Meet Success!
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Jo DeMars suggests you keep your costs down when you first start a business.
"Most of what we needed was the ability to talk on the phone, so that was relatively easy to put together. We started out with basic computer equipment--used computers, used printers, and a borrowed copier."
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Words of Wisdom
from Jo DeMars
- Find a good banker, attorney, accountant and one good friend who will simply listen and not advise.
- Follow your instincts; they are almost as good as an MBA.
- Keep your eye on the bank account! Never spend money you don't have, no matter how certain it looks, and don't be afraid to pull the plug. It doesn't mean you're a failure.
- Start simple with people who share your dream.
- Have policies in place to handle contingencies.
- Be upfront about mistakes, take action to correct the problem and ask for client input.
- Get the family invested in your success. You can't fight the world and come home to fight, too.
How to Contact this Successful Woman
Jo DeMars, President
DeMars & Associates, Ltd.
P.O. Box 1424
Waukesha, WI 53187-1424
Phone: 262-549-6700
Fax: 262-549-6744
Website:
DeMars & Associates
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When Jo DeMars started her dispute resolution business 16 years ago, a good friend suggested she find furniture that also could be used in her home, in case her business didn't last.
"Sixteen years later I would still be happy to take that Chinese screen, the watercolor and the expandable table home," says Jo, founder and president of DeMars & Associates, Ltd. in Waukesha, Wis.
Anyone who wants to start a business can learn valuable lessons from Jo on how being frugal, particularly in the early years, can pay big dividends later. In 2005, DeMars & Associates expects to qualify for the Inc. 500 list.
Jo DeMars had $500 when she started the business and used it, as her attorney suggested, to open a checking account. Married at the time, she filed for divorce five months later. A small cash settlement from the divorce agreement, which she estimated would help support her for about five months, lasted almost a year.
When Jo decided it was time for a line of credit, she talked to her bank. Of course, the bank representative asked her for a business plan, which she didn't have.
"I did have a contract with Ford, but I felt very uneasy about doing cash projections because I knew the bank would put it in a file! I said, 'I'm not really sure what is going to happen, so what you are asking me to do feels like putting on a blindfold and punching a bunch of numbers in a calculator.' My banker replied, 'Yes, that's about what it is, but the loan committee needs it.' So I sat down with a pencil and paper and figured out income and expenses." When she did this, she found that within 16 months she would likely have a profit larger than her salary. "It was a modest salary," she says humbly.
"I was approved for a line of credit and I think because I was very frugal with my first contract, we were probably into our second year before we needed to use it," she said.
She never borrowed money that she couldn't pay back within 90 days. Two years after start-up, she bought property for an office with a residence above it and four years later purchased a bigger, more prestigious building that the company completely refurbished and worked to place it on the National Landmark Register. "We have outgrown that space and lease additional offices three blocks north in another National Landmark," she says.
Luckily, Jo had a few good friends who believed in her and were willing to help. And she used creative ideas to keep costs down and remain competitive. She borrowed desks, set up shop in donated warehouse space, and brought a phone from home. Money well spent, she says, went to professionals for advice. "My attorney and accountant billed me -- maybe not for every hour -- but I paid for a lot of advice, and it was good advice," she says.
"Most of what we needed was the ability to talk on the phone, so that was relatively easy to put together. We started out with basic computer equipment--used computers, used printers, and a borrowed copier."
Although Jo got a business telephone line right at the start, she held off placing any directory advertising for about a year and a half to save money. "With a name like DeMars & Associates, I don't think any listing would have garnered us much business--just a lot of cold sales calls," she says.
Also, because voice mail wasn't yet invented, the only option for getting messages if she wasn't in the office was an answering machine or an answering service.
"My first client wanted someone in the office to be able to take messages and give them information. So I was asked to hire someone in April (just six months after opening her doors) and I hired a friend part-time," she says.
DeMars & Associates has come a long way since that time. The company now has 25 full-time equivalent employees and about 40 independent contractors across the U.S. It also has about 300 dispute resolution specialists, and most of them are volunteer arbitrators, but the company also has attorneys who are paid to do mediation and arbitration work.
Over the past few years, technology has helped cut costs and boost profits. For instance, instead of traveling across the country to hold arbitration meetings, train or interview, employees now do much of that via teleconferencing and video conferencing. They distribute many documents online or through encrypted email, cutting down substantially on photocopying and overnight delivery charges.
"The last time I checked, before we were working electronically," she says, "there were about 90,000 pieces of paper a month going through our office. And if you think about transferring that to multiple locations and often great distances, the electronic availability of that process just makes it so much easier to do and much more cost effective."
Clients include Ford Motor Company (nationally), two home-warranty providers, several recreational vehicle manufacturers--Barton, National RV, Coachman, and Winnebago--and as of Sept. 15, DeMars & Associates is providing online dispute resolution for eBay. Jo is now looking at other niche markets, such as health care and business-to-business companies.
Jo prides herself on her excellent staff and their ability to create and maintain solid relationships with clients, including those whom employees haven't even met in person. That requires planning, thinking, strategizing and having policies in place for how the staff deals with clients.
"If we did something that was a mistake--we screwed up--we would immediately call and say, 'This is what happened. This is what we're changing so that it never happens again. We wish it didn't happen, but besides what we're already doing, do you want us to do anything else?' It doesn't happen often, but when it does, our clients always appreciate that and respect us for it."
Jo thinks following ethical business practices such as this is how all businesses should be run. And in the dispute resolution business, it's absolutely imperative.
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