HURRICANE, W.Va. - Doug and Rebecca Spaulding admit their business almost failed a number of times. Despite the rough start, the couple's nursing placement business, Capitol Medical, is the largest agency in West Virginia.
HURRICANE, W.Va. - Doug and Rebecca Spaulding admit their business almost failed a number of times.
Despite the rough start, the couple's nursing placement business, Capitol Medical, is the largest agency in West Virginia. The business also celebrated its 10th anniversary last week.
Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008 - Doug and Rebecca Spaulding celebrated the 10th anniversary of their Capitol Medical nursing agency earlier this month. The business, started in the couple's dining room, is the state's largest nursing placement company.
"Our slogan is 'God bless our business so we can bless others,'" Rebecca Spaulding said. "Because we know what its like to have nothing."
The two established Capitol Medical in 1998 in their dining room. Doug Spaulding worked for a chemical company in Putnam County for 14 years before suddenly finding himself laid off when his company outsourced his job.
Through the guidance of a friend he decided to finish his degree at Marshall University.
The couple sold their home in Poca and moved to Huntington. Two years later Doug Spaulding graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in health care. That same month he turned 40.
Following his graduation he took a job with a nurse-staffing agency where he remained for four years before suddenly finding himself without a job again.
"I said, 'Praise the Lord, there's something better for us,'" Rebecca Spaulding said.
As her husband looked for a new job, Rebecca Spaulding said she kept telling him he was wasting his time.
"I felt all along God had a plan for us. I didn't know what it was, but I knew this wasn't it," she said.
Eventually Doug Spaulding approached his wife with the idea to start his own business.
"I said, 'Yep, that's it!'" Rebecca Spaulding said. "Except we did not have one thin dime."
The couple secured a personal loan for $25,000 to start their business.
"It wasn't enough, but it's all we had," Doug Spaulding said.
At the time, they had five children - a combination of "his, hers and ours," he said.
"We had no contracts with health-care facilities and no nurses or aides. I wasn't sure what to do first: Get contracts and hope that they didn't need anyone right away, or concentrate on hiring some people without having somewhere for them to work. We decided to do both," Doug Spaulding said in an e-mail.
HURRICANE, W.Va. - Doug and Rebecca Spaulding admit their business almost failed a number of times.
Despite the rough start, the couple's nursing placement business, Capitol Medical, is the largest agency in West Virginia. The business also celebrated its 10th anniversary last week.
"Our slogan is 'God bless our business so we can bless others,'" Rebecca Spaulding said. "Because we know what its like to have nothing."
The two established Capitol Medical in 1998 in their dining room. Doug Spaulding worked for a chemical company in Putnam County for 14 years before suddenly finding himself laid off when his company outsourced his job.
Through the guidance of a friend he decided to finish his degree at Marshall University.
The couple sold their home in Poca and moved to Huntington. Two years later Doug Spaulding graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in health care. That same month he turned 40.
Following his graduation he took a job with a nurse-staffing agency where he remained for four years before suddenly finding himself without a job again.
"I said, 'Praise the Lord, there's something better for us,'" Rebecca Spaulding said.
As her husband looked for a new job, Rebecca Spaulding said she kept telling him he was wasting his time.
"I felt all along God had a plan for us. I didn't know what it was, but I knew this wasn't it," she said.
Eventually Doug Spaulding approached his wife with the idea to start his own business.
"I said, 'Yep, that's it!'" Rebecca Spaulding said. "Except we did not have one thin dime."
The couple secured a personal loan for $25,000 to start their business.
"It wasn't enough, but it's all we had," Doug Spaulding said.
At the time, they had five children - a combination of "his, hers and ours," he said.
"We had no contracts with health-care facilities and no nurses or aides. I wasn't sure what to do first: Get contracts and hope that they didn't need anyone right away, or concentrate on hiring some people without having somewhere for them to work. We decided to do both," Doug Spaulding said in an e-mail.
"I traveled to hospitals and nursing homes all over the place while my wife interviewed potential employees in fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King and then moved up to Shoney's," he said.
"I tried to make it as convenient for the [interviewees] as possible," Rebecca Spaulding said. She conducted one interview at a Go-Mart and another on the side of the road.
Within a few months, they were able to secure their first contract and hired four nursing assistants.
"It was such a great feeling," Doug Spaulding said.
That is until the husband and wife that were scheduled to fill those shifts called and said that they couldn't go because their car had broken down.
"I thought I was going to cry. Our first shifts, our first opportunity and a nursing home depending on us and we have to call and tell them they won't be there," he said.
They couldn't do it.
"I called the husband and wife back and told them that I would come and get them to take them to work and pick them up when they got off," Doug Spaulding said. "They said OK, and the rest is history."
Since then the Spauldings have done everything they can to make sure their employees make it to work, from offering rides, to bus fare and gas money.
"We've established a reputation of reliability," Doug Spaulding said. "We're not a like a normal business; our employees are our product."
The Spauldings worked out of their home for the first couple of years. Eventually they were able to move into an office space.
The business was their life.
"We didn't go on vacation and we didn't leave town for the first two years," Rebecca Spaulding said. "Everywhere we went the phone came with us."
Their hard work and dedication paid off. Capitol Medical now employs six office staff in addition to up to 100 nursing staff in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi.
"We have a real personal touch," Doug Spaulding said. "[Our clients] know we have a good staff and will go that extra step."
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