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SBA Honors Maryland Small Business Person of the Year

Virginia Williams was awarded the SBA “Maryland Small Business Person of the Year” on Friday, May 20, 2011. She was nominated by her SCORE Southern Maryland Chapter 390 Mentors.

Her “archSCAN” company ( www.archscan.com ) organizes, indexes and converts paper drawings and blueprints to electronic files.

Ms. Williams focuses on a specific niche market, offers a unique customer product, and provides both quality and a value which delights the customer. She has built an excellent business foundation by being creative, developing, and offering services that her customers recognize as being a true asset for their business environment. Ms. Williams has a specific targeted clientele which mainly consists of facility managers, vice president of operations, and anyone related to the construction industry. Many of the archSCAN projects are acquired through referrals and the company also has a good repetitive business.

Her archSCAN team is very dedicated to the company, as well as making sure a superior end-product is delivered to the customer and exceeds the customer’s expectations. Each employee is cross-trained and fully understands each phase of the offered services. There is minimal employee turnover and new employees are being hired when necessary. Through Ms. Williams’ dedication, confidence, and understanding that archSCAN’s services are truly unique, and that these services may be utilized by educational, healthcare, religious, state and federal agencies; plus, the architects, engineers and construction companies has equated to continued growth with very limited competition. archSCAN anticipates continuing its growth and expansion path, and predicts an aggressive growth forecast for the future.

In April 2002 Virginia Williams was terminated from her Regional Sales Manager position with a reprographic (blueprinting) company and shortly thereafter the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Facilities Division, contacted her requesting she assist them with their chaotic large format paper drawings plan room. After she spent a few months sorting, organizing, and labeling all the paper drawings in this room she sent the drawings to a scanning company to convert the paper into an electronic format. At the end of project twelve CDs were delivered to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It was during this time Ms. Williams realized there were probably other organizations, businesses, etc. that were encountering the same dilemma with their paper large format drawings. She decided at that time to start her company, archSCAN, LLC, with the name being generated by combining the words archival and scanning. Since Ms. Williams did not really know exactly how to run a company she contacted SCORE Chapter 390 in Annapolis, MD in early 2003, and met with a SCORE mentor several times who guided her through all the aspects of starting a business ranging from writing a business plan through the financial details. Since her initial contact with SCORE Chapter 390 her counselors have changed during the years but she has always expressed how fortunate she has been to have an opportunity to utilize the guidance offered by this outstanding organization. Ms. Williams also applied for her State of Maryland MDOT certification and was granted this certification as small, women-owned business, and she has received her certification from the City of Baltimore too.

Ms. Williams’ main goal is to enter a disorganized plan room containing thousands of paper large format drawings and small format documents all relating to a building, or buildings, and transitioning this documentation into an electronic user-friendly end-product. At the completion of a project the customer will be delivered their data on CDs, DVDs, or external hard drives. All the information can easily be viewed on any computer screen and will provide access to all the electronic data within seconds, and readily available if, and when, an emergency or catastrophe occurs. The documents are generally scanned into an Adobe Acrobat PDF “read only” format, which creates an unaltered digital archival record. A database is structured in a file folder format and utilizes Adobe Acrobat’s book marks tools for additional layering and more rapid accessibility. Ms. Williams has determined that a PDF may be used and viewed from any remote location using the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free service available through the Internet. She understands that if a customer wants to import the data archSCAN has created into a specific document management system it can generally be downloaded without any problem. Ms. Williams’ main objective is to keep the final end-product simplistic and user-friendly for all levels of computer skills.

archSCAN, LLC officially began in August 2002 in Virginia Williams’ home in Annapolis, MD, and she was the only employee. Today 10 employees work for archSCAN and since the company’s beginnings it has expanded into over a 4,500 square feet production facility where all the scanning and computer services are completed. In 2009, Ms. Williams’ efforts and diligence has started showing since a 69% gross sales increase occurred, and a constant steady increase is continuing in 2010. As the future approaches, and with archSCAN’s solid customer commitments, she hopes this will pave the way to exceeding $1,000,000 gross sales goal in 2011. The archSCAN customer base is varied and ranges from large government agencies (Smithsonian Institution), educational facilities (American University), many hospitals (Johns Hopkins Medicine Bayview Campus), to small private corporations. Ms. Williams has been very conscientious about not expanding too rapidly and taken cautious small steps not to over-extend archSCAN’s capabilities. She feels the customer is placing their trust and confidence in archSCAN’s services, and she wants them to recognize they have received an extremely beneficial and useful tool.

