THE 7 STEPS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS # 4

CONSTANTLY "MOVING UP MARKET "

Within every target market, there is a high end and a low end market and everything in between. Successful entrepreneurs constantly stretch their marketing sights and target prospects. They constantly "move up market " to high end prospects ... a strategy that enables growth.

What specific prospects ... or kinds of prospects ... would you love to have as customers but think you will never be able to secure these types of customers? Think outside the box and think BIG. One strategy is to pick one high end prospect and build a marketing campaign to reach that one person or company. This strategy will require persistence but if properly executed it will be worth it. “Moving up market" will not only slowly build your current revenues and business exposure but it will multiply your profits for years to come – and that is your ultimate goal.

I want to wish everyone happy holidays. The blog postings will continue on January 3rd.

Next up……Adding Value.

THE 7 STEPS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS # 3

IS MARKETING A “CONTINUUM” OR AN EVENT?

Sometimes entrepreneurs stop marketing at the end of the sale. Successful entrepreneurs know that marketing is an ongoing process. Successful entrepreneurs know that more than 50% of their marketing efforts should be “after the sale” and includes tactics as 'post sale’ follow-up, repeat business incentives, backend selling, referral marketing, etc. They know that the greatest revenues are generated ‘after the sale.’

How do you see and practice marketing in your business - as an event or a continuum? What ‘post sales’ and prospect follow-up activities can you incorporate into your marketing efforts? This one shift in marketing focus alone can increase revenues dramatically.

Next up…..Marketing Up.

THE 7 STEPS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS # 2

ALWAYS ASK THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION:

"Where is the opportunity in this situation?"

Over the years of being in different businesses I have found that within *every business challenge”, there is usually an opportunity. Even with the most difficult challenges, successful entrepreneurs never see the challenge. They ONLY see the opportunity. They constantly ask: "Where is the opportunity in this situation?"

Where is your focus in your business - on the challenge or on the opportunity? Make it a habit with every new challenge you face to ask: "Where is the opportunity in this situation?" that one question will open the doors to new solutions, new strategies and new possibilities for your business.

Next up….Marketing is a continuum, not an event.

THE 7 SECRETS OF OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

I read an article recently on the top ten secrets to a successful enterprise. For some reason seven of these resonated with me. It is good to stand back and review our own business in the light of some of these basic principles.

1. EXPECT TO SUCCEED

It is so easy to get beat up in the day to day operations of our business because it is made up of highs and lows. Yet, we need to keep in mind that we can succeed; in fact, we need to EXPECT to succeed over the long run. All of us have put everything on the line and success is the ONLY option.

Yet, sre the day to day operational issues clouding your vision and are your losing sight of your ability to succeed? Do you EXPECT to succeed in your business on a daily basis? You need to make a *decision* today to succeed today and "cut the cord" on all other possible outcomes. Hard to do? Sure it is.

How to do this is a part of my next blog posting.

The Magic 15 Minutes

A millionaire entrepreneur when asked what he attributed his success he replied, “There are a lot of things that resulted in my success; hard work, hiring the right people and a bit of luck but none of this would have been possible if I had not taken 15 minutes each day (without fail) to reflect and plan my day.’

This bit of wisdom has been repeated many times over in the lives of successful people. It seems that a few minutes to thought, reflection and planning is not only therapeutic but crucial to create an environment for success.

As you reflect about the things that you did right in the last twelve months, the things you would do differently and what you are going to do better in the next twelve months, perhaps making a commitment to allow the magic 15 minutes make a difference in your life and business in 2010.

California Positive DOT Drug Test Reporting 2009

(1) FMCSA Drivers

Regulation: California V.C. 34520 - positive FMCSA-authorized drug test "summaries" – notification (e.g., test date, reason for test, drug detected) without identifying the driver or motor carrier
“(c) Any drug or alcohol testing consortium, as defined in Section 382.107 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, shall mail a copy of all drug and alcohol positive test result summaries to the department within three days of the test. This requirement applies only to drug and alcohol positive tests of those drivers employed by motor carriers who operate terminals within this state.”
Who Reports: Consortium
When: Within 3 days of positive test
How: Mail or Fax
To: California Highway Patrol, Commercial Vehicle Section, P O Box 942898,
Sacramento, CA 94298-0001
Re: Notice of Positive Urine Drug Test on CDL Holder Code: 34520 (c)
This letter will serve as notice to the California Highway Patrol that on October 11, 2007, a Commercial Driver License holder voided a breath/urine specimen, which produced a positive drug test result for ALCOHOL/MARIJUANA. The test type reason was: RANDOM
Sincerely,
ARCpoint Consortium
Note: California originally planned to maintain a database of positive drug test results. However, no such database was developed. For compliance with the law, consortia must report positive drug tests, but without names.
(2) School Bus Drivers, School pupil activity bus, Youth bus, General public paratransit vehicle, Vehicle used for the transportation of developmentally disabled persons.
Regulation: California DMV V.C. 13376(b)(3) positive or refusal FMCSA-authorized drug tests conducted on drivers of school buses and vehicles to transport developmentally disabled people
“(3) The carrier that requested the test shall report the refusal, failure to comply, or positive test result to the department not later than five days after receiving notification of the test result on a form approved by the department.”

Who Reports: Employers (DMV Form DS 334, “Positive Controlled Substance Test Result Report”) http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/ds/ds334.pdf

When: Within 5 days of receiving the test result

How: Mail the DS 334:
To: DMV, Driver Safety Actions Unit, Attn: MS-J256 Special Certificate, PO Box 187010-7010, Sacramento, CA 95818-7010; and submit a copy to your local California Highway Patrol Area Office, Attn: School Bus Office/Coordinator

Note: California revokes the driver's certificate for three years unless the driver complies with the DOT return to duty process.

Questions or comments?
John Lipp
email Jlipp@accudiagnostics.com

AdWord Campaign to Remain Local

Q: How will the switch over in the next month impact the CA/NV region?

A: The strategy CAMPA will pursue is to continue to optimize the existing local websites we currently have. These websites do not point to ACRpoint now or will they in the future because we optimized them by location and do not use the main domain of www.accudiagnostics.com for our optimization. We each optimize franchise by location. For example, www.accudiagnostics.com/lancaster .

In Ravi’s email sent out recently, he made the policy statement that local franchisees must manage their own AdWord campaigns. This strategy was being evaluated and now a decision has been reach for each franchisee in the system to be responsible for their own program, which for this region is a plus because we already have the momentum, expertise and experience to control our destiny with the local AdWord program.

Q: When will we begin using the www.ACRpointus.com website?

A: As of December 1, 2009 SEO began at a national level. We will watch the ranking of the ARCpoint website before we will have our local sites such as www.accudiagnostics.com/lancaster redirected to www.ACRpointus.com site. When we are confident that the site is getting as much or more traffic as we are currently getting with our local optimization we will have the redirect implemented and our current AdWord program migrate over to ARCpoint. This may be in February but could be much later, depending on their progress and ranking.

As the site is fine tuned over the next few months and suggestions from franchisees is incorporated into the www.ARCpointus.com website, we will wait until we are ready to make the shift.

Q: How will the AdWord program be funded?

A: The ASAP Fund has funded this program. As long as you have a balance in this fund, it will continue to fund each locations AdWord program. Once this fund is depleted, it is up to the local franchisee to set a budget and continue to fund this program. Some franchisees do not have an AdWords program while with others it is crucial in their revenue building strategy.

Q: How will the administration of the AdWord program be funded?

A: CAMPA has funded the administration of the program and based on the new policy of local franchisees responsible for the administration of their own AdWord program, CAMPA will continue to fund the Administration of the program. In order to get the most benefit out of the program, in my opinion, every franchisee should have at least a minimal AdWord program implemented. Dollar for Dollar, this has been proven to be the most effective use of advertising dollars.

I have confidence in Greenville and their team will continuously improve the site over the coming months and when the time is right we will move over to the new www.ARCpointus.com website.

