Jolene to Coordinate PR for CAMPA

In order to take advantage of the Drug-Free Work Week, I have started the preliminary research on each of the Accu locations as well as the media in your area (TV, Radio, newspapers, etc.). I have begun pinpointing the major employers in your area as well. As the weeks move along toward the special week, I will be contacting each location with detailed information on how you can help with this special promotion.

I plan to send out several press releases at key times prior to the event and hopefully obtain an interview for you with some of the media in your area. Through this media blitz and special promotion, we can bring all the services of Accu to the attention of your community and increase your business significantly!

I hope that you are as enthusiastic about this project as I am.

I would like to ask for your help. If you already know a member of the media in your area who might be of help, could you forward their name to me at jolene_benner@yahoo.com? Also, if you are able to forward information on some key employers in your area that would really help as well!

With this much time ahead in our favor, I am sure we can make this project a huge success and bring many of those employers in your area to your door!

Drug-Free Work Week is led by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Working Partners for an Alcohol-and Drug-Free Work Week.

Thanks, in advance, for your help! I look forward to talking with each of you!

--Jolene Benner

Grant Proposal Project

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jolene Benner. I have been engaged to develop strategies to access government grant money that is available for drug testing. Recently, I have been working to develop a template for a grant that can be used at any AccuDiagnostics location in CA or NV. I am working with the Lancaster location and with Doug Kimball. I live in Lancaster so this was the best way for me to get access to the information I need in an expeditious manner.

The scope of this project is to research the possibilities of obtaining a grant for AccuDiagnostics. With that purpose in mind, I found numerous possibilities from a Federal, State and private foundations level. As with most grants, if AccuDiagnostics “partners” with a non-profit for the grant, the chance of getting the funding increases significantly.

Most of the grants researched involve education and drug related grants with school use in mind. So the next step has been to research and talk with possible non-profits in that field who would be willing to be a “partner” with Accu in Lancaster in our grant search.

I have talked with several non-profits and I am narrowing the selection down to the ones which would be best suited not only for Lancaster but for all Accu locations as well.

As soon as the non-profit selection is in place, the actual writing of the grant application will start. There is a significant amount of money to be had in the grant arena and if the whole process is taken a step at a time and the paperwork is carefully written in significant detail, the chances are very great for the money to be awarded.

CAMPA Gets Jump on Drug-Free Work Week

Carol Hastings noted that October 19th is Drug-Free Work Week. Since we have a resource within the CAMPA Support Group, we are going to launch a five month plan to get some publicity for your locations for this upcoming event.

Jolene Benner is a person that is currently working with Doug Kimball on a grant proposal for a local school district. Although this project is a long term 1-2 year horizon, we hope to develop a template for other locations. Jolene lives in Lancaster, not too far from Doug’s office. Jolene has had some experience in promoting events such as Drug-Free Work Week.

This year's Drug-Free Work Week is October 19-25, and organizations of all sizes and in all industries are encouraged to take part and help spread the message that "Working Drug Free Works!" This event is now in its 4th year and this national campaign will highlight the importance of being drug free in relation to workplace safety and encourages workers with alcohol and drug problems to seek help. We hope to leverage off of the national focus and get some publicity locally.

Go to http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTUwNjE2MiZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC01MDYxNjImZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NTA2MTY0JmVtYWlsaWQ9Y2hhc3RpbmdzQGFjY3VkaWFnbm9zdGljcy5jb20mdXNlcmlkPWNoYXN0aW5nc0BhY2N1ZGlhZ25vc3RpY3MuY29tJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&101&&&http://www.dol.gov/drugfreeworkweek to learn more.

You will see frequent postings on Jolene’s progress. She will also be in touch with each of you to discuss what you can do to help her promote this event in your area.

Now the Fun Begins

CAMPA has been slowly positioning the AccuDiagnostics locations so they get noticed in the world. Most of the heavy lifting has been done. Your websites are now very professional looking, they are optimized for SEO and for AdWord searches and are ready to tell the world what you do and how well you do it.

