Joe Reilly on Drug Testing in America
Curious about the drug screening industry? Looking to get your start in a rewarding career? Trying to navigate the changing landscape of federal and state laws and how they influence your companies drug testing policy? If you have leaned in for any of these questions then you have found the podcast you have been looking for. Join Joe Reilly on this informative and educational adventure in drug screening in America.
Joe Reilly on Drug Testing in America
Starting a Drug Testing Business: The Complete Guide
What does it really take to start a successful drug testing business? Forget the TikTok get-rich-quick schemes promising overnight success - this episode delivers the unvarnished truth from someone who's actually done it.
Brandy Helveston, owner of Straight Line Mobile Testing and Lab Services LLC, shares her remarkable journey from initial concept to launching her thriving mobile drug testing business. After nearly five years of meticulous research and preparation, Brandy reveals the strategic decisions, challenges, and practical steps that transformed her vision into reality.
The conversation tackles crucial considerations often overlooked by newcomers: choosing between mobile operations versus brick-and-mortar facilities, identifying trustworthy mentorship, establishing essential business infrastructure, and most importantly - developing effective marketing strategies. As Brandy emphasizes repeatedly, success requires being "boots on the ground every single day" actively pursuing clients rather than expecting labs to deliver business to your doorstep.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, this episode serves as both inspiration and warning. While Brandy demonstrates that launching a drug testing business is indeed achievable with proper preparation, she also dispels dangerous misconceptions propagated by dubious online "experts" promising instant success after brief training courses. Her candid insights about categorizing marketing targets, leveraging community resources like chambers of commerce, and building a supportive team provide a practical roadmap for those serious about entering the industry.
Whether you're considering starting a drug testing business or simply interested in entrepreneurship, this conversation offers valuable lessons about research, patience, and persistence that apply across all business ventures. Ready to learn what it really takes to succeed in this specialized field? This episode delivers the unfiltered reality you need to hear.
Welcome to Episode 4, Joe Riley, on Drug Testing in America. Today's episode is Starting a Drug Testing Business with our guest Brandi Halvaston, owner of Straight Line Mobile Testing and Lab Services LLC, and now your host, Joe Riley.
Speaker 2:Hello, jesse, good to be with you. I am excited today. This is probably one of our hottest topics to talk about, which is starting a drug testing business. There's not a week that goes by that I get at least a half a dozen requests from people that are looking to start a drug testing business, and I am so excited about our guest today, who is Brandy Helveston, owner of Straight Line Mobile Testing and Lab Services. Welcome, brandy.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, Joe Riley, for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited too.
Speaker 2:Good, and Brandy has actually started a drug testing business recently and she'll tell you in a few minutes about how that got started. And we'll start with a little bit of quick background about starting a drug testing business. But the focus of today's episode is really going to be to ask brandy some questions, from the time the thought came into her mind to the day that she actually opened um and jesse, what about our sponsor?
Speaker 1:yeah, today, uh, we are featuring straight line mobile testing and we have the owner in the studio today. Brandy, would you like to share a little bit more about what the straight line Testing Services provides?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. We're out of Fort Myers, Florida, and we provide a 24-7 mobile drug and alcohol testing services. We also provide management for CDL holders, policy management for companies and, like I said, we run 24-7 all of Lee County, Collier County, Sarasota. We go all the way up to Tampa, Orlando and Miami.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a lot, it's a lot. It's a lot, but it's great.
Speaker 3:It's a lot, it's a lot, it's a lot, but it's great Well good.