REPORTING POSITIVE DOT DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTS TO STATE CDL AGENCIES

The Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance (ODAPC) published an Interim Final Rule (IFR) in the Federal Register [No. 73, Vol. 115, Pg. 33735], permitting state commercial drivers license (CDL) issuing authorities to receive commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver positive and refusal drug and alcohol test results from employers without driver written consent. The IFR also permits these state licensing authorities to receive owner-operator positive and refusal results from Consortia/Third Party Administrators (C/TPA’s).

So, when a state law requires employers and C/TPA’s for owner-operators, to report the CMV driver ‘Positive’ and ‘Refusal’ results for tests conducted under FMCSA 49 CFR Parts 382 and FTA 655 to a state licensing authority, there are no barriers, real or perceived in part 40, preventing them from doing so. Hopefully, with these restrictions more states will be encouraged to adopt the reporting into law.

Seven States (AR, CA, NC, OR, SC, TX and WA) have enacted legislation or issued regulations that require employers, Medical Review Officers (MRO), or Breath Alcohol Technicians (BAT) to report positive DOT drug and alcohol tests to a State agency. The requirements apply to DOT drug and alcohol tests conducted on individuals who hold a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) issued by the State.

In California, the licensing agency is the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). California requires that Consortium's provide a statistical summary report to the California Highway Patrol for every positive DOT drug and alcohol (>0.04 BrAC) test conducted on a CA CDL holder. The statistical report does not include any individual test identification information (e.g. driver name, CDL license number, SSN, etc.); only the date and reason for the test, the drug(s) detected, and the alcohol level >0.04 BrAC. California also requires additional employer reporting of several types of bus and transit vehicle drivers who receive positive drug and alcohol test results.
John Lipp
Operations

Fruit From Cold Calling

A note from Jill in Martinez……

I thought you might enjoy the note I rec'd this morning after a 15 minute visit with the new owner of a new division of National Scaffolding Service.

Jill,

Thank you for all your information and like I say to you this morning I will send all my guys to your company for any drug test.

Thanks

Miguel Ayala
Area Manager

As Paul Harvey would have said, “Now for the rest of the story:”

This all started with a cold call. I walked into the office of National Scaffolding Service and met the brother of the owner who informed me that the boss (the owner of the business) would be back in two weeks. A few weeks later I followed up with a phone call to set up an appointment. The appointment went very well and I now have a new client.

Selling is so much fun!

Moral of the story: Cold calls only take a few minute and when mixed in with your daily selling activities will bear fruit. The key is always be selling and looking for opportunities – where ever they may be.

More States Considering Prescription Laws to Battle Meth

The state of Oregon requires a prescription to purchase certain formerly over-the-counter medications that can be used to make methamphetamine, and now other states are considering similar laws, the Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 21.
The 2005 Oregon law applies to drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, which in other states can be sold without a prescription but only in limited quantities and from behind the pharmacy counter.

Meth-related arrests in Oregon have fallen 43 percent since the law went into effect, and the number of meth-lab seizures has plummeted as well. In other states, however, the number of meth labs has increased, and meth producers have sent groups of people into pharmacies to buy the maximum legal amount of pseudoephedrine drugs in order to get the raw materials they need.

The Oregon law was the basis of ordinances recently passed in Washington, Mo., and Union, Mo., and state lawmakers in Missouri, California, Oklahoma and Montana are considering similar proposals. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has drafted federal legislation that could be introduced in Congress later this year.

"To me, [what Oregon did] is the answer," said Richard Stratman, mayor of Washington, Mo. "If you can tie up the pseudoephedrine and make it difficult to obtain, you can get the job maybe not completely done, but you can put a pretty good dent in those labs."

Pharmaceutical companies oppose the laws, saying they are inconvenient and expensive for consumers. As an alternative, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group, is proposing an electronic monitoring system for drug sales, funded by manufacturers. The system would alert local authorities about attempts to exceed the legal purchase limits.

President Obama's DNA Testing Plan

In a recent article (11/6/09) in the SF Chronicle by Matthew Lee, DNA tests are being considered to be administered to refugees.

President Obama's administration is considering using DNA tests for some foreign refugee applicants following a Bush-era pilot program that found massive fraud among those claiming family links to join relatives already in the United States.
The State Department said Thursday that it and the Homeland Security Department are nearing a decision on ways to reinstate a refugee resettlement program that was suspended last year when the fraud was uncovered.

"These new procedures will likely include DNA testing," the State Department said in a statement given to the Associated Press.

The U.S. experiment using genetic testing ended in 2008 and was aimed only at proving family relationships. The program was not used to identify nationality by country, similar to a controversial effort in England, officials said. Genetic experts have cast doubt on the ability to use DNA results to determine a person's country of origin.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a decision has not yet been made on reviving or expanding the pilot program.

Although no final decisions have been made, the State Department said it "was close to the end" of a review that had been delayed by the change in administrations. "Now that policy-level people responsible for this issue are in place, we expect to reopen the program with revised procedures in the near future," an official said.
The suspended pilot program, known as Priority 3, allows foreign — almost all of them African — family members of legal U.S. residents to join relatives here.

With little fanfare, the program was halted in March 2008 after DNA testing on applicants in Africa found that up to 87 percent of their familial claims were fraudulent.
The experimental program was conducted in late 2007 and early 2008 on about 3,000 people mostly from Somalia, Ethiopia and Liberia who claimed blood relationships with each other and wanted to be reunited with a family member who had been resettled as a refugee in the U.S.

DNA testing was not done on the alleged relatives in the United States. The State Department said it targeted Africans abroad only for genetic testing because they make up 95 percent of applicants to the program. The testing started, officials said, only after suspicions of fraud arose in applications originating among refugees in Kenya.

"We were ... only able to confirm all claimed biological relationships in fewer than 20 percent of cases," the State Department said in a fact sheet. "In the remaining cases, at least one negative result was identified or the individuals refused to be tested."

The fact sheet was originally released last year in the waning weeks of the Bush administration but was reissued shortly after President Barack Obama took office.
The idea of such testing on refugees came into the spotlight again this week when

British authorities said they were using genetic tests on some African asylum-seekers in an effort to catch those who are lying about their nationality. That move has drawn criticism from scientists and provoked outrage from rights groups.

As the U.S. review winds down, questions were raised about what to do with the estimated 36,000 African refugees who arrived in the United States under the resettlement between 2003 and its suspension.

The Homeland Security Department has jurisdiction to determine if any of those applications were fraudulent but department officials said Thursday they had no plans to check those already in the United States. Such a move would likely draw opposition from civil rights groups.

Officials said Homeland Security does not have a specific DNA testing program in place in the United States. But one official said it has always asked for a DNA submission if an applicant does not have evidence that proves there is a family relationship.
Read more: San Francisco Chronicle
John Lipp is in touch with DNA Solutions and will work with them to keep us in the loop if something develops on this front.
In the meantime, keep this in mind and your antennas up for similar opportunities like this.

Innovation and Initiative

From The London Times:

A Well-Planned Retirement

Outside England 's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were £1 for cars ($1.40), £5 for buses (about $7).

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up; so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked it to send them another parking agent.

The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo's own responsibility.

The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee.

The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City pay role.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain (or some such scenario), is a man who'd apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own; and then had simply begun to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about $560 per day -- for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7 million dollars!

And no one even knows his name.

Now that is the definition of innovation and initiative.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day and Dinner.

Lemons to Lemonade

The following is an email I received from Doug in Lancaster.

I wanted to share with you something that transpired over the last 24 hours.
I received a call from a woman who identified herself as being from the DOT. She asked for information on one of my clients, a trucking company in our DOT Consortium. I got very uncomfortable, and I told her that Gloria, who had all of this information, was out to lunch and asked her to call back after 1:00pm.

Meanwhile, I called John Lipp and Tony Waters and shared with them what happened. Tony suggested I send the information to the company, rather than the woman, not knowing if she really was from the DOT.

In any case, the DOT Auditor called back. I told her that I was uncomfortable sharing client information over the phone and suggested that I send it to the company. She acknowledged my concern and told me that she would e-mail me the information she needed about the company’s DOT program.