It is time to step it up a notch. CAMPA has been interviewing people for some time attempting to find an individual to coordinate some of the special projects to promote your businesses. We have selected a new Special Projects Coordinator. You will be hearing more about her in the next few weeks.

Two projects that are ready to be launched are PR and Grant Proposals. Stay tuned for more information on these projects.

Let the fun begin.

The Lone Ranger

Who was that masked man? It is John Lipp. John will be arriving at 8:30-9:00 AM at the SCA locations this week.

John will review and assist the franchisees with the following standard operating procedures:

1. Review of existing Standard Operating Procedures
2. Accounting Procedures and DrugPak Data Transfer
3. Royalty and CAMPA fees reporting procedures
4. Telephone logs and associated business indicators
5. Creation of a Business Fundamentals Portfolio including such items as: Startup documents, leases, taxes, etc.
6. Help with any other areas of concern such as DrugPak, Legal, Personnel, etc.

John will be in Lancaster on Tuesday morning, Rancho/Fontana on Wednesday and Oceanside on Thursday morning.

Keeping Your Cool

Entrepreneurs are an interesting breed of people. They have passion. This passion is often accompanied with a fiery disposition and intensity that can be an enormous competitive advantage – or a significant liability. I have seen entrepreneurs escalate situations when a more measured approach would have produced more benefit than the frontal assault of the entrepreneur.

The following is an example of how potentially flammable situations can be defused.

“The 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry is equipped to deploy anywhere in the world within 36 hours to capture or destroy enemy fighters. The men and women of the 2-327th represent some of the fiercest warriors in the United States military. In spite of its reputation for power and ferocity, the 2-327th Infantry produced a hero notable for bringing about peace through his poise and presence of mind early on in America's involvement in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes was leading 130 soldiers on a mission in Najaf to secure the crucial support of Shi'a cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein Sistani when an angry mob congregated. Suspicious that the American troops intended to harm the ayatollah, the agitated Iraqis showered the soldiers with a barrage of rocks. In a matter of minutes the infuriated crowd had swollen in size to several hundred civilians.

Sensing the delicate nature of the situation, Hughes rushed through the ranks of soldiers, ordering them to drop to one knee, point their guns at the ground, and smile. By adopting the least hostile pose possible, the soldiers befuddled the mob. Although the furor did not subside, its intensity lessened. Then, Lt. Col. Hughes calmly instructed his men to retreat 100 yards, after which they again knelt, kept their guns down, and grinned at the Iraqis. Next, Hughes requested that all combat vehicles slowly retreat from the area. Finally, he bowed to the Iraqis before coolly leading his soldiers in a march away from the mob.

If not for the poise of Lt. Col. Hughes the situation easily could have turned ugly. Angry protestors and armed soldiers can be a deadly mix (see the Boston Massacre or the tragedy at Kent State University in 1970).” 1

This is a good example of not creating a confrontational situation. Lt. Col. Hughes handled the situation with skill and ended up saving the day.

All too often I see entrepreneurs do just the opposite. They almost cannot help themselves. It is just who they are. Their success is based on their ability to take charge and get things done, often running over things and people in the process.

Often franchisees show their passion inappropriately. Never let your interaction with customers, vendors or business associates escalate to a point where dead bodies result from the confrontation. I have seen franchisees shut down an annoying client or business associate by making assumptions on facts that later proved to be wrong; however the damage to the relationship was already done.

Passion properly channeled is a powerful force. However, when it is displayed by an in-your-face attitude, it usually results in unintended casualties.

1. From Leadership Wired, John Maxewell

From the Field

Jill Chioino shared some thoughts with me recently.

• Jill is working with a new school contact that specializes in training for surgery assistants.
  
• Jill is working with a local family attorney who is working on setting up workshops on drug testing with other local family attorneys. Jill will be the main presenter at these workshops. A recent workshop on another topic drew 42 local attorneys.
  
• Jill has found that, to the 3 or 4 attorneys she currently has relationships with, the price of AccuDiagnostics services is not the main concern when compared to business sales. They pass the cost on to their client. Also, attorneys want the best test available – not the cheapest.

The moral of this blog entry? Get out your office and keep yourself in front of your potential clients and centers of influence and good thing happen.

