Auto loan new car

Byline: BROOK RAFLO

When Michael Bower's employees first saw A+ Medical's new facility, they must have been shocked. Vacant for three years, the former car dealership in Augusta, Ga., had suffered repeated vandalism and had served as a regular hangout for the area's homeless population. Although it was sound, the building was a mess, Bower, the company's chief executive officer, recalls.

And then there was the issue of size. A+ Medical clearly had outgrown its current facility, but the dealership's 42,000-square-foot showroom threatened to dwarf the company's operations. "The amount of space was somewhat intimidating," Bower admits. "Many of my customers, skeptical and worried that I was making a bad move, asked me how I would be able to use such a large facility."

But the new building was only three blocks away, and the Small Business Administration was offering favorable financing on a loan, so Bower decided to take the plunge. If his employees were skeptical, they kept their doubts to themselves.

Instead of complaining, everyone - from the billing staff to the sales representatives - worked as a team to prepare the new space. "We built and painted and assembled for hours on end," and, during the process, each staff member became personally invested in the success of the project, Bower says.

But the move was not a one-way transformation, Bower notes. Just as A+ Medical made its mark on the car dealership, so did the car dealership make its mark on A+ Medical. The new space helped the company to redefine its purpose and prompted Bower to create a new business mantra: "Home-auto-rehab."

Discontinuing its line of disposable products, A+ Medical expanded its automobile modifications business and became "a more focused provider," Bower explains. "We [now] provide HME, auto modifications, rehab, and seating and mobility."

The dealership space has encouraged Bower to think big, and the result has been big growth - 50 percent per year since the 1998 move, to be exact. "We've done really well and grown quickly in [the area of automotive modifications]," he says.

Despite these successes, Bower admits that moving was an expensive gamble. The company spent approximately $60,000 just bringing the existing HVAC equipment up to date. In fact, "we spent as much money renovating and re-tooling the space as [we spent to purchase] the property - and it took a full year of my time," he says.

To providers considering a similar move, Bower offers the following advice: "Be in good financial shape, because it will probably cost you twice as much and take twice as long as you think it will."

For A+ Medical, however, the rewards long ago overtook the risk. Still thinking big, Bower now is planning to expand the facility by 2,000 square feet to accommodate more workshop space. "We'll be a 44,000-square-foot building by the end of August 2002," he says. "We also have an open acre of car-lot asphalt [in] which we're planning - with a used-car dealer license - to grow a used van/modified van business in the very near future."

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