After receiving the email and verifying that she really was from the DOT, I put the information requested together, (we had everything she requested) and faxed it to the company. I called the trucking company today, and they told us everything we sent them answered all the auditor’s questions, and the issues had to do with their trucking company testing program, not AccuDiagnostics. They were very appreciative for the quick response and that all of the information I sent was complete, professional and in good order.

Because of that, the trucking company now wants us to do Supervisor Training and they are going to recommend us to one of their friends who is starting their own trucking company.

But wait! There’s more…

I made copies of the e-mail I had had received from the DOT auditor and distributed this to several my DOT type of clients and prospects I’ve been working with. I positioned the email copies as a ‘DOT Alert’ – the “DOT Auditors” are in the Antelope Valley and shared what the DOT may look for if they should select their company for an audit.

But Wait!!!! There’s more……

The phone started ringing immediately. In just one afternoon, I got three commitments for Supervisor Training, as well as one company that is switching from their current drug testing company to AccuDiagnostics. I had tried to get them as a client for more than a year with no success. Now they also want us to do a new Drug-Free Workplace Policy, Supervisor Training, as well as their random testing and pre-employment testing.

The call from the DOT Auditor turned out to be a great opportunity to get in front of my prospects again, create a lot of credibility, and trump my competitors.

Doug wins the Innovation Award for the Week.

Moral of the Story: In every problem there is an opportunity.

No Blog Posting on Friday

Blog posting are made Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. However, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, there will be no blog posting on Friday, November 27th.

Have a meaningful and enjoyable Thanksgiving while enjoying time with your family while humbly acknowledging how blessed we all are to live in a land where that afford us so much at a time when much of the world has very little.

Testimonial Letters

In one of my recent blog posting, I shared an experience that Doug Kimball in Lancaster had with one of his clients passing a CHP audit because they had recently participated in Doug's Supervisor Drug Testing Training.

When you have a client that has had a positive experience with you, one of your staff or lab technicians or other interactions, it is a good idea to take this opportunity to ask for testimonial letter so you can post this in your office or use it for recruiting new clients by putting these in your sales presentation binder.

When Change is Good

This past month the AccuDiagnostics world changed significantly. After the initial shock of having the entire identify of our business change overnight, the realization of what this means and how this change is going to be implemented began to sink in.

Most of us have been through change before. Whether personal, career or business change, we have been through significant upheavals and reorientation in our lives.

People much wiser than me have counseled that it is not so much what happens to us but on how we hand what happens to us that differentiates success and failure.

A few months ago I watched the movie “The Miracle Worker” starring Patty Duke and subsequently listened to Patty Duke address the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, CA. She discussed what was a potentially devastating handicap eventually turned into a motivator that propelled Helen Keller to become an inspirational icon for all handicapped individuals for current, past and generations yet to be born. It was not her handicap that made the difference for Helen Keller but how she handled this handicap that made the difference.

What each of us do with the new brand is going to make the difference between having this propel us forward or be an anchor retarding our success.

Here are three tactics that you might consider in filling up your half full glass:

1. A PR announcement circulated to the all local media.
2. Contacting each customer and telling them the exciting news of our name change with unbridled enthusiasm.
3. Working hard to implement the transition plan that Greenville will present in the coming weeks.

Years from now we will look back and see the benefits of how the new brand has positioned the ARCpoint to be the dominate brand in our market segment.

Past With Flying Colors

Doug Kimball reports that he recently got a call from one of his school bus clients.

The HR Director was calling to scheudule their fourth quarter random drug tests for their drivers. During the conversation, the HR Supervisor shared with Doug that their office had just been audited by the CHP with the BIT Program.

The HR Director was very pleased to announce that had passed the audit with flying colors. Everything was in order, including their random testing program and documentation. The CHP had even checked their Supervisor Training certifications, which she had on file (which is one of the areas that is most companies overlook).

Fortunately, Doug held a training class for the company a few months ago and before he left he made sure they had everything in place.

The HR Director was very appreciative of the training and our service, and of course, Doug said he felt great about having a happy client that now understands what could have happened without his training!

MRO Addresses CAMPA

Dr. Christopher Rubel hosted a conference call to discuss the MRO process and answer questions regarding drug test reviews by an RMO and unusual situations that tend to arise from time to time. There were several issues that were clarified such as:

1. Medical marijuana. If a person tests positive, whether or not they have a medical marijuana prescription or not, it will be reported as a positive test.

2. In the federal law, Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug, the same classification as heroin.

3. If a person has a prescription for Marinol and tests positive, the test is reported as negative.

4. The regulations do not require an MRO to speak different languages. It is the responsibility of the employer to provide translation services through their DER.

5. If a drug test is going to result in the termination of an employee, Dr. Rubel recommends strongly to have a MRO review as a standard operating procedure because where a person on a prescription medication resulted in a positive drug test which resulted in termination. This will protect your business in the event of litigation.

Note: We have heard from Greenville that a few locations are behind in their MRO payments. Please remember this service is a great benefit and we do not want to jeopardize our relationship with Dr. Rubel.
Please come up to date on your MRO payments.

The next ongoing training session for CAMPA will be held on November 17th at 8:00 am. This session will be a sales meeting.

H1N1 and Your Business

From various sources and from my health care provider, I have learned what business owners need to be concerned about with the H1N1 issue and how it impacts their business.

The H1N1 virus can only enter your body through the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not always fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on stocking up on Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless eating, bathing, etc.).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.


4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at using a Neti pot, but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with
cotton swabs dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down the viral population.

5. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat
into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do harm.

6. If your child under 5 years develops a fever, contract his or her pediatrician. Young children are at a higher risk of developing complications from H1N1.

7. If you are experiencing difficulty in breathing, shortness of breath, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, sudden dizziness, confusion, or serve or persistent vomiting either go to the emergency room or call 911. First responders cannot test for H1N1 or administer the H1N1 vaccine, but they can treat you for symptoms of H1N1. The majority of H1N1 cases are not medical emergencies, and most people will recover on their own.

8. When the vaccine is available get vaccinated against the seasonal flu AND H1N1. These are two different vaccines.
9. Avoid visiting a loved one in the hospital if you are experiencing flu-like symptoms.

10. When you experiencing flu-like symptoms, do not go to work. Stay home, rest and take care of the symptoms so you can get back to work as soon as possible. Do not infect everyone else in the workplace and shut down the business completely.

It is likely that you and or your staff will get the flu at some point during this flu season. It is best to plan on how to manage this situation now by implementing some of the precautions listed above and developing a plan on what you are going to do when someone in your office gets sick.

Medical Marijuana and the DOT

The Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy Compliance of the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) has reminded the regulated public that the use of “medical marijuana” pursuant to certain state laws does not excuse a transportation employee’s positive drug test result, despite a Government decision to relax federal prosecutions for such use.
The DOT, through its “modal” agencies, regulates truck and bus drivers, railroad employees, airline employees, transit system workers, and pipeline and hazardous material workers, and certain workers on navigable waters.
In guidelines issued on October 19, 2009, to federal prosecutors in states that have enacted “medical marijuana” laws, the Department of Justice said that the prosecution of seriously-ill individuals who use “medical marijuana” pursuant to valid prescriptions and their caregivers “is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.” Visit Justice.gov for full document

Responding to inquiries resulting from the Justice Department’s action, DOT announced October 22, 2009, “[T]he DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program. We will not change our regulated drug testing program based upon these guidelines to Federal prosecutors.”
The use of “medical marijuana” under a state law is not a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive test result, according to DOT drug testing regulations. The Department’s regulations specifically prohibit Medical Review Officers from verifying a drug test as negative based upon information that a physician recommended or prescribed “medical marijuana” to the employee. It therefore “remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.”
States that have decriminalized the use of “medical marijuana” in certain circumstances include Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Federal law, however, continues to list the drug as illegal.

Pay Per Click Advertising on Bing

Weeks ago we took the opportunity to enhance our paid advertising by creating a pay per click advertising campaign on Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine.


At this time Bing is working very hard to become strong competition for Google, so we wanted to try our luck with advertising here.


Bing’s pay per click advertising is called Adcenter. We used our Las Vegas location as our test and mirrored our Google Adwords campaign.