Financial Metrics

In the last blog posting, I discussed the importance of sales metrics. Almost everyone agrees that financial metrics are important. The problem is not getting agreement on their importance but on actually implementing a system that generates, as matter of routine, accurate and reliable financial data and metrics.

I have found that the main reasons entrepreneurs in a small business environment do not get financial information is rooted in three internal system flaws:

1. I will get to it. As a business is launched, there is not a lot of transactional data to manage so it is easy to put off implementing a financial reporting system – temporarily. Big mistake. The correct view is to use this light transactional volume period to get systems in place by making the investment of time and resources early in the business growth to test and implement all of the crucial systems that are going to be so important in the near future.

2. Doing it yourself. A fair number of entrepreneurs think that by doing the accounting themselves, especially early in the business start up cycle, is cost effective because they do not have to pay a bookkeeper or an accountant. This is a mistake. It is rare that money is saved by doing it yourself. The entrepreneur’s key role is developing business, not data entry.

3. Getting financial information and not reviewing it religiously. Having the information and not reviewing it weekly, if not daily, is a crucial mistake that is hard to comprehend. This is like knowing that the bathtub faucet in your home is on but never bothering to check it and just letting it run.

At a minimum, a weekly review of the cash position, sales metrics and a set of key financial metrics that show the financial health of a business at any point in time is essential.

I have seen otherwise successful businesses fail, not because they were not growing, but because the financial components of the business were mismanaged.

It pays to check that bathtub faucet frequently so when the tub is about to overflow you can turn if off or drain of the water out before the house floods and real damage is done.

Sales Metrics

As discussed in the last blog, having accurate information is crucial in growing an emerging business.

In order to emphasize this, let me share an experience.

Jim Arum’s business had been operational for about a year. Although he would like to have been further down the road in building his revenue stream, he felt he was headed in the right direction. Jim worked hard. He got into the office around 7 am and never left before 6 or 7 pm.

He did this for five or six days each week. He also spent numerous Sundays getting caught up before starting again on Monday morning.

Even though he was working hard, he loved what he was doing because all of this hard work was for himself and not a boss who generally did not appreciate his efforts.

One thing Jim was never very good at was accumulating sales data. To make a long story short, entering his second year, Jim did not really have a handle on the cost associated with making sales. He did not accumulate data on how many sales calls it took to get in front of a potential client, how many client presentations it took to make a sale or what type of indirect costs were associated with the sales process.

Jim decided that he needed to add a couple of salesman. However, he had a difficult time recruiting good sales people because he did not have the data to show a good salesman candidate what to expect in building a book of business.

Although he hired several salesman, they soon quit because what they were told about the potential and the ease of adding new business accounts did not jive with reality. Sales metrics would not only have been useful internally. If he had them, he would have been able to demonstrate to the highly qualified sales candidates (which he could not get interested in the job) what the process and potential of the position he was offering had. If he had accurate sales data, he could have managed the sales process better and would have been accumulating new data all the time. This would have undoubtedly made his operation successful and attractive to potential salespeople.

After working with Jim for some time, he finally decided that what I was telling him was worth trying. Over time, he was able to establish a system which enabled him to better manage the sales process. His business growth made a big leap ahead. Eventually, he was able to move the business forward even faster because he was finally able to hire great salespeople.

Information is power. The more of it you have, the better decisions you can make and the better you can manage a business to success.

In my next blog posting, I will discuss financial metrics and their importance.

New Franchisee Websites Show Results

The new franchisee websites are already brining in a lot more traffic! Oceanside is among the top ranking sites for key phrases, after just one week of deployment.

Google ‘drug testing Oceanside.’ The franchise is the 6th result shown on the first page as of 6/12/09. The new site even outranks Oceanside’s old landing page in some searches, which is amazing since the former site was up for over 8 months.

Googele ‘Oceanside federal DOT drug test.’ It places 2nd in an organic search! Again, the new website outranks the old landing page.
Not bad for the first week!

