Her best weapon has been the Rolodex cards she mails out and leaves behind on her calls. "We figure even if everything else goes in the trash, they'll save the Rolodex card," she says. "And if they get mad at their messenger, they're likely to call us because our name is right in front of them."
When she could afford it, she bought a quarter-page display ad in the yellow pages. It lists all the company's services: escrow delivery, process serving, interoffice work, court filing, title delivery, blueprints, medical supplies, and more. At $500 a month, the ad is pricey but imperative. With 453 courier services featured in those same yellow pages, it's critical to stand out from the clutter. Steadily, Whiteford has built a clientele. It includes the usual suspects -- law firms, manufacturers, printers, ad agencies -- plus her mainstays, Kodak and Hemdale. From $6,000 in sales last February, she has boosted billings by about $2,000 each month. By August she had some 200 active accounts and was just breaking even at $18,000 in sales. Her biggest sales edge remains her extremely competitive pricing. She offers four levels of service: one-hour rush, two-hour rush, same-day, and overnight. A one-hour priority run to Long Beach costs $40, for instance, then drops to $32 for same-day delivery. Overnight is $9 throughout the area. Her on-time delivery rate, she says, is around 99%.
Another edge is her comprehensive, one-stop service. While building sales, she's also built a nationwide panoply of partners -- other courier companies that handle the receiving end of her overnight shipments to major cities. She now has about 35 such agents, with a broad reach. One of them, New York City based Choice Courier Systems, operates in nine states. "You absolutely must have a network," Whiteford says. "We probably get 5% of our business from these agents. They refer business to us and vice versa. We mark stuff up, before giving it to them, to make our profit."
One potentially huge payoff from that network has come from Hemdale. All along, All-Ways has handled some long-distance shipments of the studio's packages, which impressed president Parkinson. As of this writing, Whiteford has just picked up a much bigger piece of Hemdale's action.
"When we're involved in a film distribution, we'll send posters and T-shirts and point-of-purchase displays to theaters and wholesalers across the country," Parkinson explains. "That probably constitutes 10 times what we'll do with messengers in L.A. -- maybe $50,000 a month.
"Everything Vicki said she'd do, she has done," he says. "So we decided to give her a shot at this work too. She says she can shave 25% off our overnight costs. We'll start incrementally and build confidence, because we have a lot of money riding on these releases. But the plan is definitely to move forward. She could end up with all of it."
As labor day neared, Whiteford was gearing up to handle the Hemdale expansion and an account with a law firm (employing 80 lawyers) she had just landed. That meant she had to think about staffing up from 10 drivers to about 20, and trying to raise the capital needed to grow. She and Abrams were thinking of bringing in a third investor.
One barrier to growth in the courier business is that one needs cash to front a new account for the first few months. Say Hemdale awarded Whiteford its entire overnight workload today. With her 25% reduction -- achieved by consolidating shipments and proprietary techniques -- it would constitute a new, $37,500-a-month account. Half of that, $18,750, would go to the drivers, who get paid weekly. Payroll taxes, workers' comp, and overhead costs would take some more. Whiteford could be out $25,000 by the time Hemdale paid her, especially since she had until recently billed at 30 days net. Her switch to 7 days net should help cash flow.
Cash flow won't be a stopper with Hemdale, because she is ramping up gradually. But it could be an obstacle to other large accounts, as Whiteford seeks more parts-depot work. She'd like eventually to have 25 or more accounts like her Kodak operation. She's bidding for an IBM parts depot and mentions Hewlett-Packard as a prospect. If she wins those companies over, her billings could quickly allow her to eclipse her projected net income for 1993 ($360,000) and for 1994 ($468,000). The challenge would be financing the accounts until receivables caught up with payables.
Meanwhile, she needs to keep executing well, keep her drivers happy, and add new customers to move beyond break-even and toward her goal of 30% profitability. Above all, she must keep her existing clients happy. The loss of the Hemdale account, which represents more than a quarter of her revenues, would be crippling.
But that seems unlikely. Whiteford's gutsy determination has prevailed so far. And now, with high credibility, a Fortune 500 client, and the pizzazz of Hollywood in her portfolio, she's poised to go much further.
-- Research assistance provided by Teri Lammers.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE COMPANY
All-Ways Courier Inc., Los Angeles
Concept: Establish a messenger/courier company serving all of Southern California. Through a network of courier partnerships across the United States, broaden capabilities to include overnight shipments of packages nationwide. From an early contract to deliver spare parts for Eastman Kodak in L.A., orient growth toward the "parts depot" sector, serving computer and electronics companies that need fast delivery to field technicians
Projections: Gross revenues of $300,000 in 1992, rising to $360,000 in 1993 and $468,000 in 1994. Profits rising from $15,240 in 1992, to $45,400 in 1993, to $47,800 in 1994. Aiming for eventual profitability of 30%
Hurdles: Building a solid customer base in traditional courier services, in the face of recession and the ubiquity of fax machines. Controlling costs and driver turnover. If successful in landing parts-delivery contracts, obtaining the capital to finance their implementation
THE FOUNDER
Vicki Whiteford
Age: 24
Family: Divorced
Personal funds invested: $30,000
Equity held: 62%
