Ann Sabbag created Health Designs Inc. 15 years ago. The company creates and implements workplace wellness programs.
The growth of the business attracted the attention of the U.S. Small Business Administration, which named Sabbag as the 2012 Small Business Person of the Year for Florida as well as for the North Florida District.
The Daily Record interviewed Sabbag for “First Coast Success”, a regular segment on the award-winning 89.9 FM flagship First Coast Connect program, hosted by Melissa Ross.
The interview is scheduled for broadcast this morning and the replay will be at 8 p.m. on the WJCT Arts Channel or online at www.wjctondemand.org.
These are edited excerpts from the full transcript.
Would you tell us about Health Designs?
I started the company 17 years ago. It’s a company that provides worksite wellness services. We help employers improve the health of their employees, productivity, create a healthy workplace culture and contain their health care costs. Last year we reached more than 60,000 employees at more than 300 different companies nationwide.
This was a new industry 17 years ago. How did you become involved?
Then, worksite wellness was certainly in its infancy. Mostly large employers were doing this type of service, but I saw that many employers, regardless of size and regardless of industry, would benefit. I was working at BellSouth and I loved my job there. We created lots of good for the organization and the lives of their employees, and I saw that there was an opportunity to offer this to other employers nationwide. I started to create a business model that could do just that.
What was it like to step outside of the corporate world into the world of running your own business?
Though I loved my job at BellSouth, because I had very good support from the corporation and I had lots of very good positive relationships there, I never really fit in the corporate world. I wasn’t a “yes” person. I always had this entrepreneurial spirit. It was always burning inside me and as I started to dream about having my own company in worksite wellness, I just became more excited and knew that I just had to step out on my own.
I guess my personal passion for helping individuals develop the capacity to have more health and joy in their lives always fueled that. I knew that I could do it for other companies if it was successful at BellSouth.
How do you build a company like that?
You have a lot of personal passion around what you want to do, because it’s brand-new, so you’ve got to have a lot of drive and a lot of fire in your belly. You’ve got to have a very good plan and then execute it. A lot of people have great plans and great dreams, but sometimes they don’t execute it. I do a lot of mentoring with other small business owners, and that’s what I find.
A dream is great on paper and great theoretically, but you have to step out of your comfort zone and execute it and be deliberate and strategic and stay focused on that goal.
How much time does that take?
Whenever you run an organization, even a small business like mine, it’s a tremendous amount of energy. And time. I certainly put in more than 60, 65 hours a week. But the good thing is that my vocation is my avocation, so I’m very blessed in that I use the talent that I was born with. I still look forward to Monday mornings because I get to go back and really play to my strengths and talents.
Define workplace wellness.
Workplace wellness is helping employers improve the health and productivity of their employees, taking a look at their workplace culture and how they do things, and offering programs and services and policies in an environment that supports employees choosing health.
For example, encouraging employees to use the stairs, rather than the elevator. Having healthy food at company events. Encouraging employees to have work-life balance.
Fifty and 60 hours for a person that’s just doing a task is not really a healthy environment. Encouraging people to have walking meetings. Encouraging people to have work that they enjoy doing.
Are you able to quantify what this means to the bottom line of a company?
Absolutely. For every $1 spent on worksite wellness, the studies repeatedly show that the return on investment is $3 to $6.
We’ve been working with a blue-collar company in the Midwest and they have 12 locations. We’ve been working with them several years.
When we first started with them, 11 percent of their population of about 1,700 employees had five or more risk factors. Just this last year, less than 3 percent had five or more risk factors. When you can move the population from high risk to moderate risk to low risk, you save dollars because there’s no doubt about it, costs follow risks.
The more risks that your employees have, the more costs you will incur as a company. The lower the risks are, the healthier the employees are, you have less costs and more engaged, productive, loyal employees.
One of the best things about our worksite wellness services is not only do they contain health care costs, they create a healthy workplace culture, so people like their work better. They like coming to work. They’re appreciative of their employer for offering services that not only benefit their paychecks, but demonstrate that the employer cares about them as an individual and their well-being. So there’s more committedness, more loyalty, more productivity. The company benefits all the more as well.
What are those risks?
Risks are a sedentary lifestyle, when you exercise fewer than three times a week; have high cholesterol; have high glucose values; use tobacco products; have high stress; have high waist measurements; are overweight; those types of things. They are very costly to employers.
Tell me about your company. How many employees do you have?
By the end of the year, we will have 13 employees and 75 part-time team members throughout the state of Florida, and many individuals in 19 states throughout the country. We’re building a team in Atlanta right now, and Charlotte.
What did the SBA consider in naming you the state’s Small Business Person of the Year?
I think being very persistent with this whole worksite wellness idea and business model, but I think No. 1, having an innovative business model and innovative service.
