Saving Lives: One Company at a Time

By CARLY LEVISON Johnette Van Eeden saves lives every month. She isn’t a doctor or a nurse; she is the founder of Star Wellness, a franchise that provides affordable and comprehensive health assessments and screenings to more than 230 businesses, municipalities and organizations throughout Texas and in over 20 other states. Van Eeden left a successful career in computer programming to pursue her dreams of owning her own business in an industry she was truly passionate about. With an influx of health food stores and products, it can be difficult to decipher which products to use. Van Eeden began testing customers for things like cholesterol in the stores,  to point them in the right direction. After getting trained in phlebotomy so she could begin testing blood work, Van Eeden founded Lone Star Screening.  In 2004, Lone Star became Star Wellness and shifted their focus from working with health food stores to working with large corporations. Star Wellness tests for 7 of the top 10 health care expenditures: heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity, stress and thyroid disease. Star Wellness began franchising in 2011 because of the increasing demand for this type of service. With the recent healthcare reform act, many companies are even incentivized or given grants to start wellness programs. "Businesses and organizations now realize that preventive care is the best way to control health care costs and improve productivity by reducing employee sick days," said Van Eeden. "As a result the demand for our services has grown to the point that we had to look at expanding our presence beyond current markets." Star Wellness has a $45,000 franchising fee, which is enticing for someone looking to get into the expanding wellness industry, but it can also cause some problems. Van Eeden says “It is easier for people who don’t have much business experience to buy a low-cost franchise. This can really hurt us and our entire system, which is why we partnered with iFranchise, to help support the brand and our franchisees.” Star Wellness plans to have over 100 locations in the next 5 years, targeting geocentrically for the first year and expanding with multi-unit owners outside the state.