The results we are seeing from Adcenter are a small fraction of the results we receive from Google Adwords. If our campaigns are structured the same and customers are seeing the same thing, why aren’t we seeing the traffic that we do with Adwords?


We are paying about the same per click and we are maintaining the same position. Here are a few differences that are causing us to not see the same numbers we get with our Google Adwords Accounts.


1. Adcenter is very selective on who they display ads to. Adcenter claims they know how to select the correct demographic for our ads, and this provides us with higher quality clicks than other pay per click accounts. This is of course a claim and there is no way of telling if this is true at this point or not.


2. The structure of our ads had to be changed in most cases due to very strict standards of Adcenter. This includes certain keywords we use throughout our ads, as well as the use of our phone numbers in the display ads.


3. Adcenter is not as flexible as Adwords when it comes to bidding options; they make it very difficult to run a large campaign on a small budget.


4. And most importantly, we aren’t seeing the same traffic we do from Adwords because Bing does not receive nearly as much traffic as Google does. Yet!


Because Bing is so new they are constantly upgrading their programs. We will see many changes in this campaign in the coming months that will be to our benefit.

The WC Insurance Agent/Broker Market

Doug in Lancaster Reports the Following:

I had a very good conversation with an insurance broker today, who ended up adding me to his referral list and giving me the contact info for a local school district, and others, for drug testing.

After walking into the office and introducing myself, I asked the receptionist if they did Worker’s Compensation Insurance. Since the answer was “Yes”, I asked if there was an agent or broker available that I could speak with. In this case, the owner/broker came out and invited me into his office.

I asked him if he was familiar with the California rules regarding denying a claim if the employee was found to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the injury or accident. It was clear that he wasn’t very knowledgeable about this area. Using the information from the National Convention in Greenville, I reviewed the information from Bill Judge’s presentation on this topic, including the NCCI stats that 38% to 50% of all claims involve the use of alcohol/drugs.
I explained the reason I do a significant amount of work with insurance agents providing them tools for them to help their clients reduce their Worker’s Compensation Premiums.

Further discussion revolved around how to provide ‘value-added’ information to his clients and future client prospects on how they might be able to challenge Worker’s Compensation claims, and save themselves a great deal of money; but only if they had a drug-free workplace policy in place and followed it. If they were interested, I was there to provide a policy and/or testing, as well as any further information required.

The end result was that this broker bought into the concept and was eager to put me on his referral list. He also said he would talk to one of his bigger clients, (with some 300 employees) about this, and he shared with me information on additional contacts.

Several of these brokers could make a substantial impact on my business!

Knowledge is power. Doug has taken a bit of knowledge and put to work in a creative way.

Let’s give Doug a “high five” on being innovative and sharing this information with the team.

Mystery Shoppers on the Prowl

As reported by Jeff and Doug:

If you recently received a fax from Quest about their new Preferred Partner program, they mentioned a ‘secret shopper’ as part of this…….

Recently, both Lancaster and Sacramento recently were shopped by a Quest secret shopper. The person who came in for a Drug Test was dressed as a trucker and requested a DOT Pre-employment drug test. In Lancaster, Gloria did the collection. In Sacramento, Jeff was manning the ship with Carol attending the National Conference. Both locations passed their secret shopping experience with flying colors, doing everything perfectly!

The person taking the test in each case identified himself as working for Quest. Each location was measured on an evaluation form receiving a high rating meeting all of the standards and procedures Quest expects of their Preferred Collection sites.

So this is a ‘heads-up’ for everyone, if they haven’t visited you yet.

Good Luck!

‘Medical marijuana’ guidelines don’t impact DOT drug testing

The recent guidelines issued by the Department of Justice regarding the use of “medical marijuana” will not change the rules facing truck drivers on drug use.

The Department of Transportation, as a result of several inquiries, issued a “Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance Notice” on Oct. 22, that clearly states that the DOJ’s guidelines do not impact the DOT’s drug testing program.

“We want to make it perfectly clear that the DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program. We will not change our regulated drug testing program based upon these guidelines to Federal prosecutors,” Jim L. Swart, director of the DOT’s Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance, wrote in the compliance notice.

“The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation – 49 CFR Part 40, at 40.151(e) – does not authorize ‘medical marijuana’ under a state law to be a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive drug test result.”

Grants Project Update

As you are aware, in order to access some of the Economic Recovery Funds, CAMPA is continues to review grants related to drug testing and education.

In recent weeks, the Recovery Act is starting to fund various grants, which of course will create an influx of interest from organizations and agencies seeking grants. Of course, there are no guarantees that we will be awarded any of these grants, BUT that old saying about nothing ventured, nothing gained is really true in this area. There is no reason that we can’t receive some of grant funds. The grant available today have due dates in early November. Others are in the Substance Abuse Prevention which and are given annually on May 30th and September 30th.

By Jolene Benner
Special Projects Coordinator

Something For Free

The most recent DrugPak newsletter had an article about a new, FREE offering for DrugPak users to help them better manage their businesses. It is called the Business Metrics Utility.

The DrugPak BMU has two purposes. First and foremost, it will provide you with a compilation of system information which will provide you with a uniquely advantageous perspective of your business as a whole, and that which is not otherwise available in any other medium. Secondly, it will provide the DrugPak team with the means to identify those areas where our further development efforts can best be applied to produce the greatest results for the most people.

The DrugPak BMU is a standalone DrugPak program that requires no special equipment to install or additional licenses to acquire. As it analyzes your system, you will be asked to answer a series of multiple choice and sliding scale questions; each designed to require a minimum of data to be manually entered. Once completed, the provided information is then compiled to generate a performance report that is uniquely and
independently specific to your company.

Some examples of the information provided:

Average cost (including staffing) per test staff Overall positivity rate for drug and alcohol, as well as mandated vs. non-mandated.

Comparison of testing volume by month and quarter Geographical charting Ratio of services between mandated and non-mandated clients and testing.
Reporting types and methods by both contact and report Allocation of number of staff specific task(s), and annual hours of each Further questions or considerations in reviewing your company-specific data.

By: John Lipp

13 Ways an Employee “Refuses” a DOT Drug or Alcohol Test

An employee who refuses to take a DOT drug or alcohol test faces the same consequences as an employee who tests positive for a DOT prohibited substance. The DOT-mandated consequences of the Return-to-Duty process must be met for you to resume safety-sensitive functions for any mandated employee. Per your company policy, you may also be terminated from your employment. Familiarize yourself with the following Refusal-to-Test situations before your next DOT drug or alcohol test.

By: John Lipp

As an employee, you have refused to take a drug and/or alcohol test if …

You fail to appear for any test (except a Pre-Employment test). Employees must arrive for a Federal drug or alcohol test within a reasonable amount of time as determined by their employer.

You fail to remain at the testing site until the testing process is complete. Leaving for any reason before all the required steps of the testing process are completed will result as a Refusal-to-Test. (Something as innocent as leaving to pick the kids up from school could be deemed a Refusal-to-Test if the collection was not completed.)

You fail to provide a urine specimen for any required drug test. The only exception is when the donor in a Pre-Employment test leaves before the collection kit is selected.

In the case of Directly Observed or Monitored collections, you fail to permit the observation or monitoring of your provision of a specimen. If you refuse to provide a specimen under the required conditions, it is a Refusal-to-Test.

For drug testing, when you fail to provide a sufficient amount of urine when directed, and it has been determined, through a medical evaluation, that there was no adequate medical explanation for a failure. In alcohol testing, failure to provide a sufficient amount of saliva or breath without a valid medical explanation is a Refusal-to-Test.

You fail to undergo a medical examination or evaluation as directed by the MRO as part of the verification process or as directed by the Designated Employer Representative.

You fail or decline to take an additional drug test the employer or collector has directed you to take.

You fail to cooperate with any part of the testing process. If the employee refuses to empty his or her pockets, behaves inappropriately or disrupts the collection process, or refuses to wash his or her hands, the collector will stop the collection and note it as a Refusal-to-Test.

