Prescription For Business Health
'Dr." Jo Ann Bujarski offers care for ailing companies

By Gaye Bunderson
Idaho Business Review - July 2, 2007

The doctor will see you now. The business doctor, that is.

Jo Ann Bujarski opened a company she calls the Business Process Dr. in February. She brings 20 years of experience to her self-funded startup.

In many ways a sick business isn't all that different from a sick person, according to Bujarski. A person in pain will contact a physician to help ease the discomfort of illness. Ailing businesses also need a prescription for getting healthy again.

The one primary difference might be "lots of times businesses don't know they have problems - everybody else knows, including clients, suppliers, and employees," Bujarski said.

But symptoms such as high employee turnover or chronic customer complaints can tip off business owners and managers to the fact something's not quite right.

That's when it's time to call the Business Process Dr.

"I give [the business] an objective look," she said. "That's something very difficult for the business to do itself."

Her level of objectivity allows employees and others the freedom to be honest with her, she said.

Bujarski examines the company and, with documentation, offers advise in "a practical manner that's easy to implement and maintain."

She works primarily with smaller companies and, on average, spends about 10 hours examining a business and offering her antidote for good health.

She offers an initial, free 45-minute consultation.

Another aspect of her business is continuity planning or "disaster recovery planning," as she calls it. This entails helping companies prepare for the unexpected such as fire, death, accidents, and other crises.

"It's kind of like doing a will for a business," she said.

The program helps answer such questions as:

- Who will operate the business in the event of the loss of a key worker?

- How will the business go on following a fire, toxic event, power failure, or major computer malfunction?

"It's best to put the plan in place before you have a problem," she said.

Bujarski was eager to form her own company because "I like to come in and fix a problem and then go away. I'm not trying to plant myself in there."

Being self-employed also allows her to work at home at 10 p.m. if she wants to.

She and a business coach chose the name Business Process Dr. because they thought the idea of health was something people could identify with.

Her company motto is, "For the Health of Your Business."

"People understand that," she said.