After nine years in practice as a doctor of chiropractic in Russellville, Kentucky, Harry Hester, DC, sold his practice in 1962 to start a nutritional supplement company.

“Having read numerous books and articles on how to do this, I went to my attorney and CPA and asked them to develop a prospectus so I could sell stock in my new company, Dee Cee Laboratories Inc.,” says Hester. “Both the lawyer and the CPA agreed to bill me once the company was on a sound footing. They did not want the stock. They were not very optimistic. But I never doubted that the company would be a success.”

Some 20 years later, when Hester bought out all of his original investors, the stock Dr. Hester had been willing to give to his attorney and CPA was worth far more than the original investors paid for it. In fact, Dee Cee Laboratories turned a profit in its first year and over the next 48 years it has grown nearly every year.

Dee Cee Laboratories now offers chiropractors 325 different products — everything from vitamins, minerals, and standardized herbs, to nutraceuticals and homeopathic formulas. Dee Cee Laboratories has grown from a small regional company serving five states to become a major manufacturer and distributor serving all of the U.S., its territories, and 125 countries worldwide.

Like many who choose to become chiropractors, Hester and members of his family experienced near-miraculous treatment from a talented DC.

“When I was a young boy, my mother had been ill many years,” he says. “She was completely disabled. She wasn’t getting any better under medical treatment so she decided to try chiropractic. My dad and a neighbor had to carry her from the car into the office of our local chiropractor, Dr. Byron Rogers. After several adjustments, she could walk under her own strength. After few months of chiropractic treatment, she had completely recovered.”

As a young boy, Hester suffered from asthma. After Rogers provided him with a few adjustments, the affects of his asthma were reduced measurably. Within a few months, the asthma disappeared, never to return.

With Rogers’ encouragement, Hester attended Lincoln Chiropractic College in Indianapolis, graduating in 1954. Lincoln later merged with the National College of Chiropractic.

The Lincoln curriculum included courses in nutrition, Hester says. “Once I learned how good health not only included good chiropractic care, but good nutrition, I developed a passion for natural healing through nutritional supplements.”

“I started Dee Cee Laboratories by calling on chiropractors in a five-state area,” Hester says. “I was on the road five days a week and traveled approximately 85,000 miles a year. I would phone my orders into the office and they would ship them to the doctor, generally the next day.”

Efficient responses to customers, he believes, was and remains a key to his company’s success. Today, orders received by 2 p.m. Central time will ship the same day (or next day if received after 2 p.m.).

On Saturdays, Hester would work in his office, overseeing the development of new products and developing marketing plans.

He has read every book and article he could find on direct marketing. By

1974, 12 years after starting the company, Dee Cee Laboratories started marketing products by direct mail to 50 states. However, Hester still called on his accounts by telephone. It wasn’t long until he realized that the company needed an incoming toll-free line and customer service representatives to make and answer calls. Now located in White House, Tennessee, his company had one of the first incoming toll-free lines in Tennessee. In 1998, Dee Cee Laboratories added a website, www.deeceelabs.com.

The company has gone 100-percent green, installing a solar panel system that produces all of the electricity needed to operate the manufacturing facility and office complex.

Dee Cee Laboratories is registered with the Food and Drug Administration. “We are regularly inspected by the FDA and on our last inspection we received the highest rating possible with no deficiencies found,” Hester says. Dee Cee Laboratories’ high-speed encapsulation machines can fill up to 110,000 capsules an hour and its tablet machines can produce over 150,000 tablets an hour.

“None of our ingredients come from chemical companies,” Hester says. “We are obsessed with producing quality products. We test all incoming ingredients, test the product multiple times during the manufacturing process, and test the finished product before it is released for distribution.”

Even given the company’s growth over the years, Hester, who still puts in a 50-hour week, refers to Dee Cee Laboratories as a family business.

“My wife JoNell has been working with me for 25 years and today is in charge of Human Resources and giving me good advice on the weekends,” Hester says. “Two of my sons, Bill and Michael, have been working with us since 1996. Bill is responsible for manufacturing and product development, and Michael is in charge of sales and operations.”

Many chiropractors have an entrepreneurial bent. Surveys of DCs by Chiropractic Economics magazine indicate that a major reason they are attracted to the profession is because they enjoy being in business for themselves.

What advice does Hester have for those who want to branch out further into the business world?

“Know your customers, who they are and what their needs are, and then develop products that more than satisfy their expectations both in terms of product and customer service,” he says.

Looking back on what most surprised him about himself: “I found I was a natural salesperson,” he says. “I enjoyed calling on other doctors of chiropractic. It was like calling on family. I still enjoy meeting and talking to fellow DCs. And I named my company Dee Cee Laboratories after them.”

 Daniel Sosnoski is the editor of Chiropractic Economics. He can be reached at 904-567-1539, dsosnoski@chiroeco.com, or through www.ChiroEco.com. Stanford Erickson, editorial director of Chiropractic Economics contributed to this article.

 

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