You fail to sign the certification during Step 2 of the Alcohol Testing Form, as alcohol testing must be certified by the employee. Not signing the certification statement during Step 4 of the Alcohol Testing Form is not a Refusal-to-Test. In drug testing, failing to sign the certification statement during Step 5 of the Custody and Control Form is not a Refusal-to-Test.

The MRO reports that you have a verified adulterated or substituted test result. Attempts to adulterate or substitute a urine specimen are often revealed during laboratory testing.

If in a Directly Observed collection, you fail to follow the Observer’s instructions. If you do not lower and raise your clothing, as required, and turn around to prove that you are not concealing a device that could be used to interfere with the collection process, it is a Refusal-to-Test.
If in an Directly Observed collection, you are wearing or possess a prosthetic or other device that could be used to interfere with the collection, it is a Refusal-to-Test.

If you admit that you have adulterated or substituted a specimen to the Collector or a Medical Review Officer, it is deemed a Refusal-to-Test.

Uppercase at Last!

As you may all remember, Google updated their business listing user interface about 3 months ago. Among some of the perks added to the interface, our AccuDiagnostics titles all turned lowercase, "accudiagnostics", even though in our listing's edit details section we clearly had it input as "AccuDiagnostics" with uppercase letters.
I wrote Google 2 times complaining about this, and stating that it looked very unprofessional, and about a week ago I found that they were again displaying correctly at last!

While checking out your listing you could also take this time to login to your google account and update your listing to include more coupons, details and video. If you have a happy customer, suggest to them that they could review your business via your business listing. Good reviews really help your listing position. This will be really important now more than ever because some of our competitors are knocking us out of the top 3 business listings for some searches just like we knocked them out when we came on board about a year ago with our optimized listings.

Within your business listing account you will also find a great interface that allows you to see the amount of times your business listing was displayed and what actions people took on your listing; whether they visited your site, asked for directions, or found out more about you.

Our business listings are SO important to your online success, so please take the time to monitor them. Also see the CAMPA TODAY blog post on creating your Bing business listing. Most of you are listed on Bing's business listings, but your listing is lacking in details and a link to your website. Your competitors are busy taking these steps and you should be active in these areas as well!

Drug Free Work Week

With National Drug Free Work Week (October 19-25) rapidly approaching, the time has come to finish our preparations. I have completed the project on my end. Now, the responsibility is yours to see it through successfully!

This project was difficult on many levels. Although it was a lot to ask for you to take time from your busy business schedules to incorporate a special event for this week, your cooperation was wonderful and yielded spectacular results. As expected, some of you had more events planned and provided more information than others. In one case, I was given a list of over 100 companies to contact along with the media. Although we were all so busy that sometimes working together proved difficult, your efforts in providing me with critical contact information made it easy for me to jump in and contact all of them quickly and effectively..

Our efforts have proved well worth the time and energy they cost us. When I talked with the media in each location, your name was advertised. Now, more people than ever before are aware of who you are and what you do. Several of them commented that it was good to know a local business is taking an active role in a national program. The locations which offered events each day (or several times during the week) received more positive feedback than those offering a coupon-type special.

Next year, when the Department of Labor’s National Drug Free Work Week comes around, you will all be more established in your locations. Perhaps a joint community event is something AccuDiagnostics can sponsor.

I want to personally thank all of you for your help with getting our efforts in front of the media for the first time. In that challenge, you all were a great success!

Jolene Benner
Special Projects Coordinator

Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Accudiagnostics

In the first inaugural address of FDR, he said

“So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself….”

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month which started October 1^st, it be good for all of us to remember that when people are given a test any test they are nervous and some are afraid.

Whether it is a mammogram for cancer or a test for drug usage, the human in front of you ready to take that test has a moment of fear. This that makes he or she what we all are….human beings who are vulnerable and defensive at that moment.

AstraZeneca, the company which manufactures breast cancer drugs founded this month to promote mammography and our awareness of this dreaded disease. Accudiagnostics is a company helping other companies in promoting a drug free work place, which is also celebrating its national recognition with the National Drug Free Work Week starting October 19^th.

The service you provide is invaluable to the company and the community. Always remember that part of the service should be to help the person being tested with their unsettled negative emotions. Your understanding can go a long way in helping their fears to disappear!

Social Media and Your Franchise

In SEO, it is not uncommon to find a PPC ad of a company alongside their organic search engine ranking. Similarly, in social media marketing and advertising, it is powerful to integrate your social media usage with social media advertisements. Two impressions are better than one. When users see a company’s ads on social media sites, they are likely to search for the company as a user of Facebook, Twitter, delicious, or another prominent social media network.

Another benefit of actually interacting with a social media community is that it gives users the impression that your company is caring and down to earth. People tend to respect companies that they can connect with on a personal level and that they perceive as willing to interact with their customer base.

Integrating social media advertising with social media marketing practices gives more impressions to the targeted users, enables customers to connect with companies, and allows companies to build trust. The time to get started with social media advertising is now. Just as with social media marketing, if you are the first in your niche to run a successful social media advertising campaign, you will come to be respected as being innovative and cutting edge. Furthermore, getting started now will allow you to determine sooner which social media audience responds best to your advertising efforts. Your competitors’ future social media advertising campaigns will be considered peanuts in comparison.

However, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t treat social media advertising simply as a vehicle for pushing your ads on users. The ultimate goal of social media marketing is to build quality relationships with people. Social media advertising should be part of a larger, diverse social media marketing campaign.

Just understand the social media channels you are going to advertise on to ensure that your ad is reaching the appropriate audience. This is fundamental to building a successful social media advertising campaign. It is also important to stay on top of new ways to advertise and promote your brand. Monitor the conversations taking place on social media sites in response to your advertisements in order to tweak your campaign for ultimate success.

Tammy Wood
Questions, Comments, Or Ideas?
Feel free to email me: twood@blackstonehathaway.com

Jeff Hastings shared with our group on our last CAMPA Conference Call that at any point in time 3% of our potential customers are looking for our services.

Here is one of those potential customers.

This is an email from Ken Coulter, the Sacramento location field sales representative, sharing an experience with Jeff and Carol he had while keeping his radar up and broadcasting what we do.

Hi J & C:

I met this guy on the plane and struck up a conversation. He works for Hansen Medical out of Mountain View and lives in Nashville. His boss sent him an email yesterday asking about referrals for a new drug testing company. Go figure.

Jeff, I gave him your contact information, Email, Office #, and Cell #. He though it was best for her to contact you instead of you making the call. So if you get a call from a Janine Kirkland that is what she's interested in. I'm always looking!

There's about 175 employees at the Mountain View location and sales people around the country.

Hope you guys are having another busy day! Any good emails come through for me?

Ken

Never miss an opportunity to tell people what you do and how good you at it. You never know when one of those 3%'ers will show up.

AccuDiagnostics Operations

Please make sure to send Dr. Rubel the MRO copy of COCs for any DOT result or for anything you want reviewed.

Also, please send Ashli a list of any companies that you have set up as a sub-account with LabCorp or any other lab if Dr. Rubel is going to be the MRO for these.

Greenville received several results from LabCorp for various companies, but tyhey don't know which franchise location they belong to. The results and the COC forms only list the company and their information not the franchise location.

Also, please make sure these companies or the lab that is collecting the sample send Greenville the MRO copy of the COC.

Not What It Seems

Often we think we know what the right answers are and what needs to be done. When the market place provides data that is interrupted in a way that gives rise to a change in a business strategy.
At other times employees provide valuable input bringing forth new policies and procedures seemingly to the benefit of the company and its customers.

However, extreme care needs to be given to the proper interpretation of the ever increasing flow of data, which at times can be overwhelming.

Here is a recent Dilbert cartoon on what management may see as a benefit can actually turn out to be the wrong thing to do.



Another good idea gone awry.

Moral of the Story: New ideas do not always yield the perceived benefit.

Your CAMPA Support Team

Since we have several new members to the CAMPA Support Team, I wanted to outline your team and their core support functions:

John Lipp: Training and Field Operations Support.

Jolene Benner: Special Projects Coordinator. Current Projects – Grant Research and Administration, Drug Free Workplace Public Relations. Future Project – Sales Appointment Management.

