers bring in
(08:01):
rugs in. Our rug repair departmentis second to none in the country.
Yeah, we have three experts inthat area. That would probably be something
that, yeah, if you wantto keep this cherished heirloom or this historical
exactly. And one of my partners, my brother Hank, who is my
younger brother, who is eighty twoyears old, he runs the rug repair
(08:22):
department and he's active in it.He's very proactive. We're talking with Ted
our Slaneyan, founder of our SlanyanBrothers from nineteen fifty nine. Ted,
one of the things we talk abouton CEOs you should know is how folks
who lead businesses operate in these highstress environments. Right, you're obviously in
(08:46):
great shape and you're you know,you've done a lot. You've done well
for yourself, right over many sixtyfour years in this business, unbelievable.
Appreciate that. What is your secret? Tell our listeners a piece of advice
that's kept you thriving throughout all theseyears. Well, you know what,
I always sent very high sales goals. And without sales goals, I mean,
(09:07):
how can you achieve anything? Whatyou sound like my bosses, No,
we set them very high and wealways try to exceed the previous year.
We've been in business for sixty fouryears and out of the sixty four
years, only two of two timeswe did not succeed the previous Ye,
that's unbelievable. That's a I don'tknow if that'll every match. And actually
(09:31):
twenty twenty one and twenty two wereour biggest years by far, and I
think COVID had a lot to dowith it. Yeah, people staying in
their homes and yeah, they wantto do something different, right, exactly
fresh. But you know, I'mvery happy to say we have a lot
of family members working in our businesstoday. Not only we have eight our
Seleniums in the business. Wow.My brother Henry has two sons, Cliff
(09:56):
and Al. Cliff's son who justgraduated from De Paul is working for us,
coming back to the business. He'sin the business. Also my nephew
Donald, who was my brother Armand'sson. Armand retires six years ago,
but Donald is our office manager.His son DJ graduated with chemical engineering Grey.
(10:18):
He's been our plant manager for thepast two years. And Don's daughter
Kate, who just graduated from collegeyear ago, is in our office.
Wow. So we have eight activeArslanians still working in a business. It's
gonna be very fulfilling for you.Every really is. It's a joy to
come to work every day. Noteverybody can say that. I know Ted,
it's been a pleasure to talk withyou today. Ted Arslanian from Arslanian
(10:41):
Brothers and this has been I ourradio CEOs. You should know. Today's
show was produced by Bob Coats andI'm Keith hot Kiss. Let's see you
next time.
Welcome to the podcast about the businessof running a business. This is iHeartRadio's
Cleveland's CEOs you should know, andI'm Keith Hochs. More than sixty years
ago, a former college football playerfrom Michigan bought a warehouse in Cleveland and
began a family legacy in a completelydifferent field from football, rug and carpet
cleaning. And that business has beena lasting legacy that still exists today and
(00:24):
the same founder, Ted Arslanian,still comes to work each and every day
to help the business thrive. Wesat down with Ted to find out more
about why he still does it.I can't imagine there are that many businesses
in Cleveland that were started in nineteenfifty nine where the owner is still running
the company right right, still theresix days a week, first one there,
last one to leave. You mustlove it, then obviously I enjoy
(00:47):
it, I really do, youknow. I lost my wife about four
and a half years ago. Sincethen, this is my home. So
this is your home. Cleveland ispart of your the fabric, It's in
your DNA. How has the business, though, what you do changed over
these many years. Well, whenwe started in business, I mean we
(01:11):
I was twenty years old. Yeah, I didn't know very much. I
was lucky to move into a buildingthat my family owned. It was an
old movie theater that closed in nineteenforty nine and it sat empty for many,
many years until I decided in nineteenfifty nine that I want to go
into this business, and this propertywas available. I started. I went
(01:34):
to college for a year. Infact, I played football. I heard,
I'm excited, I want to hearabout this. Well. I went
to Michigan State on a football scholarshipand a position, and yeah, I
was good on a local level.I was an all scholass thick and second
in the state and wrestling good athlete. But when I went to Michigan State
(01:56):
and they were number one in thenation for a while for sure, by
the way, freshman couldn't play ballat that time, then I realized.