Speaker 2:Thank you, brandy, for sponsoring today's podcast and also for being our guest to talk about your journey in starting a drug testing business. I wanted to get started just with some basics and then I'll move over to asking you some questions, brandy, about your journey. So starting a drug testing business we focus on. You can start this business anywhere in the United States with help from me, potentially. I don't really venture outside of the United States, so we're going to focus on starting a business within the United States of America. And to start a business, there are some basic startup steps that you have to take, and they may include you know what type of business entity are you a corporation, a subchapter S corporation, a C corporation, a partnership, a sole proprietor, a limited liability company, llc. So you got to figure that out. You could research it, you could talk to an attorney, you could talk to someone who already owns a business. Need a bank account? Well, first you need a federal ID number, because they won't open up a bank account without a federal ID number, which you apply for from the federal government, the IRS, so to speak and then at some point, once you're actually operating, you're going to need insurance. So those are some kind of basic steps and then a big, big decision, which we'll talk a little bit with Brandy about, is are you going to have an office? Are you going to have a brick and mortar office facility or are you just going to be a mobile business where you can work from your home and you can utilize your car or a van or a travel trail or whatever you want to use to be mobile? And in starting a business, a lot of people think, hey, they call me and Brandy and I will talk about this later and say, hey, can you train me to be a collector so I can start a drug testing business? And I say, well, yeah, I can train you to be a collector, but there's a lot more to owning a business than there is to being able to collect urine in compliance with DOT regulations. So you need computers, you need computer applications. I highly recommend you get what's called a CRM, which is a Customer Relationship Manager, which I call a Rolodex on steroids, so you can keep track of customers and vendors and people you work with.
Speaker 2:You need drug testing software to do your consortium management and your resulting management. To do your consortium management, your resulting management, you need a financial software to keep track of your invoices and your payables and your receivables. A lot of people use QuickBooks. You need accounts with laboratories and medical review officer. You kind of need an onboarding process for getting new customers, new clients. You need to understand collection sites who collect specimens in networks that are available throughout the US, as well as third parties that collect that are not in networks.
Speaker 2:And then a big part of any business is marketing and sales and I always tell everybody, I tell my team where I work, that everybody is on the marketing team and everybody is on the sales team, because everything we do is about marketing and about sales and about getting business, about getting new customers. So you need a website, you need a name, you need a logo, you need branding. After you get a website, you do internet marketing, which some can be done paid, some can be done with sweat equity. You do it yourself. You need to know your products and your pricing. So you need to know every single product that you're selling and what your cost is and what you're selling it for. You need to understand target markets, your target market.
Speaker 2:Brandy mentioned a few minutes ago she works in Fort Myers and Sarasota, but she'll go to Miami. She'll go to Tampa Orlando for the right opportunity, if it makes business sense. You need to have a sales process, be ready to take the order, be ready to make the sale what I think it was Joe Girard in the sales books that I read that he wrote years ago. It was the term ABC always be closing, always be closing the sale. And you need payment processing methods. You've got to be able to take credit cards or ACH payments. You've got to be able to collect money, because you're in business to collect money and you want to make a fair and equitable profit but giving great service to do that. So that's kind of the basics. I'm going to move over to kind of our question and answer session with Brandy Helveston, owner of Straight Line Mobile Testing and Lab Service, which is a fairly new business. Exactly when did you start, brandy?
Speaker 3:I started the LLC in November of 2024. Okay, okay, my idea that I got was about four, five, almost five years ago now is when I was introduced to the drug testing industry as a collector and a trainer. I seen the strengths and the weaknesses at that time and I had the silent idea to one day have a mobile drug testing business. At that time I wasn't aware that it was already a thought and it was already being implemented places and I sat on the idea for a good. You know, for four years I watched the industry, I did a lot of reading, I did a lot of research. I, you know, went back and forth about brick and mortar Do I stay mobile? Should I start mobile first and then move into a brick and mortar? And I finally made the decision last year to go ahead and execute and to start the mobile business and to try and keep it mobile for as long as I can. My main goal is to have a fleet of transits and to potentially cover, you know, all of the state of Florida.
Speaker 2:Awesome, that's awesome. So you've been, you've been festering this for almost five years I have, and then so that's awesome and you were putting a plan together. Tell us about some of the research you did and what were your findings.
Speaker 3:So a lot of the research that I did, I did a lot of reading.
Speaker 3:I read all about the drug testing industry in Florida, other states, other TPAs that you know offer services of you know them, helping you get trained and give you all of you know the information you need to start a business.
Speaker 3:And you know I talked to a few of them. I talked to a few of them. I talked to you know many people just in conversation that are already in the drug testing industry and I started to build my plan off of each of those conversations and how I was going to execute my business and when. I was going to build my plan off of each of those conversations and how I was going to execute my business and when I was going to execute my business and how much patience I was going to give myself to make sure that I prioritized it exactly the way I needed to so that I felt comfortable. And then I made the next step to pick a company that I wanted to partner with that was going to give me the guidance, not just hand it over to me and say, here you go, now go do your thing. I wanted it to be a partner and that's when I found you, joe Riley, at National Drug Screening.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how did that go? How did you go about finding me, finding someone to be a trainer for you, finding someone to be your coach and your mentor, and that type of thing?
