• Timing is everything.
• You can grow your company if you're willing to share.
• You can build a mail order business if you can target your market
• Giving customers an easy way to return merchandise builds loyalty

Key Idea #1: The Lightbulb

Timing is everything. Two events converged to make the timing perfect for Sue's initial success. At some point, we will look at this same issue as regards the reasons for eventual failure of her partnership.

First, new research shows that germs are not transported on clothing but on the hands. Therefore, uniforms don't have to be laundered at extremely high temperatures that would fade bright colors quickly. Second, the trend of cost-cutting in hospitals. For years, hospital purchasing agents bought uniforms in solid colors with a cotton-polyester blend. The polyester gives the uniforms a longer life and the blends are cheaper than the 100 percent cotton fabrics used by S.C.R.U.B.S.

Today, many health-care professionals have to purchase their own uniforms, so it makes sense that they might want to choose the colors, prints and fabrics. Sue was in the middle of the health-care revolution and she wasn't asleep.

You may be working in an industry that is going through dramatic change. Can you harness the change to your own advantage? Can you deliver, as Sue has, the right product at the right time? It's been said that you can make your own timing. However, it makes a lot more sense to build a business with the timing of the market on your side.

You think back… How did Sue discover the opportunity she is involved in today?

Answers: She spent her entire working career in health care. When research showed that health care workers didn't have to wear white anymore, she sewed up a scrub out of a soft pastel print fabric and many of her fellow nurses wanted her to sew for them.

What do you think? How can anyone go about finding the next new trend?

Possible answers: Study demographics, government regulations and popular culture. Demographics tell you about buying patterns of different age groups. Right now, everyone is talking about the baby boomers becoming the aging boomers. This group is important because this segment of the population is so large. What we need and want based upon our age gives entrepreneurs insight into new product possibilities.

However, the boomers are just one population segment. The key word in this answer is study. If you spend enough time studying a group, you'll probably come up with a decent product or service idea.

Government regulations create companies. The environmental laws in California have spawned companies that clean air and conduct water testing.

Understanding popular culture can help an entrepreneur. Again, in California, kids started doing crazy things on and with skateboards. This gave way to a variety of street sports that have generated new products. For example, in "Small Business Today program 106," Donald Cassell showed us his company that manufactures a bolt used to hold the front skates on a skateboard. In 1994 he was doing $2 million dollars in sales, and today he's up to $6 million dollars.

Key Idea #2:

You can grow your company if you're willing to share.

Sue was in a rut, sewing as many scrubs as she could on her days off from working as a nurse in a hospital. Now, S.C.R.U.B.S. is featured in INC magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies, all because she decided to take on a partner.

You think back... How did Sue find her partner?

Answer: Her husband, Rocky, told her she was working too hard for too little money. He knew Steve Epstein, a man who had experience in manufacturing men's clothing. Rocky introduced Steve to Sue and soon they formed a partnership.

You think back... If Sue had the product, what did Steve bring to the table? Why should Sue allow someone to make money on her idea?

Answer: Sue had no business experience and did not have a business. Before she met Steve, she had a hobby. She made her living as a nurse and never thought she could or should quit her job. She thought her marketplace was limited to the 300 nurses at the hospital where she worked.

Steve had plenty of business experience, mostly in clothing manufacturing. He showed Sue that the market was not 300 nurses in her hospital, but 10,000,000 health care workers in the U.S. - and even more around the world.

We've learned before that an idea is only 2%. Steve turned Sue's idea into a fast growing business.

You think back... What did Rocky say that Steve brought to the enterprise?

Answer: Steve brought manufacturing experience and knowledge of technology to the table and his wife is in charge of human resources.

Key Idea #3:

You can build a mail order business if you can target your market. You can't send a catalog or a product offering to everyone, so you must define your market as narrowly as possible.

You think back... What was Sue's first target market and what is the market now?

Answer: Her fellow nurses were her first customers. Today, Sue targets all health care workers in the U.S. This totals over 10 million plus some segments of school teachers, dog groomers and firemen.

You think back... What did Kathy say is required for building a mail order business?

Answer: A unique product, a good price and good customer service. In addition, Kathy is constantly tweaking the mailing list. She has state of the art technology that enables her to manipulate her database and track every mailing to improve results.

You think back... What does Kathy do to build the mailing list?

Answer: She buys lists from brokers, advertises in publications read by health care worker, and she participates in "card deck" mailings.

You think back... What makes S.C.R.U.B.S. unique?

Answer: Now that there is plenty of competition in this business, the only truly unique offer S.C.R.U.B.S. can make is the selection of prints and the quality of the 100% cotton they use.

You think back… What does Kathy mean by the term "break even?"

Answer: The total cost of a mailing. Add up all of the costs, including printing, postage, labor, etc. If it that number is $20,000, then they have to sell $20,000 worth of product from that mailing in order to break even.

Key Idea #4: Giving customers an easy way to return merchandise builds loyalty.

You think back... What does S.C.R.U.B.S. do to make it easy for customers to shop by mail?

Answer: They have an 800 number to take orders over the phone and they provide postage paid return envelopes. If the customer is not happy with the items ordered, they can return them for free and with very little effort. Anything you can do to save time and reduce hassle will build and strengthen customer relations.