Sue and Associates Named October Small Business of the Month

Specialty: Insurance Physicals, Medical Testing

With her sewing machine cabinet for a desk and the island between her living and dining room the spot for her copier, Sue Zwyers launched a part-time business 23 years ago doing insurance physicals. Today, she operates Sue and Associates from offices at 401 S. Earl Avenue, employs three full-time and more as contract workers, and serves about a dozen area counties. The business offers a full range of medical testing, including DNA, drug screening and blood draws, as well as physicals for life, health and long-term insurance coverage, health screens for patients headed to Mayo Clinic and other special orders. Join us for a reception saluting Sue and Associates at 4 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, October 7, at Lafayette Savings Bank Annex.

 Hoping to supplement her full-time hospital job 23 years ago, Sue Zwyers contacted local insurance agents, offering to do insurance physicals. Many hired her. As her home-based job grew, she cut back on her hospital hours, eventually devoting herself full-time to her business, today known as Sue and Associates (www.sueandassociates.com), which she describes as “monitoring the pulse of life, health and business.”

“Most people will sit down and plot out a business,” Zwyers says. “I never intended to be here. I was a single mom and wanted some extra income.”

Home Business That Grew

She set up shop at home, with her sewing machine cabinet as her desk, and lined up work. “As it grew, I backed down at the hospital. I worked from home many years, and it got big enough I had to do something.”

           
The business eventually moved from home to Executive Drive, then to today’s site at 401 S. Earl Ave., where she employs three full-time and has a varying number of contract workers. Its services have expanded far beyond insurance physicals, although they remain a core part of the business. Sue and Associates also offers drug screening, DNA testing and blood draws for private labs. The business collects specimens; most are sent to other labs for processing.

Numerous National Accounts

“We contract with a lot of national vendors,” she says. “Each vendor wants something different. We collect for insurance physicals, do blood draws for different doctor scripts, and do drug screening for local employers.”

           
Dave Mills of the Mills Agency was one of her earliest clients. “She is deserving of this award,” he says. “Sue and Associates does a nice job. They are always dependable.”

           
Alan Gilbert at Indiana Farm Bureau is another long-time client. “Sue and Associates is very good at completing insurance exams needed when people apply for life insurance. They have always done an outstanding job,” Gilbert says. “I call or fax, and they take it from there. I’ve used no other service. The personnel are very nice and easy to work with, and when it’s needed right away, they try to accommodate me, and I appreciate that.”

           
April and May are her busiest months, when Purdue University students need pre-employment or internship screens. “I get a lot of parents bringing their kids in,” she says, and requests to screen those who drive for their work.

           
“You never know what’s going to be walking in the door,” she says. “That’s what makes the day interesting, instead of sitting there doing the same thing all day.”

Raised in Chicago, Lifelong Indiana Ties
 
Born and raised in Chicago, Zwyers spent summers in the area. “My grandparents had a cottage on the Tippecanoe River by Monticello. We never went to summer camp because we had our own.”

           
When she was a high school junior, her family moved to Frankfort, her father’s hometown, and Zwyers graduated from Clinton Central High School. She went on to earn a nursing degree at Ivy Tech and held a couple of different jobs at physician’s offices before taking a hospital post, then starting her business.

Volunteering, Giving

           
Zwyers’ community involvement includes leadership in the Association of Women Business Owners, committee service for Greater Lafayette Commerce and participation in Toastmasters. While living in Delphi, she volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children involved in the court system.

           
Her philanthropy includes the annual charities of Tri-Kappa and Association of Women Business owners, Women’s Home with Hope and Cary Home for Girls. “We have also sponsored charity golf outings and health fairs, taking blood pressures and vital signs.”

Criteria for Choosing Small Business of the Month Winners

Nominated businesses must be:

• Privately owned
  
• In business under current ownership at least three years
  
• A Greater Lafayette Commerce member
  
• Staffed by 50 or fewer employee
  
• Community Involved
  

The Small Business of the Month Award is sponsored by
Lafayette Savings Bank