Two Different Results

A rare feat of heroism occurred on January 15th of this year that galvanized the media and captivated the public. As US Airways Flight 1549 flew through a flock of geese that caused both engines to fail, Captain Chesly B. Sullenberger reacted calmly and carefully. The things Captain Sullenberger did in the few minutes after hitting the geese were the culmination of a lifetime of training and preparation.

Thankfully for the 155 passengers on board, his skill, experience and training had prepared him for this type of scenario. The veteran airman guided his aircraft to a safe crash-landing in the Hudson River.

Less than a month later, Flight 3407 made an approach at an airport near Buffalo, NY in icy weather. Captain Marvin Renslow, a pilot with limited flight hours and a poor training record, and an inexperienced First Officer Rebecca Shaw chatted about her career and shared their fear of flying in icy weather. It is a big no-no to talk about anything during a landing. Moments later, the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier, a twin-engine turboprop, experienced an aerodynamic stall and plunged into a house. All 49 people aboard and one man on the ground were killed.

After months of investigation, it was concluded that the crash resulted from pilot error.
Incorrect responses to the plane’s precarious drop in speed led the disaster. Investigators said the pilot pulled the nose of the plane up after a cockpit alarm warned the aircraft was in danger of stalling and at the same time retracted the plane’s flaps. Both responses were incorrect for the situation.

An expert on flight procedures in crises situations was asked if the plane could have recovered from the stall experienced by Flight 3407. He replied simply: “Yes.”

Two crisis situations … two different results.

As entrepreneurs, systems and preparation are critical in overcoming different types of situations encountered in launching and managing a business. Whether or not the unexpected situations that arise from time to time are enough to ‘crash’ the business depends on the circumstances. Regardless of the circumstances, however, entrepreneurs need to have systems in place that provide them accurate information to make informed decisions.

Often overlooked by entrepreneurs, one of the areas that often create crisis situations down the road is the financial and sales metrics of the business. Both of these metrics are critically important in safely navigating through the treacherous minefield in growing a business.

In my next posting I will discuss why these metrics are crucial.

Martinez Scores a Family Court Endorsement

After six months of painstaking networking within the Contra Costa Family Court system, Jill Chioino (the Martinez franchisee) finally secured approval for AccuDiagnostics in Martinez to become a court approved drug testing company. Her efforts included taking a judge to lunch as well as talking to attorneys and other court personnel.

This is a major step in developing the court ordered drug testing market. It is also critical in credibility with attorneys who always want to know if you are court approved. This is one of the first questions an attorney will ask when they are approached for referral court ordered drug testing.

Now, at least in Martinez, AccuDiagnostics is a court approved drug testing company.
A big high-five to Jill for not giving up and for sticking to her strategy of winning over court personnel through follow up and being right on top of her game.

Empowerment

Entrepreneurs become successful when they learn how to empower others. Below are two great quotes that I find packed with insight:

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others
- Jack Welch

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere
- Ronald Reagan

What each of these great leaders understood is that you cannot achieve success all by yourself. Often entrepreneurs are so concerned with the getting the job done right that they end up doing it themselves. Getting a job done right, especially if it involves providing great customer service, is important -- but to be able to scale and grow, others must be empowered. Without empowerment, an entrepreneur can never achieve ultimate success.

One of the most frequent reasons for entrepreneurial failure is not being able to hire, train, delegate and THEN let go. Sure, when others are empowered there will be failures. However, in the long run, success is much more probable when others are significantly empowered.

Media Can Make or Break a Franchise

Contrary to popular opinion, any ink is not good ink. In the last year, giants such as AIG, Bear Stearns, and Chrysler have learned this cold, hard lesson. There is a vast, dark chasm between good ink and bad ink.

As an entrepreneur, you must strategically decide which media outlet makes the most sense for your business. In order to take full advantage of the correct outlet, an entrepreneur must build a solid foundation with the members of that media.

Media can build or destroy a business. Furthermore, news and media is created by journalists—real people with feelings, opinions, and bias. Treating every reporter you meet with respect, dignity, and friendliness will encourage them to treat you and your business in like kind.