Speaker 3:So I found you off of your website and I read all about you for probably about 45 days.
Speaker 2:Were you stalking me, kind of.
Speaker 3:You just didn't know it.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:For about 45 days. Every chance that I got you know, I would come home, I would read about you late at night, just reading, reading, reading not only about national drug screening, but you, as a consultant, I, you know, just did all of my reading and research and I, you know, told my husband. I said, you know, I want to go to Melbourne, I want to meet Joe. At that time I had already spoken to your company and had a great conversation with Tom Fuller.
Speaker 3:And what really did the whole thing for me, what really made me comfortable, was when I was speaking to Tom. Not only did he talk to me about you know, he listened to me, he listened to me wanting to open a business, but the biggest thing for me was he talked to me about drug testing. He told me all of the new things that was coming, everything that we're, that we're in right now. We talked more about drug testing itself than we did, what national drug screening can offer, and I felt completely comfortable. That's when I made my decision I want to go to Melbourne, I want to meet Joe. I've already spoken to Tom, and that's when Javier and I came over on a Friday.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that was a great day I got to meet you when Javier and I came over on a Friday Absolutely, and that was a great day I got to meet you and Javier, and so, before you made the decision that you wanted to come to Melbourne, florida, which is where we're located right now recording did you talk to or see other people out there that were trying to help you to get the business started, or going to be your trainer, and what was that experience like?
Speaker 3:I had about three conversations over the phone and through email. Those conversations went much different. It was more about this is what I can offer you, this is what you're going to get, and here you go. Not that you just figure it out on your own, but it was more of you can get A, b, c and D with us. There really was no consulting on the back end. It was more of you're going to pay this one price, you're going to get this and then you're going to be good to go.
Speaker 3:And for me it didn't really, you know, sink in I and I and I made the decision. I said you know, if I have to wait a little bit longer until I find the right fit for me, then then I'll wait. I think in this industry, with this type of business, you have to prioritize what you're doing and be patient and make the right decisions. And if those decisions don't feel good at the time, don't just jump into it on an impulsive you know decision that that you just want to get started. Um, you need to really have conversations with people and know what you're going to ask, know your questions, receive your answers and know how to really let that sink in and think about it. You know, don't make an impulsive decision. The conversations were they were much different with other consultants that you know offered this type of service will help you get your business started, and it was just more of a sales pitch okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I found that um a lot of times. Um, people don't ask for references or don't check into references, because you need someone who's trustworthy. Absolutely um the the people you talked to, did you feel that they were trustworthy?
Speaker 3:no.
Speaker 2:No, okay.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Now we've heard and we've talked about in the past and our industry has actually talked about this our industry association, the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association and DASA. It seems that there are some scammy people on TikTok that are advertising oh, start a drug testing business. You'll make a million dollars in the first year and I can get you started in two hours and you'll be way on your way and you'll have business. There's quite a bit of them out there that are offering these four-hour training classes.
Speaker 3:You pay one fee, you get your certificate, I'll send you 25 cups and 50 CCF forms and you're ready to go. And then the problem lies is you don't do a collection for a month or two. Then you finally get your collection and you don't know what you're doing. Just because you have that certificate doesn't mean that you're ready to go Now. If you want to take a training class, okay, that's great, but take it with somebody that is going to give you that further guidance and education on the back end. And you need to do your own education. You need to do your own research. You need to know what part 40 is, Read it, you know 15, 20 times a week if you have to. And I think the perception that you get this four-hour class, you get your certificate, you pay me this fee and you're good to go is what is causing a lot of issues that are arising, with collectors making big mistakes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we definitely see that and you've mentioned a couple of things. That kind of answer the next question. But we'll just ask it and see if you want to add anything to any advice that you would give to someone who's thinking about starting up a drug testing business. You talked about the research.
