Bernie Noble says the worst business decision he ever made was leaving Allen Drain Service to start an excavation business in 1985.
But he got a shot at redemption in 2001, when Allen Drain — based in Kent, located just outside of Akron in northeastern Ohio — was put up for sale. Noble decided to buy the business, which pumps out septic tanks and grease traps and cleans drainlines.Since then, Noble and his daughter, Sara Gless, the company’s vice president, have focused on taking a solid, family-owned company and making it even bigger and better.“We basically maintained the existing business model:
