Best Rehab Technology Provider

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Teresa Glass Owens once had a friend who was fired from UPS after only two weeks of employment there.

"He said, 'But I only made one mistake,'" she recalls. "His boss responded, 'Son, everyone can't work for UPS.' That stayed in my head for years and years."

That was the mindset Glass Owens brought to her company, Memphis-based Glass Seating & Mobility, when she founded it a decade ago.

"Everyone can't work for Glass Mobility," she says today. "We'll give you an opportunity, but you have to perform and share our vision or you won't make it."

Glass Owens' exacting focus on employee performance has created what she considers the most significant factor in her company's success.

"The key to my profitability is my revenue per employee ratio," she says. "We run between $250,000 and $350,000 in revenue per employee. That's very high."

With a staff of 25 employees, Glass Seating & Mobility serves nearly 3,000 patients from three locations and is projected to reach $8 million in revenues this year.

But in the early years, Glass Seating & Mobility's growth was not so meteoric. Glass Owens recalls growing slowly for the first five years, then hovering just over $1 million in revenue.

But her company began to take off when she altered her hiring procedures.

"I stopped hiring off of paper," she said. "I said, I'm going to find people who have the same passion I do for complex rehab. We didn't require that much more staff. It's just the right staff."

Glass Seating & Mobility has grown despite difficult market conditions, and Glass Owens has an optimistic view of the future.

"I'm very hopeful, more now than I've ever been in this industry," she says. "(Complex rehab organizations) have more of a voice than ever, and I think that voice is going to be heard."