Speaker 3:You did not making impulsive decisions, talking to people asking questions, anything else you can think of so if, if you are trying to become a collector and start a business at the same time, you need to almost separate those two and complete one at a time, because if you go into this, you know head first, you become a collector. You haven't done many collections, you don't quite know what you're doing, doing there's a lot of knowledge that you need to know. Then you're trying to open a business at the same time. Prioritize yourself, like I said, that's the biggest thing. No, make yourself a checklist. Know what you're doing and and how you're going to move into the next thing. Um, get some collections under your belt If you want to get your business going. Wonderful, like Joe said earlier, you know what type of business are you going to be. Are you going to be an LLC? Are you going to be a core? You know what's going to be your business model. Are you going to do mobile? Are you going to do a brick and mortar? All those things are a huge question that you need to already have an answer to before you start to mend these two together.
Speaker 3:So for me, sitting on it for four and a half years and really thinking about it, I was already doing collections back then. So that transition for me was a lot easier, but I had to start the business from nothing. I met with some really great consultants from the SBDC SCORE, other business owners that are part of chambers, chapters in your city. These are the type of people that you need to connect with and talk to so that you can get an idea of what it's like to have a business and what that means, how you get it started. But to do it all together can be very overwhelming and you need to seriously prioritize it. Make yourself a checklist and go one by one. If you become a collector and you start your business all at the same time, you may not get collections for two months, so you have to keep your knowledge up. You have to keep your mind sharp within those two months to make sure that when your phone rings you're ready to go and you know what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the way you put that, that it's kind of two different parts of starting the business and becoming a urine specimen collector, because, as I mentioned earlier, I get people that you know they want to be a urine specimen collector and then they want to have a business. What they don't think about is opening the business requires lots and lots of steps and I congratulate you for reaching out to resources like the Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Centers, score, which is Service Corps, retired folks that work with the chambers and give advice, and a lot of those resources are actually free.
Speaker 3:They are, so take advantage of them Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's some great advice for other people. And the other question this could be a quick answer, because I think you talked about it quite a bit Is this an easy business to start or a hard business to start?
Speaker 3:It's an easy business to start if you do it correctly and you make sure that you do all of your research. You're going to hear me say research and knowledge a lot, because having not only this business model but the knowledge that you need to make this business successful is everything. What you know, what you're going out there and doing, the collections that you're doing, the policy creation that you're doing, policy updates. You know your state laws. When you're talking to a potential client that you want to have a service agreement with and they say, hey, now that you're doing our collections, would you go ahead and look at our policy and make sure that's updated, you need to know what you're looking at and if you don't, you need to have somebody behind you that is, a great consultant like Joe Riley, that can help you look through it and pick things out that maybe you wouldn't catch and pick things out that maybe you wouldn't catch.
Speaker 3:It is an easy business to start, but there's a lot of steps that you have to take to get it started, to keep it going. Like I said, you may not do collections for two months. Are you going to be able to keep it going if you don't have collections coming in, while your boots on the ground every day. You know, trying to get your business out there, your marketing. Marketing is going to be your biggest expense because it's ongoing and you have to market in all different ways.
Speaker 3:Boots on the ground, door to door, walking in you know, to companies every single day. Boots on the ground, door to door, walking in you know to companies every single day. But on the flip side, you need to be on a computer sending out emails. You know you, walking into these companies, you may not get to the right person. An email, you can get to that right person and human resources. Or you know somebody, somebody that is an owner you can get to them through email. So not only are you boots on the ground out you know, every single day but you also need to be sending emails, and email blasts is what I call them cool.
Speaker 2:So I like the way you say it's easy. But it's easy if you did your homework like you did. Right For a lot of people. They don't do the homework.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:They don't take the knowledge and the learning and the research seriously and that's kind of messed up a little bit because they don't take it seriously. But what are some of the challenges that you faced in getting started for you, for your business?
Speaker 3:in getting started for you, for your business.
Speaker 3:So I think one of the biggest challenges for me was to really decide if I was going to be strictly mobile or if, at some point, I was going to pull in a brick and mortar.
Speaker 3:And I'll be honest, there was, you know, probably a month back, that I heavily was thinking of. You know, should I go ahead and get the brick and mortar going? And the more I thought about it, the more conversations I had with with industry leaders. It just brought me right back to what I originally felt was no, I'm going to stay mobile, I'm going to keep pushing to have multiple transits out on the road. You know, when you want to cover a large geographical area as the state of Florida, you can't do that as a one person. So to have multiple collectors, multiple transits moving around, being able to service, you know, from the East Coast to the West Coast, is my biggest goal and for me, I think that was my largest challenge was to decide if I was really going to stay mobile or if we were eventually going to do a brick and mortar. And I'm going to, we're going to're gonna stay mobile well, good.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you mentioned transit and I remember, um, when we were completing your training and consulting sessions and finalizing your mock collections, um, we were in tampa, florida, and and you actually had the trend, had your transit. So, to tell people they may not know what a transit is, and we'll pull up a picture of it also okay, great, it's um.