I thought when I went to college, I could go to the next level
in football. That was my ambition. When I got there, I found
out that we got the best ofthe best in the country there. They
were bigger and faster me, sothat wasn't going to happen. So after
(02:19):
my freshman year in college, Iwent to New Jersey to work for a
family member that had the same typeof business. We have a rug business.
They sold rugs, clean rugs,and I decided that this is what
I wanted to do. Wow,I mean it's crazy. I dropped out
of college after one year. Iwas twenty years old. I came back
home and looking for a piece ofproperty and Dad said, well, we
(02:44):
have this old building that it wasthe housing movie theater. If you want
to renovate it, you can movein there. And you're still in that
building. No. We were inthat building for forty seven years and we
had a fire there in two thousandand seven. It forced us to move.
The city wouldn't let us build thereagain. There's too much asbestos in
(03:06):
the ground. So we moved toour present facility in Warrensville Heights, also
on the same road, Miles Road. We can't get away from Miles Road,
but a nicer facility. It's greataccess to the freeways and much larger,
and we had the opportunity of rebuilding. It's not too often that you
can go into rebuild a factory.Right the old building, we said,
(03:30):
if this room could have been larger, this area could have been higher.
We had that opportunity. We sawall the shortcomings from our old facility and
we build a perfect building and it'sworked out very well for us. Well,
and you've mentioned access to the freeway. One of the hallmarks of your
advertising is the twenty percent cash andcarry discount. Right. I was always
curious. It seems like a lotof work to roll up an area rug
(03:53):
and bring it into a facility.Do a lot of people do this?
A lot of people do it there, really, and we get a lot
of people from for example, Wooster, coming in from areas we don't go
with service in the whole state ofOhio. I don't think there's more than
three rug cleaning plants. Right.The next closest real plant is in Columbus.
(04:15):
So um. We even thought aboutsetting up some satellite offices, but
that's up to the next generation.Well, area rugs are a unique business,
right, I mean, there're heirloomsthere in some cases, you know,
they're part of a long family historyin tradition. I imagine you have
people bringing in rugs that were aroundfor a couple hundred years old, right,
(04:38):
Absolutely, And we're lucky we havea great repair department, and in
fact, we have a gentleman thatheads up our department from Iran. I
used to say Iran. He saidno, I yes, and he was
a weaver there and we're lucky.He's been with us for several years now
and he's terrific. I mean,he can identify rugs from what area they're
(05:00):
from, what family made them.It's really true. Are they back in
fashion? I mean I would imaginestyles. I mean I have a mid
century modern home and it was outof fashion for a while, and now
they're very back in, right,back in. It depends on where you
live. If you live in aHeights area, they're in fashion. Yeah.
If you live in you know,Avon Lake, no more modern mass
(05:23):
certain areas of the city still haveoriental rugs and they're very much in right.
What. Um, what is theoldest rug that you can that you're
aware of that your company maintains arecleaned a couple of a couple of hundred
years old? I mean, andwe do work for museums and um,
and we also sell rugs, okay, and people are buying them, right,
(05:46):
people are buying them. What arethey What are they looking for in
a rug? What are people lookingfor nowadays? Well, younger people are
looking for lighter colors, more pastels. They're still buying hand knotted rugs,
but we still get customers looking forthe old traditional oriental rugs. Yeah,
and that's what I have in myhouse. An oriental rugg does something to
(06:08):
a room that domestic rug does notdo. This is a very stately look.