Amber Christiansen: Franchisee Website, SEO and AdWord Administrator.

Kylee Munn: AdWord Specialist.

Tammy Wood: Internet Marketing, Newsletters, Blogs and Social Media Specialist.

Nicole Thelin: Content Development and writer.

The mission of your support team is to support you operations and sales efforts.

A Respectful Airline Captain

It is great to hear about how many Americans feel and how they express their gratitude for those the sacrifices made by those in uniform for all of us!

This story is from an airline captain about a recent flight he was piloting.

My lead flight attendant came to me and reported, “We have an H.R.”

The acronym H.R. stands for human remains.

“Are they military?” I asked.

“Yes", she said.

"Is there an escort?” I asked.

“Yes, I already assigned him a seat”.

“Would you please tell him to come to the flight deck. You can board him early”, he instructed.
A short while later a young army sergeant entered the flight deck. He was the image of a perfectly dressed soldier. He introduced himself and I asked him about his soldier. The escorts of these fallen soldiers talk about them as if they are still alive and still with us.

“My soldier is on his way back to Virginia”, he said.

He proceeded to answer my questions, but offered no words on his own. I asked him if there was anything I could do for him and he said no. I told him that he had the toughest job in the military and that I appreciated the work that he does for the families of our fallen soldiers.
The first officer and I got up out of our seats to shake his hand. He left the flight deck to find his seat.

We completed our preflight checks, pushed back and performed an uneventful departure. About 30 minutes into our flight I received a call from the lead flight attendant in the cabin.
“I just found out the family of the soldier we are carrying, is on board”, he said.
He then proceeded to tell me that the father, mother, wife and 2-year old daughter were escorting their son, husband, and father home. The family was upset because they were unable to see the container that the soldier was in before we left. We were on our way to a major hub at which the family was going to wait four hours for the connecting flight home to Virginia. The father of the soldier told the flight attendant that knowing his son was below him in the cargo compartment and being unable to see him was too much for him and the family to bear. He had asked the flight attendant if there was anything that could be done to allow them to see him upon our arrival. The family wanted to be outside by the cargo door to watch the soldier being taken off the airplane. I could hear the desperation in the flight attendants voice when he asked me if there was anything I could do.

“I'm on it”, I said and told him that I would get back to him.

Airborne communication with my company normally occurs in the form of e-mail like messages. I decided to bypass this system and contact my flight dispatcher directly on a secondary radio. There is a radio operator in the operations control center who connects you to the telephone of the dispatcher. I was in direct contact with the dispatcher. I explained the situation I had onboard with the family and what it was the family wanted. He said he understood and that he would get back to me.

Two hours went by and I had not heard from the dispatcher. We were going to get busy soon and I needed to know what to tell the family. I sent a text message asking for an update. I saved the return message from the dispatcher and this following is the text

“Captain, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. There is policy on this now and I had to check on a few things. Upon your arrival a dedicated escort team will meet the aircraft. The team will escort the family to the ramp and planeside. A van will be used to load the remains with a secondary van for the family. The family will be taken to their departure area and escorted into the terminal where the remains can be seen on the ramp. It is a private area for the family only. When the connecting aircraft arrives, the family will be escorted onto the ramp and planeside to watch the remains being loaded for the final leg home. Captain, most of us here in flight control are veterans. Please pass our condolences on to the family. Thanks.”

I sent a message back telling flight control thanks for a good job.

I printed out the message and gave it to the lead flight attendant to pass on to the father. The lead flight attendant was very thankful and told me, “You have no idea how much this will mean to them.”

Things started getting busy for the descent, approach and landing.

After landing, we cleared the runway and taxied to the ramp area. The ramp is huge with 15 gates on either side of the alleyway. It is always a busy area with aircraft maneuvering every which way to enter and exit. When we entered the ramp and checked in with the ramp controller, we were told that all traffic was being held for us.

“There is a team in place to meet the aircraft”, we were told.

It looked like it was all coming together, then I realized that once we turned the seat belt sign off, everyone would stand up at once and delay the family from getting off the airplane. As we approached our gate, I asked the copilot to tell the ramp controller we were going to stop short of the gate to make an announcement to the passengers. He did that and the ramp controller said, “Take your time.”

I stopped the aircraft and set the parking brake. I pushed the public address button and said, “Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. I have stopped short of our gate to make a special announcement. We have a passenger on board who deserves our honor and respect. His name is private XXXXX, a soldier who recently lost his life. Private XXXXX is under your feet in the cargo hold. Escorting him today is army Sergeant XXXXX. Also, on board are his father, mother, wife, and daughter. Your entire flight crew is asking for all passengers to remain in their seats to allow the family to exit the aircraft first. Thank you.”

We continued the turn to the gate, came to a stop and started our shutdown procedures. A couple of minutes later I opened the cockpit door. I found the two forward flight attendants crying, something you just do not see. I was told that after we came to a stop, every passenger on the aircraft stayed in their seats, waiting for the family to exit the aircraft. When the family got up and gathered their things, a passenger slowly started to clap his hands. Moments later more passengers joined in and soon the entire aircraft was clapping.

Words of 'God Bless You', I'm sorry, thank you, be proud, and other kind words were uttered to the family as they made their way down the aisle and out of the airplane. They were escorted down to the ramp to finally be with their loved one. Many of the passengers disembarking thanked me for the announcement I had made. They were just words, I told them, I could say them over and over again, but nothing I say will bring back that brave soldier.

I respectfully ask that all of you reflect on this event and the sacrifices that millions of our men and women have made to ensure our freedom and safety in these United States of America.

Customer Reviews

The following email sent to the Sacramento office is a testament to the level of service and excellence our locations are delivering to their customers.

Carol,

Thank you very much for the information. I will contact them directly and put this to rest on my end.

Please do not worry about your involvement in our company’s drug testing in the future. Your company has already proven its commitment to the customer and I have in the past, and will continue to in the future, single sourced you for all of our needs.

Thank you again for your help with this issue.

Thomas S. Lindsley
Tricorp Construction

When you get a ‘high five’ from a customer ask them to post a review on the Google business listing. This will have a a dramatic impact on the organic search results because Google gives substantial weight to customer reviews in their organic rankings. The more customer reviews the better.

Jeff and Ken Are Kings

I visited the Sacramento franchise location on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. My visit was a pop in visit. No announcement just showing up. In the perfect world, when a field support visit is made the franchisee responsible for business development would never found in the lab.

True to form, Jeff and Ken (the star sales person in the Sacramento office) were out making sales calls and presentations. Around 4:00 pm Jeff called to check in. I was privy to the phone call which went something like this:

Carol: AccuDiagnostics, may I help you?

Jeff: Hi, it’s me hon. (After a bit of logistic information was exchanged about the ride home after work). Guess what? We are going to have to change our logo marketing piece.

Carol: Why?

Jeff: We are NOW officially doing the testing for the Sacramento Kings organization. We will start with the administration staff and work our way into who knows what. It is a foot in the door.

Congrats to Ken and Jeff for hanging in there and never giving up on a client.

Moral of story: The bigger the client, the longer it takes but the better the reward when it does happen.

Bing VS. Google

Microsoft launched Bing a few months back to replace MSN. Bing is working very hard to be competitive with Google and they are doing very well. Steadily over the months we are seeing Bing bring more and more organic (unpaid) traffic to our websites. Some locations are seeing very close numbers between the amount of traffic Google and Bing bring in. Prior to Bing, MSN hardly made a dent in our organic traffic numbers.

So we can't help but take this opportunity to ask, "Have you checked on your Bing listings lately to ensure it's optimized to bring traffic to your site?"

Please ensure the website listed is for your new URL, not the old landing pages. Upload updated facility pictures or new services you may offer. Post a new special you are running on your business listing.

The Future is Now

Be sure to make your plans, if you have not already made them, to be at the National Convention on October 23rd through the 25th. I have been talking to Felix and they are pulling all stops to make this a convention to remember. The focus is to set the course of the company for future growth.

See you in Greenville.