You see, nobody was doing worksite wellness like we’ve been doing for the last several years, and our products and services have become the best practices in our industry. And we’ve created jobs. This year alone, Health Designs has added four extraordinary people to our team.
We’ve had very nice and steady growth this past five years. Even during these economic times, we’ve grown 15 percent and 20 percent in the last five years.
Then, being an innovative leader in our industry when the industry was very loosely defined. We’ve helped to define it and we’ve become a recognized leader.
We have a very good reputation in our industry. Oftentimes worksite wellness services are offered to just larger companies. We have a model that can offer it to employers of all sizes.
What is the state of the economy? What are you seeing these days?
Small businesses are starting to be much more hopeful. They see light at the end of the tunnel. They’re starting to put dollars in marketing and branding now, soft services, and they’re starting to hire again. Slowly, but they are starting to hire. Those are all great signs.
What challenges do you see facing small businesses?
Many of my colleagues are having a difficult time getting financial backing. Banks are very hesitant about loaning money.
Another big issue is health care costs for small businesses. Larger businesses have a larger pool to pull from; smaller companies don’t have a lot of options.
Small business owners want to offer benefits that are similar to large businesses. We want to retain the very best talent and offer a benefit package that’s attractive and competitive to larger employers. Health care costs are a major challenge for all businesses, but particularly small businesses. Many of them don’t offer health insurance at all and when they do get rates, they’re very surprised by how high they are.
Do you see any resolution to that?
I was in Washington just a few weeks ago representing Florida, and there was a lot of talk around it. I think that the SBA and the government administration is looking into more creative ways, and of course we’re going to find out a little bit more about the health care act that the Supreme Court will be ruling on very shortly, so I think that that will point us in some direction as well.
What’s your background? How did you envision your life?
I always thought I would have my own business. I have always had a personal passion for helping people improve their health and joy, and living with intention.
I’m one of eight children and my father had heart disease and my whole family had to change the way that we chose food, cooked food, exercised. He was a smoker and we were always on him about giving up cigarettes.
But there was also a lot of joy in our family and one of the things my parents instilled in me was a very strong work ethic. Do what you love and the money will follow as long as you have a good plan and execute it. I always kind of knew that I’d end up in this place.
I always wanted to have a company and create a company with the force of good. I think I’ve done that.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Jacksonville and I was raised until I was a teenager in Philadelphia. I moved back here in middle school. I went to Bishop Kenny High School and Florida State University and fell in love with a man in Tallahassee that was also from Jacksonville and wanted to come back.
What’s next for Health Designs?
My team and I are strategizing on that right now. We’ve had a fabulous reach in Florida. We are Florida Blue’s wellness partner. That’s been a fabulous partner for us and they’ve been very good to the small business owner in every aspect. We plan to be a recognized leader in the Southeast in the next couple of years. That’s why we’re building a team in Atlanta and Charlotte.
As the Small Business Person of the Year, what does that entail?
I went to Washington and represented the state about three weeks ago and met all the other state winners. It was the highlight of my career thus far — to represent my state, to represent the City of Jacksonville, to represent the Small Business Administration, the Jacksonville Women’s Business Center, the Chamber of Commerce, that have all been fabulous resources to the small owner.
The week that I got back, it was Small Business Week here in Jacksonville and we had a big award ceremony at the University of North Florida.
My whole team was there, many of the people that have supported me and helped me get to this very place. My family, my children — my daughter lives in Boulder and my son in L.A. — both came home and were right there by my side, as well as my rock, my husband, and all the other organizations that have helped Health Designs get there.
This was just such a great win for my entire team. We’ve been plugging along at this, slowly but surely, and now we’re recognized for our contribution to our city, to our state and to the employers that have been our devoted clients for these many years. And to our partners and strategic advisers that have helped us.
Do you have any advice for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Find that thing that you are really passionate about because if you’re going to have a small business, you need to be prepared for a lot of hours, a lot of heartache, a lot of taking risks, but a lot of joy and sense of accomplishment.
My other advice would be to invest in self-awareness and personal development, be a good leader.
If you’re going to have a business of one, that’s one thing. If you’re going to have a business with other people working with and for you, then you need to put a lot of attention into becoming a positive leader, because it’s our responsibility to influence and coach and mentor and nurture those people that are walking alongside you every day.
One of the tenets that I hold very true is be authentic. I can’t be anybody else, really, than who I am, so I try to be authentic and true to those values that I hold dear.
Then lastly, create collaborative relationships. If a relationship isn’t positive in both directions, it’s not going to be a lasting one. So I set it up to be positive in a win/win on both sides of the table, whether it’s my staff, my team members, strategic partners, clients, vendors, suppliers, partners. It’s got to be a positive relationship if it’s going to be a lasting one.
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