Small Business Spotlight: You Need A Business Plan
You Need A Business Plan | ArcPoint Labs
This is such a great interview because Chris comes from a long career in corporate America and brought his family into the business when he bought an ArcPoint Labs franchise. He has an amazing perspective on what is necessary to run a business and the realities of owning your own business. We spend a lot of time talking about why you need a business plan and how that can impact your success.
ArcPoint Labs is a drug and DNA testing service for employers, individuals, legal purposes & physicians. They also provide at home testing kits. In addtition to the drug and DNA testing, they also offer alcohol testing, wellness testing and background testing. Scroll down to watch and read the interview with Chris!
You Need A Business Plan | Watch the Interview
https://youtu.be/_48WeOC_uAw
You Need A Business Plan | Read The Interview
Give me some background about the franchise you own and what you do.
My name is Chris Mayer. I have been a franchise owner for just over a year. We started January of 2018. We operate in West Palm Beach, Florida where I own a couple of territories in the South East Coast Area. I am probably like a lot of people who have thought about pursing a second career and have gone into franchises. I got to a point in my corporate life where i had the opportunity to look at something my wife and I had talked about, which was taking my career in a different direction. We ended up with ArcPoint Labs. We have been doing great the first year. I attribute a lot of that to the business you go into, the location and your preparation.
What traits do you need to be successful within The ArcPoint Labs System?
My experience is that 80% of it is what you bring to the business. I wanted to get into a business that I could run and have the freedom to run it the way I see fit. ArcPoint Labs was a company I could do that with. I think there are 4 things that drive success. 1) Having a good business plan. That way you know what you are getting into and having a solid plan of how you are going to grow your business. Having all of the details figured out ahead of time would be the best thing to do.
2) Going in with the attitude that it's going to be a lot of work. You are the boss and you have to figure out that at the end of the day you have to work really hard. 3) Don't lose faith in what you are doing. When you are ramping up and you don't have business coming in, that is ok. Following your plan and developing yourself and the business will bring the business in. 4) You have to be willing to take some chances. You are going to have to learn and grow so you have to be open to that.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before you got started?
There are the things you know, the things you don't know and the things you don't know that you don't know. Do your due diligence up front and have a good business plan & test that plan. Get some trusted advisors early on. Be sure to include your family with the business plan with your family if you are going to have a family business. You want to make sure everyone is on the same page. I think that I should have spent more time on that but we were able to shift fairly quickly when we figured it out.
What made you pick ArcPoint Labs over the other franchises you looked at?
There were two things that leaped out at me. 1) The space that it operates in. There are two areas, the drug testing component and clinical. ArcPoint Labs is doing a lot to better the expereince behind drug testing and I liked that. There is a convergence of people wanting more information about their health and the ease of access to it. 2) The number of revenue streams. We have 7 revenue streams so you're dependant on one line of business.
It was really a nice fit for me because I wanted to be in something that I was new and was challenging. I wanted to be active and I feel like I can create something here that will challenge me every day.
What are the biggest challenges of ramping up a new franchise unit?
I think the biggest challenge is knowing where to go for help. You have a plan but you can get out there and feel like an island. So you need to build a network. Find other owners who have been successful in their areas and ask them to be your mentors.
I think another challenge is knowing your priorities. The biggest asset you have is yourself. If you are spending your days doing all of the little things, you are doing yourself a disservice. There is an infinite list of things that you need to do but you need to figure out what the most critical things are for you to accomplish.
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