How the ‘Failure to Success Model’ Should Work

There are three components to the ‘Failure to Success Model’: Fail Frequently, Fail Fast, and Fail Frugally.

1. Fail Frequently. If you are not failing you are not taking enough risk. Complacency is the nectar of permanent and unrecoverable failure. Venture capitalists plan for failure. In order to identify big ideas VCs invest in unproven ideas knowing full well that 8 or 9 investments out of 10 are going to fail. Entrepreneurs that try different things in marketing, operations and personnel without having all the answers will build powerful, efficient and profitable companies.

2. Fail Fast. When you realize something is not working - cut your losses. Too often there is too much emotional investment in a project or a plan, to be able to separate the emotion from what the data reveals. For example, Sony had engineers in the company that realized the digital download of music was the future of the Walkman, a product that Sony had developed into a dominate brand and category leader. Management viewed the development of a new business format for the Walkman as destroying hundreds of millions of dollars of profits. The myopic decision was made to continue with the existing Walkman business model to milk profits, even when the data pointed in a different direction. The result: the iPod and the crippling of a once brand dominant company. Why: Unwillingness to fail fast and to hang on to an emotional investment for Sony not only cost them billions but nearly destroyed the company.

3. Fail Frugally. When experimenting with operations, marketing ideas and processes do not bet the family farm on these new ideas. Do as GE, Google or Apple do. Allow individuals freedom to try new things that are incremental in scope and then reward success and praise failure. This leads to a culture of innovation that can eventually be the birthing of big ideas that can change the course of a company or add significant profits to the bottom line.

Failure is not an option, it is a requirement. Just do it frequently, fast and frugally and big successes are inevitable.

Bing Pay Per Click Accounts

This month we've started a new PPC Campaign on Bing, the Adcenter Account we are testing out is for Las Vegas. The process was streamlined from our current Google Adwords Campaigns which made creating the account go quickly.

However there is still a learning curve we are adjusting to. It took the folks over at Microsoft nearly 3 weeks to review our campaign and approve it for active ads due to the "Drug Content". The manual review process they currently have is a headache.

We are currently trying to find a happy medium in our bidding as well. We want to ensure we have a good position without under or over bidding. This will take some time. Our campaign for Las Vegas has currently been active for one week now. We will follow up with results in coming weeks.

Newsletter Issue #2

On Wednesday, September 2nd our second newsletter was sent out to all the customers you have requested it be sent to.

Here’s the link for this most recent issue: http://www.accudiagnostics.com/newsletter/Sept_09/NASCAR_testing_policy.html.

For any past and future issues of the newsletter, you can always view them from the main newsletter site at: http://www.accudiagnostics.com/newsletter/.

Our next issue will go out in November.

The ‘Failure to Success’ Model

The ‘Failure to Success Model’ is not complicated but it is difficult to implement because there is so much emotional capital invested in failures. It is not uncommon for an entrepreneur to internalize failure and take it personally. When this happens it is difficult to separate failure as a process from failure being a personal short coming. Failure should never be taken personally. Failure should be viewed as an opportunity to learn and then use that knowledge to move closer to success. Tom Edison viewed failure being one step closer to the right solution. One of his all time great quotes is, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

You will fail. Being an entrepreneur guarantees it because you do not have all of the answers. Get use to it. The real question an entrepreneur needs to sort out is, “How am I going to handle failure?”

Next Blog Post: How the Failure Model Should Work

Culture of Creativity, Brainstorming and Innovation

Why do two companies with the same type of product in the same industry turn out to be so different? Let me share with you an example that recently unfolded before our eyes.

Company #1 started in 1994 and was one of the pioneer companies in their field. They were wildly successful. They were heralded as a new breed of company after only few years in business. They crushed many of the other early entrants in their industry.

Company #2 started in 1998 as a company that was initially funded by a government grant to index books for public libraries. During the library project the founders noted that the most popular books were often frequently referenced in many other books. They designed an algorithm to index the references as well as the books. This allowed them to rank the popularity of the books in the library by how many references a book had in other books. This concept of relevance became a basis for a new technology for ranking all sorts of information. This new concept of ranking based on relevance vs. traditional methods of indexing changed how data could be found by ranking of relevance.

The companies continued to grow on different paths. One company seemed to become intoxicated with their early success and began to morph into more of a traditional company business model after other successful companies in related fields. They even hired a big time CEO from one of these traditional companies.

Company #2 focused on their new technology hiring the brightest people they could find, which was easy to do during the .com bubble popping in 2000-2002. Both companies survived the Internet bust but by taking vastly different paths.

Company #1 continued to grow but at a much slower rate. Company #1 allowed their employees to work one day a week on anything they found interesting. Out of this culture of creativity, brainstorming, originality and innovation comes huge new ideas as well as some real bombs.

Fast forward to 2008-2009.

The headlines read:

August of 2008 Yahoo (Company #1) turns down a $42B offer from Microsoft. Nine months later the founder/CEO is fired and a new CEO is hired to save the company. The stock plummets 80% from the time of the Microsoft offer shedding tens of billions of dollars of value. The new CEO strikes a deal with Microsoft for no money invested (down from $42B) but a partnership to join forces and share revenue in order to compete with Google on search.

Google (Company #2) continues to build market share and innovate and commands nearly 70% market share of the Internet search market. Google ranks as the company that took the shortest time to become a billion dollar company. In fact, in March of 2009 Google’s market capitalization of $108B surpassed GE’s (a 100 yr old company and considered the platinum standard for all blue chip companies).

Same business, different philosophy. It is amazing what the right vision, focus, attitude and bright people can do.

Although your company, or the company that you may build in the future, may not be a Google, you need to consider the lesson of these two companies...be staid and traditional or focus, innovative and create a culture for brainstorming and the expectation that everyone that you hire be optimistic and think outside of the box and then reward that behavior.

The Creation of the Fanatical Marketing Energizer Bunny

We have all seen the Eveready Energizer Bunny that just keeps on going and going and going. We all like that commercial. Why? Because nothing seems to stop the bunny. It always has a little more energy to just keep on truckin’.

Over the years I have seen a lot of entrepreneurs in various roles as they build businesses. Some entrepreneurs love the thrill of the hunt and are always out looking for new prey (business leads). They never seem to get tired of being out there. They cannot stand paper work, being in the office and dealing with the routine of the day to day business. They love the hunt/closing of the sale. They leave the cleaning of the fruits of their hunt to others. After the kill/closing of the sale, they are off to the next hunt. These entrepreneurs rarely fail. If they do, it is due to events beyond their control. Even after failing, they just get ready for the next hunt and are back in the game in no time at all.

Other entrepreneurial types love operations, designing strategies or working with customers. We are all different but there is one eternal truth. If you do not have a hunter, everyone goes hungry.

The hunt is another metaphor for that ol’ energizer bunny. As I see our locations maturing, each of you is solving the hunt in different ways. Jeff, Bob, Jimmy and Mike have hunters. Jill, Bill and Doug are their own hunters. Regardless of what you do, you have to spend more time hunting, especially in this famine-like economic environment.

One thing is for sure, the more clients you sign up now, the better tomorrow is going to be when it begins to rain. When it is raining, the people that will talk to now will not have the time to talk to you when they are busy (because they have downsized much of their staff) and they will be overloaded and have little time to think about moving to a new drug testing company. They will most likely go to their existing vendor. You might as well be that vendor.

The best time to hunt is NOW.

Radar Will Find Business

Here is an email sent from the Lieutenant Commander Jeff Hastings in Charge of Radar Observation. The Lieutenant Commander is continually scanning his new business radar screen for leads. The radar scans local news stories, Chamber of Commerce meetings and Internet RSS feeds re: local business stories for leads to feed his Star Fighter Pilot Salesperson Ken.

Once a new target has been identified, an email dispatch is sent alerting Ken of this new target. Fighter Pilot Ken upon receiving this dispatch immediately races to his plane and is off to bag yet another client.