Speaker 3:It's a ford connect um. It's called a transit um. It's 2017 ford transit connect um. It's not the large, you know a lengthy one, it's a small one and all of our supplies are in the back. Um, I don't everybody. I get this question a lot. Do you do the actual collection in the back, like I have, you know, like a toilet back there? There's no toilet back there, um, so no, that's just to carry me and the other collectors around and all of our equipment and supplies.
Speaker 2:Okay, great, so I think you answered. The next question is kind of why did you go mobile? Um, talked about your strengths. Well, what do you think are your strengths in running your business, and possibly any weaknesses also, and everybody's got strengths and weaknesses. Right, right, absolutely so give us one or two strengths and one or two weaknesses.
Speaker 3:I think our biggest strength right now is being able to keep this going because we are so new. You know I have a great support team my husband, my son, collectors as well. They're with me on observations, direct observations. I think that's our biggest strength is we have a team and a lot of people don't do, don't have that. You know they're a one man show trying to really build this Um and that having that, that team and having that support um has made it a lot easier on me marketing. You know, getting the word out there, talking to people. My husband, javier, is fluent in Spanish, so you know the truckers, the CDL holders that are Spanish speaking. Javier is great with them. I feel our weakness right now is I'm afraid that we're not going to have enough collectors. To be honest, I think that is our weakness right now is we're not going to be ready for the amount that could potentially come.
Speaker 2:Okay, and that's you know. Staffing and bringing on people is a big challenge. I've been in business for 30 years and it's been a challenge for over 30 years, so identifying that is important. One of the things that I found over the years is sometimes you can find collectors really just through networking family, friends, people at church, people in different organizations. You belong to firefighters that are looking for extra work when they're off three days in a row, sometimes EMT drivers. So it's almost like a marketing project to be finding people. And maybe some people you bring on might be just part-time and maybe some full-time as you need them. So it's just some advice there. One last question In your research and you know, finding a consultant, finding a trainer, finding a mentor, finding somebody that was going to help guide you, were you ever told that the labs would send you customers?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And is that true? No, right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not. You can have a relationship with the collection sites. You know you can go, introduce yourself, take them some donuts, take them, you know, a box of coffee. You know they love that stuff. You can have that and maybe get lucky if they're so backed up that, hey, you know. Oh, let me. I just remembered that mobile, the girl that came in the other day, the mobile girl. Where's her card? You may get lucky that way but you are not going to have a consistent daily traffic flow of customers coming from the lab.
Speaker 2:Okay yeah, because some of those people on TikTok, I think I've heard where they're telling people oh yeah, you start up and the next day you'll be getting calls from the labs.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:They'll be sending your customers. So who is responsible in your business to find customers?
Speaker 3:We are, we are, we are Boots on the ground every single day. We all are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every single day.
Speaker 3:Every single day A lot of people don't understand that.
Speaker 2:And People don't understand that, and even if they do, they're not willing to do it, and that can sometimes lead to failure. So you got to be out there every day. You got to. As I've said many, many times over the years, you got to wake up in the morning and put your big boy pants on or your big girl pants on and you got to go to work.
Speaker 3:And it's really important to categorize what you're going to target for that week, because you'll find yourself out there overwhelmed. You're going to target for that week because you'll find yourself out there, overwhelmed You're hitting all these businesses, you're passing out stuff, passing out your marketing, your printing, but then you still feel like you haven't done anything. So it's really important to say, ok, I'm going to hit all of the nursing homes this week in Naples, florida. I'm going to hit all of the trucking companies next week. You know, in a certain area, categorize it and prioritize that so that you, at the end of the week, feel like you actually did something and that you're not just stopping here, stopping there, going there, because that gets overwhelming and it becomes a lot and it ends up making you feel like you didn't accomplish anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great advice and I teach that all the time is in target marketing, targeting geographically as well as targeting specific types of businesses. Because if you're targeting, let's say, automobile dealerships and you're talking to them over and over again, you're learning their language Right, and you may go see Bob at the Chevrolet dealership and you go see John and John knows Bob at the Toyota dealership Absolutely and it just kind of breeds, you know, mutual respect and welcoming and so forth. So I remember, you know I graduated from college in 1979 and I remember targeting marketing, target marketing from those days in college. I lied, I said there was one more question.
