Michelle Jackson designed her building to attract walk-in business.

If a company finds an underserved niche, growth can come very fast—sometimes, almost too fast. When Michelle Jackson founded her company, Frontier Access and Mobility Systems in Cheyenne, Wyo, she never imagined all of the challenges her business’s rapid rise would create. However, Jackson would not trade her bumpy path to success for the world.

Her story begins 6 years ago, when she and her husband, Rick, were contentedly running a small orthotics and prosthetics business in Cheyenne. However, its existence as the only HME provider in the community made the company a commodity in great demand.

A mobility product manufacturer soon approached Jackson about selling and servicing scooters and installing lifts for local US Department of Veterans Affairs patients. In addition, local physicians started contacting her to ask if she could provide HME for their patients. Jackson obliged, but that created another problem. The couple’s small business shared an office with four orthopedic physicians who often traveled from Laramie to Cheyenne. They had little space to put their expanding product inventory.

“When the HME products started showing up, the freight would be stored in the physicians’ fitting rooms when they were not there,” she says. “Then, when they came back, there was a big panic about where to put the stuff. At that time, my husband said, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’ll do it right.’”

Going It Alone
Jackson and her husband moved out of the office they shared with the physicians and founded their new company, Frontier Access and Mobility Systems, in March 1996. “We were already helping people who needed orthotics and prosthetics, which included some chairs, walkers, and canes, so it was really a natural step,” Jackson says.

But 6 months into the undertaking, she was faced with an enormous challenge. Her husband filed for divorce, leaving Jackson to manage the new business alone. “You have a business together one minute, then the next you do not have anyone to help you do it,” Jackson says. “Looking back, I can laugh, but when I was going through that, it was very tough.”

Jackson rallied to the challenge, however, starting out by selling primarily scooters and lifts, and soon expanding into offering home care items, hospital beds, bathroom safety products, manual and power wheelchairs, lift chairs, therapy balls, and disposables.

“I thought that a one-stop shop was what I was looking for in the business,” Jackson says. “Clients would often come in looking for a walker tip, and they would tell me that they were also having a terrible time getting up stairs and wanted to know what other products were out there.”

Jackson came to their aid and was rewarded with increased sales—an important step because she was fighting a popular belief among Cheyenne consumers that products were easier to find in nearby Ft Collins, Colo, a larger community.

“I always told myself that if I started a business, I would carry what the customers wanted,” she says. “I did not want to hear them say they were going to see what was available in Ft Collins; I wanted to be that resource for them. I started out with very small lines of products and those lines have grown as I saw what people wanted.”

Company Growth Spurt
The business initially opened in a 1,200-square-foot space on Central Avenue, a main street that sees some 6,000 cars daily as they travel from the northern part of Cheyenne to the downtown area. Business picked up quickly, and only a year following the birth of Frontier, the company needed to expand.

“Frontier moved up a block to a warehouse that was 2,500 square feet,” Jackson says. “Then, as additional room in the building became available, we would sublet it until we could not sublet any more. It was at that point that my commercial banker asked me why I did not just build a building. I had never built anything in my life, but with his help I got a small business association loan to do just that.”

Jackson spent a lot of time designing the new building based on what had worked in her old location, which included the incorporation of large windows so passing traffic could see Frontier’s selection of products. The result was a 5,600-square-foot building with a second-story mezzanine for storage. Jackson installed a wheelchair lift for display and to take products upstairs. “People were amazed that it was available,” she says.

Today, Frontier pulls its clients from all over, including Ft Collins. In the last couple of years, Jackson says it has been hard to evaluate how much business is walk-in versus referral-based.

“We always had a large walk-in population, and though we try to keep track, it is tough,” she says. “I will say that walk-in traffic has increased by at least a third in our new location, which is on a major artery that sees about 20,000 cars a day. As a result, we do not make the store just for people who need wheelchairs, but also for those who have tired swelling feet, or low back pain. We provide comfort items.”

Personal Approach
In a relatively small city of 80,000, Jackson also has latitude to do some things in her business that might not be feasible elsewhere. That includes letting her customers take the higher-end products home to try them out.

“I feel strongly about things like wheelchair cushions and power chairs, which are such a major expense,” she says. “We always have clients take power chairs out prior to sending the paperwork to their physicians, because we want to make sure the chairs work well in their homes. In a small community, we do not worry about things not making their way back to us.”

What Jackson has had to worry about, however, is her staff. She says it has been difficult for Frontier to find quality employees over the years.

“It is very hard to hire people in this industry,” Jackson says. “We have hired a few staff members from a long-term care setting and a person from a large nearby company that shut down. At that time the department of employment had some funds available for training employees for other work, so we were able to train her in this field. It was a great example of utilizing some help from the government.”

Jackson is a firm believer in extensive training. She regularly sends her nine staff members all over the country to allow them to become up-to-date on the market.

Though four of her staff members are technically in the service department, Jackson stresses that they all are salespeople. “The first impression is always made on the phone, and we have to be able to sell who we are,” she says.

The sales staff’s expertise extends to knowing what different payors will cover. That prevents customers from falling in love with high-end wheelchairs that come equipped with features that are outside of their budgets.

“We care about what we are doing, so we are able to show our customers the benefits and features of several items before they make their decision,” Jackson says. “It is their decision and we want them to be happy with it.”

Distance Pose Challenge
A small part of Frontier’s business is in service calls. However, Jackson cuts down on those expenses as much as possible by grouping calls to reduce unnecessary travel. “Medicaid pays for emergencies that are more than 20 miles outside of town,” she says. “But other than that we do not get any type of reimbursement [for service calls]. It is not cheap.”

Whether it means providing customers with bus schedules or working out a way for them to see the products in their homes, Frontier goes the extra mile, and that reputation has served the business well.

“Our best marketing is our customer satisfaction and word of mouth,” Jackson says. “It is amazing how well word of mouth works. Those customers with special needs tend to have friends with special needs.”

Jackson has also become involved in her local chamber of commerce and church, which helps promote Frontier.

Like many entrepreneurs, she finds the hard early days of starting her business have made her current success all the sweeter. “Running this business has been a lot of hard work and long hours,” she says. “But I consider it a gift from God to be able to help people with serious life challenges and changes. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Elizabeth Finch is a contributing writer for Dealer/Provider.