While a previous bad experience or hearsay may cause an entrepreneur to shiver in fear at the mere mention of a reporter, not every media encounter needs to be a negative one. Successful entrepreneurs have established positive relationships with media outlets and received the coverage they want and need.

To do this well, an entrepreneur must immediately set aside any previous feelings or predetermined opinions about a reporter’s past coverage, style, or bias.

Other important strategies for working with members of the media include:

* Be quick!

If someone calls to request an interview, ask what the subject matter is and when it needs to be completed by. Return the call at the earliest opportunity. Reporters work on tight deadlines, and if you do not contact them quickly, you may miss an opportunity—and irritate the reporter.

* Be thoughtful!

Consider the content. Before returning the call, think about what you want the final piece to say about you and your business. If necessary, jot down some critical information that you do not want to forget to mention. Also, keep important facts and statistics easily accessible so they can be referenced during the interview.

* Be honest!

If you don’t know, say so. If you do know, say so. It is a reporter’s job to get the information, and many will cross-reference and research until they find the truth. A lie can be a death sentence for company integrity.

* Be personal!

A reporter can become your worst enemy or very best friend. It is absolutely critical to establish a positive relationship at the earliest opportunity. This can be done by using the interviewer’s name throughout the interview and maintaining eye contact.

* Be relevant!

Stories can be interesting or entertaining, but only if they are relevant and positive. An irrelevant story can undermine your position or bore the interviewer.

* Be concise!

Saying as much as you can in as few words as possible is the ultimate key to a successful interview. Even if the interviewer is willing to listen to an hour-long interview, the content will likely be shortened to a few quick words in the paper or a few seconds on the air. Getting to the point quickly will give the reporter more quality content to work with.

* Be realistic!

Hypothetical situations can be the downfall of any interview. Do not answer hypothetical questions and do not hypothesize about imaginary circumstances.

* Be quiet!

Journalists are often taught to use long silences to their benefit. Frequently, there are prolonged periods of silence after the interviewee has responded. During these awkward pauses, many nervous interviewees will try to fill the gaps with extra information. This is where journalists often find their most interesting and damaging content.

* Be helpful!

‘No comment’ is the most fatal phrase an entrepreneur can utter to a reporter. By stalling or slowing the journalist’s progress on their assignment, you have established yourself as unfriendly and are more likely to be villanized by the offended author.

Consider requiring all interview questions to be submitted in advance. Some businesses and individuals require this, as it provides the entrepreneur with the opportunity to ponder the answers deeply and even write them down to avoid saying – or forgetting to say – something critical.

Pass the Butter

One of the challenges of being an entrepreneur is finding time to stay physically fit. One of the critical mistakes an entrepreneur makes is not allowing for time to exercise and eat right. One of the simple things that can be done is to eliminate from your diet things that tend to be bad for you.

The other day, I read this essay on bad things people put into their bodies. The essay was called, “Pass the butter… please.”

Do you know the difference between margarine and butter?

Butter:

- Both have the same amount of calories
- Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats (8 grams compared to 5 grams)
- Butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods
- Butter tastes much better and can enhance the flavors of other foods

Margarine:
- Margarine is high in Trans Fatty Acids
- Margarine triples the risk of coronary heart disease
- Margarine increases total cholesterol and LDL (bad cholesterol)
- Margarine lowers HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol)
- Margarine increases cancer risk as much as 5 times
- Margarine lowers the quality of breast milk
- Margarine decreases immune response
- Margarine decreases insulin response
- Margarine can increase heart disease in women 53% over eating the same amount of butter

Furthermore, margarine is one molecule away from being plastic.

Try this…

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days, you should notice a couple of things:

1. No flies. Not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it -- that should tell you something!

2. It does not rot. It does not even smell differently, because it has no nutritional value. Nothing will grow on it, not even those teeny weenie microorganisms. Why? Because molecularly, margarine most closely resembles plastic.

Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Sometimes just not doing something, or in this case eating something, can make a big difference. An entrepreneur that has a lifestyle that fosters unhealthy eating habits and a lack of exercise will compromise the long-term success of all the hard work that has been put into building a successful enterprise.