Speaker 3:There's actually a couple more.
Speaker 2:In our business there are third-party administrators, people that manage drug and alcohol testing programs, just like you are now managing drug and alcohol testing programs for customers that you've gotten, and they're all over the country. There's probably hundreds of them all over the country TPAs that manage employer drug testing programs. Do you get business from those other TPAs that are out there?
Speaker 3:Yes, you will get business, but don't rely on them to keep your business going. Right, you need to make sure your Google business profile is set up. Your service area is on there as a mobile business. Google is starting to crack down on virtual addresses, so you have to put a physical address if it's. If you are at the point where you have to put your resident residential address, remove um the the customers being able to see your address and just open up your service area, because if you try to get your ver google profile verified with a virtual address, they're going to flag you and they're not going to do it.
Speaker 3:Google profile you know Google, my business is huge for this type of business. People type in drug testing all the time and you want to pop up, you want to be seen by customers and eventually you want to be seen by customers outside of your service area. So, yes, tpas, they're great, you will get business from them, but you can't rely on a TPA to keep your business going. It's very far and few in between that they're going to send you, because they're only going to send you what's in your area.
Speaker 2:Right, and so you're absolutely right that you can't rely on one source. You have to have those boots on the ground and be generating business. But if you do a good job for other TPAs and they need more work in your area they're going to call you back.
Speaker 3:Yes, they will.
Speaker 2:So you want to be involved with industry associations and go to conferences so that you meet other TPAs. And you know, face-to-face is always really awesome. I'm going to change this last question around a little bit, because you kind of already summarized your journey from your four years of thinking on and deciding on getting the business open. So give us a quick summary from the day you actually opened until now, what's happened in your life and your business.
Speaker 3:So the day that I actually made the business, did the incorporation, the LLC, I'm sorry, was in November and I did this on purpose. I took my time. I met with Joe Riley you know part 40, all the agencies. I did as much as I could to where I felt comfortable enough to say, okay, I'm ready to open. I actually started actually running my business April 1st actually April 5th, when we came back from Jacksonville, the NDASA conference.
Speaker 2:NDASA yeah.
Speaker 3:NDASA conference. Yep, so as soon as we got back, it was boots on the ground. I actually started running it, but I did that on purpose, because I wanted to have as much knowledge within myself and I wanted to feel comfortable. I, I just I didn't want to do it on a whim. So, okay, we're open and you know, the phone starts ringing and I don't feel comfortable. I wanted to feel comfortable, um, so I, you know, I waited and that was probably the best decision, that that I made.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, that was a great strategy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So once you opened until now, kind of what was it? The phone ringing off the hook? No, not in the beginning.
Speaker 3:Or was it slow and gradual?
Speaker 2:And what are some of the things that you did where you actually have now closed business and written contracts and so forth.
Speaker 3:So I was boots on the ground. I Chamber of Commerce. I was going to the networking events grand openings, ribbon cuttings for companies, um, that were new, newly opened or having their re grand opening. Um emails I was. I made certain emails for you know certain companies nursing homes, cdl schools they all have an email that pertains to them and I started connecting and networking and it led to having service agreements signed and I my focus right now is to acquire as many companies as I can and then that daily traffic will pick up.
Speaker 3:The pretrial courthouse for Lee County that in September is going to start happening. We're a priority provider now for pretrial services and the 21st Judicial Courthouse, so we're really happy about that. That's going to increase the daily traffic. But you have to go out there and you have to get it. You have to talk to people. You have to tell them why you're different from a collection site, why mobile if they can just send them to a collection site? Why mobile if they can just send them to a collection site? And you know you really need to set yourself apart and find your niche and explain what that is so that they say you know what. This is a great service. Let's try this out.