The Email Dispatch send August 27, 2009:

McKesson in West Sac is hiring 500 employees in the next 30 days to make and distribute swine flu vaccine….first job fairs were held this week.
Paul Julian is a spokesperson for McKesson……may be in West Sac…or San Fran HQ….or other…

West Sac bureaucrats quoted in the Sac BizJournal article…..Diane Richards, West Sac
City Economics Director…….Ernesto Lucero, an analyst in the West Sac Economic Development Dept.

Neither McKesson nor Mainstay appears to be West Sac members.

Jeff Hastings
President aka Lieutenant Commander Hastings

Organic Ranking #2 Finding Local Listings

Free business listings are an excellent way to boost not only your organic ranking but your website traffic as well. We are always asked "Where do I list my business?"

List your business in any free business listing directory you can find. No need to pay for a listing, there are plenty of free ones out there that are just as good as the ones you pay for. Take your time and include all the information you can, along with images. Always keep a document somewhere with log in information and passwords, you may need to update those listings in the future.

Here are a handful of sites you could start listing your business with;
http://www.bizhwy.com/
http://www.switchboard.com/
http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm
http://www.listyoursite.us/

Here is a short video explaining how we would go about finding listings. Very simple, there is no science to it. Please contact Kylee at kmunn@blackstonehathaway.com with any questions or comments.

When ‘Ugly Wins’ Become ‘Ugly Losses’

Losing or failing is a part of becoming successful. It is not if you are going to fail when starting or operating a business, but when. Every entrepreneur fails at something. The question is, “Are your failures going to be pretty or ugly?” In determining if your failures are going to be beneficial or not, the key issue is “how to minimize, reboot and learn from failures.”

Some of the most valuable insights an entrepreneur can gain are from failures. There is not a single successful entrepreneur, franchisee or billionaire that has not failed. In fact, some of the most successful have failed multiple times. The difference between ugly failures and failures that catapult entrepreneurs to better and more meaningful successes is the process used to create future successes.

Next Blog Posting: The Failure to Success Model

AccuDiagnostics Blog Update

Marvin wanted an update on the AccuDiagnostic's blog inquiring frequency of postings, back linking, strategy, tactics, etc. (I'm Kelli, the new Blackstone Hathaway content provider) My update stated that the AccuDiagnostic blogs are posted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. Posting blogs often, this will generate traffic to the blogs and websites. Also, Social Networking would aide in increasing traffic to the blogs and websites.

I put links in each blog linking back to one of the seven AccuDiagnostics locations. For example, one blog will have a link to the Los Angeles website, the next blog will have a link to the Lancaster website and so on. Putting all seven links in one blog is not possible, because Google would just think it was a link farm. But putting one or two links in a blog is fine. By putting links in the blogs, this allows the readers to access the websites from the blogs.

The topics that are covered in the blogs are to educate the readers about AccuDiagnostics and what they offer. Plus, the blogs help to promote AccuDiagnostics and their services.

Good News Moments - August 19

Life can get really crazy sometimes and we tend to focus on the moments when things are not going so well. That is one of the reasons why we are going to have a post every other week focused just on the good things/moments that are happening in our business adventures.

In the spotlight today:

Jimmy from Las Vegas was finally able to open his new location and was able to sign his first customer. He’s also enjoying meeting many interesting people with whom he hopes to have a long business relationship.

Jeff and Carol in Sacramento are enjoying good health and have added a terrific new sales person to their team. They have also noted that economic indicators are starting to shift in a positive direction.

Bob in Los Angeles received his first order from Magic Broadcasting LLC, and in his second month of business he exceeded his target.

Someone once said: “We don’t remember days, we remember moments”. If you have one of those good moments, shoot me an email at mblood@blackstonehathaway.com so I can include it in the next ‘Good News Moments’ post and we can all enjoy the moment with you.

Thanks for sharing your good news with us Jimmy, Jeff, Carol and Bob.

CAMPA Meeting Officially Cancelled

The regional meeting for the Fall 2009 CAMPA meeting has been cancelled in order to allow franchisees to attend the National Convention later in October 2009. The next regional meeting will be in March of 2010.

If you have any questions, please give me a call.

Winning Ugly

When I played small town sports in high school the menu of sporting options was more or less limited to basketball, football and track. Our coach also taught biology, math and PE and had a part time business on the side. This is nothing like high school sporting programs today.

In my day many games were won by improvising. This is what our coach called “winning ugly”.

Metaphorically, winning ugly in business is much like my high school sports days – winning by improvising. In Sacramento, Las Vegas and Oceanside, new salesmen are hired without knowing exactly how this is going to work out. In Rancho/Fontana, pet DNA testing is added not knowing if there is going to be any real interest in this type of service. In Martinez, multi-location billing accounts are signed up without knowing the precise procedures. In Lancaster, supervisor drug testing training is held even though Doug has never actually done this type of training before. Yet, the result in each of these situations was a win – even if in some cases the initial win might have been a bit rough around the edges. An “ugly win” is still a win.

Our region is full of franchisees that are winners who are not afraid to take calculated risks to move the ball down the court and to build their business against substantial head winds in today’s economy.

Next Blog Posting: When Ugly Wins Become Ugly Losses.

Organic Ranking #1, Directory Listings

Google Business Listings
Yahoo Local
Bing
Super Page
Yellow Pages
Local
Merchant Circle
and so on...

These directory listings are the first step in creating a solid foundation for your organic ranking. Directory Listings provide you with the following tools that have a direct impact on the traffic going to your website;

Link to Website
Contact Information
Maps / Directions
Customer Reviews
Detailed Business Description
Business Photos

Each of these elements is crucial to a solid business listing. Without an updated link to your website how will customers get more information? Business Photos provide a level of comfort to your future customers, they already know what to expect when they open the door.

If you do not have detailed and updated business listings your organic results and ultimately your website traffic numbers will decrease. Please make updating your directory listings a priority.

Each location needs to update their Yahoo Local business listing. Below is a video that Kylee has created to get each of you into your listing. If you have further questions or if you can't access your listing please contact her at kmunn@blackstonehathaway.com.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

It has been suggested that our 12 pm CAMPA Conference Calls are becoming problematic because of the increased operational and sales activities each location is experiencing – this is a good thing. Jill Chioino feels that a call at the end of the day is better suited for the multitude of issues that need to be covered. In order to see how this works, the next CAMPA call will be on August 20th at 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm. This will be a regular CAMPA meeting, since there are a number of issues that did not get discussed on our last call.

You will be sent the log on and call in information prior to this time.

Dog DNA Testing Success

The success of Bill's “Who’s Your Doggie?” dog DNA testing campaign has been overwhelming. The multiple newspaper features have driven endless calls to Bill’s office and have resulted in the creation of a new landing page specific to animal DNA testing.

This service fills a unique need in the DNA testing market. Owners of mixed breeds can now accurately identify the breed makeup of their animal. Aside from satisfying curiosity, identifying breed-related behavior can assist in the training process. Veterinarians can evaluate breed-specific risk factors and tendencies to more accurately diagnose an ill animal.

The new landing page is specific to Bill’s location at this time.

HR Consultant on Board

Darlene Forsythe has agreed to provide HR services to AccuDiagnostics franchisees in the Western Region.

Darlene has more than 16 years of experience in all aspects of HR. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with an emphasis on organization relations and public relations. She offers superior HR support on an on-call basis.

If you have any issues that you need to discuss in the areas of how to do performance reviews, hire or fire employees, Darlene is a valuable resource. Her consulting rates are $90 per hour. Please take the time to call her and introduce yourself so when the time comes, and it will, that you need some advice and insight on a specific situation, you will have a relationship in place.

Her contact information is:

Darlene Forsythe, SPHR
Principal, Human Resources and Staffing Consultant
People Solutions
Phone: 408-234-3054
Email: dforsythe@peoplesolutions.name
www.peoplesolutions.name

Supervisor Training

Doug gave the Supervisor Training for a local school bus company. Doug used the DVD that is provided in the Supervisor Training Kit that all locations received during the Bill Judge Training in our last Regional Meeting.

There were 15 supervisors in the training session. Doug did not charge for this training, since this was his first training session. Bill is currently developing a pricing model for this training. Bill felt that the DVD and the other materials was self explanatory and he is planning on offering future trainings to his client base.