Client Testimonials for SCORE Chapter 390

“Score is a wonderful resource for thoughtful and proactive insight. My background in design and brand management gave me the foundation of understanding; however I was surprised to discover the difficulty in applying that knowledge to my own business. My score counselor helped me rediscover my core beliefs, focus on the real benefits and apply them to my marketing message. This valuable gift has given me the assurance that one of the many pieces of a successful business is now in place and I can move forward to conquer the many other challenges of my start-up with confidence. “

Catherine Anderson

Just Organize Your Stuff, Inc.

www.justorganizeyourstuff.com

“I remember how nervous and excited I was in thinking that I had successfully grown my practice to the point that it seemed viable to consider moving to a new and larger location. Boldly I went to several banks to secure funding for my adventure only to be asked to please reveal my business plan. I am embarrassed now to admit that I had only the faith and vision in my heart that my business would grow and prosper. I felt deflated, humiliated and very naive. My husband had used a SCORE counselor over 25 years ago in his business and strongly recommended that I do so to gain assistance in formulating a proper business plan. I filled out a brief questionnaire on the SCORE web site and within days was united with a gentleman who has become an integral and indispensable part of my business and professional life. I never got an SBA loan but with my SCORE counselor's keen business savvy and willingness to share whole-heartedly his years of business wisdom, I am now proud to be practicing in a beautiful new office space which I share with three other Registered Nurse Acupuncturists. While the role of my counselor initially developed out of my personal and individual needs, his role has rapidly expanded over our year together. Now as a coach for the group practice as a whole, he has served to facilitate discussions of important documents ranging from partnership agreements and role definitions, to group advertising and marketing strategies, to long range financial forecasting and planning. Of the myriad of ways in which our counselor has served us, it is his true dedication and personal interest in our success which makes us all feel that our possibilities in the business arena are endless. It is his belief in us for which we are most grateful. Thank you.”

Megan Gordon-Hall, RN. M.Ac.
East-West Healing Arts
www.east-westhealingarts.com

"I have long been a believer in the saying – 'You only get what you pay for.' However, there are two very notable exceptions that I would like to point out. One is the free public library and the other is SCORE. My experience with SCORE started nearly eight years ago while looking for some business advice from within my network of friends and associates. One of them introduced me to the SCORE organization. Through the years SCORE has continually provided me assistance in business planning, marketing analysis, hiring and retention of employees, business continuation, end-game planning, and general support and encouragement, just to name a few. I was assigned a personal Mentor who has followed my business and advised me through the years. He has always been there to coordinate and arrange any help from SCORE or the SBA. I like to call him my 'business angel'."

Ronald Edwards, President

Hague Quality Water of Maryland, Inc.

http://www.haguewaterofmd.com/

"I just attended my second seminar hosted by SCORE 390, the first being on small business accounting and this one on building a business plan. I feel it is necessary to take a moment to thank the volunteers of SCORE for the tremendous effort that is put forth in these seminars. As a business owner and operator of two businesses, I can honestly tell you that without SCORE and the support your organization offers, I would be at a loss now. My husband and I opened a service business for marine air conditioning and refrigeration four years ago. That business was quite simple to run and manage given it was service driven and very little overhead. We opened a yacht brokerage business last year and I found myself functioning as top management, sales supervisor, marketing manager, administration manager, finance manager, facilities manager, human resource manager and janitor. For a year I have been struggling with what I felt others were "breezing" through. I don't have a good grasp on accounting, I have a half written business plan and frankly was getting quite tired of the whole matter! To my great relief and delight I found in SCORE an entire network of experts who were willing to walk me through the maze of business operations. You've sparked my excitement about my business again. I no longer feel the pressure to become an expert in every single area of the business operations. SCORE taught me to focus on why I started the business to start with and to outsource to the pros tasks that were better suited to them. The professional manner in which the seminars are given, the depth of the material presented, and the genuine concern shown by the counselors affords the small business owner a true chance at survival. I have no doubt that this organization has saved many a small businesses in the past and will continue to do so. Perhaps after I have grown and developed into the success story that the counselors in SCORE represent, I will be able to offer my services to a young and frightened business owner who just needs a gentle hand to guide them through.
Thank you for all you do."

Vicki Rasmussen, President

Integrity Yacht Sales

http://www.integrityyachtsales.com

"I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and working with a SCORE counselor. I’d like to thank SCORE for this invaluable service. As a new business owner, very often the critical support you need is someone to tell you whether or not the concept you have or the direction that you are heading in is viable. When my appointment with SCORE was scheduled by the Embassy Business Complex in Southern Maryland, I didn’t know what to expect. During our initial meeting we discussed the business/franchise model, financial goals and resources. The counselor provided me with a SCORE resource tool, Franchise Magazine, and directed me to resources such as the “Franchise Bible” which proved to be invaluable. From there I was able to add some teeth to my business plan which the counselor subsequently reviewed and provided detailed feedback on. I felt supported, informed and empowered with information and resources that was making the venture a reality. Thanks to SCORE’s assistance, we have qualified for an SBA backed loan, have entered into our franchise agreement, and anticipate opening our doors sometime this summer! We cannot thank SCORE enough for the information, advice and quite frankly confidence that you gave us to move forward."

Ellen Flowers-Fields

Edible Arrangements Franchisee

www.ediblearrangements.com

Webmaster: Bill Crabbs

Rev. May 29, 2011