Speaker 2:Let's try it out and do it right the first time, because when they try you out, you don't want to make a mistake, you want to do it right, and then you'll have a great partnership with them yeah, that's a great point is to use that phrase sometimes just try me out, right, because maybe they've been with somebody for five years and you know, maybe they try you out and they're like, wow, this is really different this is so convenient, exactly, you know how you go to a restaurant all the time the same restaurant and then you go to a new place and you wow, this place is really much better.
Speaker 2:So you try it out, or you ask them to try it out, or they try it out. So that's great advice, that's a great summary. Just kind of want to move forward. Again, thank you for being our sponsor. Well, thank you for having me, and tell us again if you met somebody on the street this afternoon and they say well, what exactly is Straight Line Mobile Testing and Lab Services?
Speaker 3:Straight Line Mobile Testing and Lab Services is a 24-7 mobile drug and alcohol testing company in Fort Myers, florida. We cover West Coast to the East Coast to the East Coast. We also do CDL holders clearinghouse policy, creation policy updates.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we're really moving along.
Speaker 3:Full service, Full service Okay, and if somebody needed, 100 people collected in Denver, Colorado, would you go there? Absolutely You'll go anywhere.
Speaker 2:I'll be on the next plane. What's the farthest you've gone so far? Didn't you go to Miami? I think, yeah, Miami.
Speaker 3:Yes, zephyr Hills, miami Zephyr Hills. Okay, yeah, we went up to Zephyr Hills.
Speaker 2:So Miami, you had to go across Alligator Alley huh. Yeah.
Speaker 3:They're putting some type of alligator Alcatraz. I know, I know, I seen that that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 2:That's going to be very interesting. So I wanted to close out just for a couple of minutes, just to give. This morning I was just thinking about what are just some very basic tips to start a business brand Brandy's talked about most of these already. So, planning business brand brandy's talked about most of these already. So, um, planning, persistence and flexibility. Gotta have flexibility, you gotta be persistent, you gotta be resilient and you gotta make a plan. Um, write down the plan. Write down what you want to do, doesn't mean it's going to be the same.
Speaker 2:It might change every week. So it's a dynamic initial business plan. But I have people come to me and they've already been training with me for a good 30 hours, because we do a lot of remote training, and I say, well, do you have a plan written down? No, well, I think you need to go home tonight and write down a plan and, as Brandy mentioned, research and learn everything you can and study the competitors. What are they doing, how are they doing it, what are their pricing, what might you be able to do better? And, brandy, I think you could have written this for me, because you've you've actually said all of these things. The next one would be uh, build a support network, have a trainer, have a mentor, have business groups, small business development centers, chamber of Commerce, advisors, other people in business. Javier, your husband's in business right, absolutely so. Have you learned from him?
Speaker 3:I do, yeah, excellent. I've learned a lot from Javi.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and realize that even though you said it was easy, brandy, I'm going to say it's not easy, and just becoming a urine drug test collector does not put you in business.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Okay, now a question I get common. I want to answer this real quick. It doesn't matter where you are. Okay, people call me from all different cities and states all over the country. It's a national business. You'll need a local business license, but you don't need a local business license to be a collector. That's kind of a national qualification, and best of luck to everybody out there who might be interested in starting a drug testing business.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be afraid to ask for help. So that kind of concludes today's episode four. Future episodes for the Joe Riley blog Drug Testing in America. We want to talk about anything about drug testing in America, but the next couple of future episodes would be what is a five panel drug test, a 10 panel drug test and maybe a hundred other drug testing panels that are available, because there's lots of them, right, brandy?
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you learn as you go. You're going to learn all the drug testing panels Right.
Speaker 3:You learn as you go.
Speaker 2:Overnight, and then another episode will focus on reasonable suspicion and training for reasonable suspicion and learning that if you have an impaired employee, you have risk and something bad could happen.
Speaker 2:So supervisor training folks need to be able to learn, to be able to make reasonable suspicion determinations leading to a reasonable suspicion drug test. So with that, Jesse, I want to close it out for us. Thank you everybody for listening. And oh, Jesse, I always remember that I'm supposed to do something like say, ring the bell, subscribe, like, tell your friends and come back for the next episode, I think you did a great job there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I could only reiterate that yeah so definitely hit that subscribe button. We'd love to see all of our subscribers continue to add up, especially with the comments. Comments. We really try to reply, but just know that we are watching all those comments as well and when you click that bell, you'll get notified every time we drop a new episode.
Speaker 2:Awesome, thank you, thank you.