You're gonna have to forgive my ignorancebecause I was curious, like,
do you dovetailing on that idea thatyou're a weaver can identify where the rugs
were made? Right? Absolutely?That would have to imagine be the value
proposition if I want to if I'mgoing to come in and pay, you
know, a decent amount of moneyfor a rug, much more than you'd
(06:30):
pay at home depot obviously, orlows or a carpet store, do you
can you do? You'd get toknow the history of this rug, like
where it was made? Do youguys know most of all that? So
you can ask if someone's asking andhe knows that he knows what families made,
directs, unbelievable, Iran and allthese different areas, he knows that
the rugg is you know, fromIndia, from Pakistan. We've done a
(06:54):
lot of studying. I think Iknow a lot about rugs, but his
knowledge is is just great. Andthat's where most of them are made.
Or Iran, Pakistan, India.Since the embargo from Iran about twenty years
ago, we're not getting rugs fromthem. We can get them, um,
you know, through England and throughimporters, but most of the ruggs
they are from India, Pakistan,Afghanistan, Armenia, Right, Turkey.
(07:18):
Wow, such a unique piece ofheritage right that you're operating in. It's
it's very very interesting. You haveto stop in some of the day.
It's it's I will yeah. Didyou you mentioned the next generation? Right?
And you do some things besides arearugs. What's the future for the
business. Well, we sell rugsas well. We have a rug department.
(07:41):
A son in law runs that department. My brother Hanks uh son in
law runs that department. We doblind cleaning. We have a blind cleaning
system. We do it for othercompanies. We have a large implant rug
cleaning operation. We pick up intothe rugs as well as customers bring in
(08:01):
rugs in. Our rug repair departmentis second to none in the country.
Yeah, we have three experts inthat area. That would probably be something
that, yeah, if you wantto keep this cherished heirloom or this historical
exactly. And one of my partners, my brother Hank, who is my
younger brother, who is eighty twoyears old, he runs the rug repair
(08:22):
department and he's active in it.He's very proactive. We're talking with Ted
our Slaneyan, founder of our SlanyanBrothers from nineteen fifty nine. Ted,
one of the things we talk abouton CEOs you should know is how folks
who lead businesses operate in these highstress environments. Right, you're obviously in
(08:46):
great shape and you're you know,you've done a lot. You've done well
for yourself, right over many sixtyfour years in this business, unbelievable.
Appreciate that. What is your secret? Tell our listeners a piece of advice
that's kept you thriving throughout all theseyears. Well, you know what,
I always sent very high sales goals. And without sales goals, I mean,
(09:07):
how can you achieve anything? Whatyou sound like my bosses, No,
we set them very high and wealways try to exceed the previous year.
We've been in business for sixty fouryears and out of the sixty four
years, only two of two timeswe did not succeed the previous Ye,
that's unbelievable. That's a I don'tknow if that'll every match. And actually
(09:31):
twenty twenty one and twenty two wereour biggest years by far, and I
think COVID had a lot to dowith it. Yeah, people staying in
their homes and yeah, they wantto do something different, right, exactly
fresh. But you know, I'mvery happy to say we have a lot
of family members working in our businesstoday. Not only we have eight our
Seleniums in the business. Wow.My brother Henry has two sons, Cliff
(09:56):
and Al. Cliff's son who justgraduated from De Paul is working for us,
coming back to the business. He'sin the business. Also my nephew
Donald, who was my brother Armand'sson. Armand retires six years ago,
but Donald is our office manager.His son DJ graduated with chemical engineering Grey.
(10:18):
He's been our plant manager for thepast two years. And Don's daughter
Kate, who just graduated from collegeyear ago, is in our office.
Wow. So we have eight activeArslanians still working in a business. It's
gonna be very fulfilling for you.Every really is. It's a joy to
come to work every day. Noteverybody can say that. I know Ted,
it's been a pleasure to talk withyou today. Ted Arslanian from Arslanian
(10:41):
Brothers and this has been I ourradio CEOs. You should know. Today's
show was produced by Bob Coats andI'm Keith hot Kiss. Let's see you
next time.
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