Laser Sharp

Laser Sharp

By Janet Leiser

Senior Editor

From heavy equipment to tires to construction, Dean Akers' career as an executive has run the gamut. Now add laser hair removal to his areas of expertise.

In late 2004, Akers took over as chief executive officer of Ideal Image - started in October 2001 by chiropractors Rick Mikles, his wife, Angela, and Joe Acebal. Under Akers' watch this past year, the Tampa company has grown from four clinics to 29, with another 33 locations projected to open in the first quarter of 2006.

But that's just the beginning: Ideal Image Development Corp. plans to open 60 more locations for a total of 120 clinics by year-end 2006, says the 53-year-old Akers.

The growth doesn't stop there. Ideal Image is in the process of becoming compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a private company so it can issue an IPO in 2007, if all goes well.

The laser hair removal business is a $2.5 billion industry, and Ideal Image is after a large piece of the pie, its CEO says from the company's corporate office on the fourth floor of Urban Centre One on West Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa.

"The industry itself is just an astoundingly fast-growing industry," Akers says. "Technology has allowed lasers to deal with a situation [unwanted hair] that has been around since biblical times."

This year, Ideal Image's revenues are expected to reach about $15 million. Add to that another $15 million in revenue by the franchise group for the same period. Revenue for both groups is projected to jump to $75 million by year-end 2006.

For now, all profits are reinvested in the business to cover capital and expansion expenses.

Of the companies Akers has started, taken over or rescued, he says he has found several things that consistently make them successful.

"One, your biggest competitor is yourself," he says. "If you execute and your team executes, you're going to be successful."

Marketing, advertising and sales calls are essential to a company's success, he says. "If business isn't coming by for you to get a shot at it, you're never going to get it," he says.

This year, Ideal Image spent $5 million on marketing and advertising, primarily billboards and radio. He says the budget is tripling next year to $15 million.

"Third, people do business with people," he says. "When you have a strong organization internally and employees understand we're all in there rowing in the same direction and being successful, that makes a difference. That radiates to your customers."

The reverse is also true, he says.

Listening to customers and employees is also key, he says. Akers dons scrubs, the uniform worn by clinic employees, and visits locations, from Fort Myers to Boca Raton to Ocala to Orlando.

When he hears a good idea, he says he acts on it.

For instance, Ideal Image previously offered other laser services, such as wrinkle and vein reduction and Botox. But employees and customers said the company should focus on hair removal only.

Akers agreed. Ideal Image narrowed its niche. "The change came about," he says, "not by me sitting around with a Ouija board. It came about by hearing the goals and needs and confusions the industry creates with all these different services."

As CEO, he says he shares his vision with the employees to inspire them to offer the "Ritz-Carlton experience" to Ideal Image customers.

"Our people do an awesome job," he says. "The technology allows them to do an awesome job. But if people come in, and they don't feel the love, as I call it, it doesn't work."

He tells employees that what makes Publix Super Markets the top store in Florida and elsewhere isn't its products. "They have market share, profitability, customer satisfaction, team member satisfaction," he says. "But they all sell the same type of ketchup. The competitiveness is about the guest experience.

"If we're on our game, we should have sustained growth, sustained profitability and sustained customer and team satisfaction," Akers says.

Another change under Akers' tenure is how employees, called associates, handle callers interested in Ideal Image's services. They wanted to eliminate the script they read to customers. Akers said OK.

The rate of those who call and later become clients improved dramatically, he says. It rose from about 17% to just higher than 20%.

"The biggest challenge we face, which is the same challenge every company faces, whether they're mature or new, is making sure we're executing every day for our guests," Akers says.

The Tampa native, who grew up in Lakeland and graduated from the University of Florida, offers folksy words of wisdom.

Most people, he says, want to succeed.

"People don't get out of bed in the morning wanting to be a loser," he says. "They really don't."

And when the company doesn't do well, Akers, the 2006 incoming chairman of the CEO Council of Tampa, says he accepts responsibility.

He quoted infamous University of Alabama coach Bear Bryant. "He used to say, 'We won. I lost.' You never heard him say I can't get my quarterbacks to do what I want. He said 'I lost.' He was a great leader. He took responsibility for not getting his team up."

Akers says his strength is his ability to motivate employees. His weakness: operational details. "That's why I hired a world-class COO, John Okkerse," he says. The two spent 10 days together at work before they agreed they'd make a good team.

"He has strengths that just are out of my realm," he says of Okkerse. "And I have strengths that will help him grow."

Akers and Okkerse are Ideal Image shareholders, but the company's majority owners are still the founders, Mikles and Acebal. The other management member on the "board of advisers" is Mike Landis, senior vice president of finance. Outside board members are Joe Kadow, general counsel with Outback Steak House; Bill McBride, former managing partner with Holland & Knight LLP and Democratic governor candidate; and Paul H. Auslander of American Financial Partners.

Ideal Image is among 15 companies slated to make a presentation at the 2006 Florida Venture Forum Capital Conference Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at the Sawgrass Marriott in Ponte Vedra Beach. But Akers say the company isn't seeking a capital infusion.

"We are presenting just to showcase the company," Akers says. "We have been growing the company out of cash flows and some debt."

Plus, the franchises provide capital. Each new franchisee pays the company between $500,000 and $700,000 to buy a location, Akers says. In addition, the company receives part of each franchise's annual revenue, which is usually $1 million the first year of operation.

By 2007, Ideal Image plans to increase locations owned by the company to 40% of all its clinics. Today, only six of the 29 are company-owned.

"Our growth is not dependent on venture capital," he says.

AKERS ON WHAT IT TAKES

1. COMMUNICATE. "The No. 1 complaint people have, whether it's in relationships or companies, is communication. Take time to learn how to communicate. Take a speaking course ... Communication is key to being a leader and an entrepreneur."

2. THE NUMBERS. "I'm not an accountant, but over the years I've developed an extensive ability to read financials. I can take a company apart with the financials. That's a huge value to an entrepreneur. You're able to look at the financials and know what's going on. You get it through experience, but you also have to know to ask the right people the right questions."

3. KEEP THE RIGHT COMPANY. "If you go out and run with six-minute runners, eventually you'll run a mile in six minutes. But if you run with 12-minute runners, you'll run it in 12 minutes."

4. WOW CUSTOMERS. "People worry more about other companies more than they worry about themselves. They sit there and try to second-guess what's going on in the market versus just opening up their business and wowing customers."

5. BE A VISIONARY "If you look at the traits of the superstars, Jack Welch and others, they're people who are able to create the vision and get people to execute the vision. They generally surround themselves with great people. They are looking for people who can really carry it out."