Time: Your Most Precious Commodity

Five, ten, or twenty years ago time management meant deciding if you should take a phone call or not. Today, it is an entirely different beast.

There is an avalanche of information that can overwhelm. In order to get done what needs to get done, you have to accept that there is a finite amount of time and an infinite amount of work to fill the day. Once this concept is grasped, the challenge becomes putting first things first and letting the rest go.

This is a nearly impossible task for any entrepreneur

To a large extent, entrepreneurs will only be as successful as their ability to focus on the important things. What is your day made of? Can you actually not do the things that do not have a direct impact on your success? That is the hardest thing an entrepreneur has to do and learn to do well.

What not to do is as important as what to do.

Technology Challenges IV: A Solution

My last two posts have discussed my computer issues anyhow I attempted to resolve them. To recap briefly, I left off after telling how a company called iYogi successfully resolved two Microsoft Office Outlook issues and optimized my laptop, dramatically improving its performance. All of this for a $139.00 annual technical support agreement.

It did not take long for my next computer problem to surface.

The very next day, I tried to log on to my wireless network. It would not work. Rather than trying to figure this issue out or phoning my on-call $125 an hour technical support expert, I called iYogi. They reconfigured my wireless router and I was up and running in less than 20 minutes. The cost? $0.

The first three issues resolved the previous day had compensated for the $139 fee. I figured the rest of my technical support was just gravy.

There are some things to consider when using a firm like iYogi. They are in India (hence the inexpensive annual fee). They are only software solutions specialists. There still needs to be a maintenance agreement in place to handle hardware failures (which will come) and a hardware specialist for installation and hardwiring issues.

However, for pure software technical support, it is hard to beat the iYogi service.

Check them out at http://www.iyogi.net/.

Technology Challenges III: A Better Deal

As I outlined in my last post, I had software issues on my laptop.

The issue was related to Microsoft Outlook. For some reason, my junk mail filters were not working properly. I could never figure this issue out, even after spending hours of my personal time (a big no-no, I.e. the “Operational Black Hole”).

Also, reminders for appointments and tasks were not working properly. Neither of these issues is mission critical but they were a major annoyance. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a missed phone appointment.

Since my Outlook reminder feature was not working, the appointed hour for an important phone call slipped by and I missed this appointment. This was a major embarrassment and it could prove to be a potentially very costly screw up.

I decided to get both of these problems fixed. I called my on-call computer expert.

He tried to resolve both of these issues online by logging onto my laptop, but after 90 minutes, he finally gave up and said that I would have to reinstall Outlook. Well, that was $187.50 ($125 x 1.5 hours) down the drain. I could have installed Outlook without spending $187.50.

Frustrated, I went online to Google and typed in “Microsoft Office Outlook technical support.” Naturally, I got the Microsoft technical support website. This was $99 for each resolved issue. Since I had two issues, the cost would be $198--but at least I would get the issues resolved.

I was just about to sign up for this solution when I noticed another link for a company called iYogi. I clicked on the link and reviewed the iYogi website, looking for information about their service. I was intrigued with what I read. This service is subscription-based, and for a flat annual fee of $139, they provide unlimited technical support on any Microsoft Office software issue or any other computer software issues such as wireless configuration of a LAN small office network, computer optimization, etc.

I called the toll free number to discuss their service. It just seemed too good to be true. After a five minute discussion, I decided to try it out. After all, for $139, I could resolve my two Outlook issues and even have them optimize my laptop.

The experience was unbelievable.

Their technician spent nearly three hours troubleshooting the Outlook reminder issues and the junk email issue and fixed both of them. I will not bore you with the technical issues, but I will tell you that reinstalling Outlook would not have resolved the reminder issue because it was a corrupt Outlook database PST file, which a new installation would not have fixed.

I then requested that the technician optimize my laptop. All computers slow down after a period of time, and optimization improves their performance. The technician spent 45 minutes optimizing my laptop. It now runs 30% to 40% faster.

All of this for just $139.00--and I still have 364 days left on my unlimited technical support agreement. Is some other issue going to come up where I can pick up the phone 24/7 and have them resolve it for me?

Tune in for my next blog to learn what happened next.