From Homebound to Health: Moneisha White’s Bold Vision for Mobile Lab Services

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC’s Open for Business. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Moneisha White. And she is the Laboratory Director, Founder, Operations Manager with White Labs Concierge Lab Services. Welcome.

Moneisha White: Thank you. Nice to be here, Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about White Labs. How are you serving folks?

Moneisha White: White Labs. Um, what we do is we are a mobile lab collection service. We go to people who are homebound. We service, um, home health agencies. We work with private doctors and we work with the government services as well. I’m drawing their labs and doing drug screens.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Moneisha White: I got into this line of work because I had did over 22 years at the time as a lab phlebotomist, patient care technician, and customer service. So loving lab and seeing that there was a need for accessibility and convenience for certain people. I had a lot of patients reach out to me before they got discharged from the hospital. Could I come to their home and draw their labs? And therefore, in 2017, White Labs Concierge Lab Services was born.

Lee Kantor: Was that kind of a big decision? Were you nervous about kind of doing your own thing?

Moneisha White: Oh, gosh. Yes. I was very nervous because I was like, what if no one likes me? What if no one wants to buy my services? Or what if I don’t do it. But that fear all went behind me when I had patients that kept calling me weekly or monthly, and doctors who wanted me to take care of their patients that were very hard sticks, but they couldn’t be done inside of a lab because they were fearful of coming out of their homes.

Lee Kantor: So did that require you? So you’re in the car driving to individuals houses kind of all throughout the day?

Moneisha White: Yes. Some days I drive all day and some days I don’t drive that much. It just depends on how they’re scheduled and where they’re located.

Lee Kantor: So when you kind of drew up this business in your head, is it how you imagined?

Moneisha White: No. It has become way more than what I imagined. I just thought it would be something like a little side hustle that I would do for fun. But when the pandemic hit, um, it was a need and a grow a growth for Covid testing and more. They put to the side with drug screening. So I had to adapt. And in doing that, that made me more popular. So I ended up working on TV shows and that made it all the exclusive. Then.

Lee Kantor: Because you were just going to one location, then doing the labs for everybody?

Moneisha White: Yes. So multiple times a week with different production companies and TV shows I work with doing their Covid testing three times to four times a week. And then after that, I ended up doing some IV therapy for different people that needed private services.

Lee Kantor: So this the business took on a life of its own, right. You couldn’t have imagined that that was going to happen. That just happened, right?

Moneisha White: Yes, it did, and I’m thankful for that. And then after the pandemic, we had to adjust because now no one’s doing Covid testing as much. So now we’re doing other testing, but we’re still back to the basics of blood drug screening and wellness screenings, but we’re also making sure that we’re doing community events like heart awareness, um, prostate screenings, breast cancer screenings, and education as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, has the business expanded beyond you? Do you have a team now?

Moneisha White: I do, I have nine independent contractors. I have two full time workers now, so. And I had to hire me a CPA now.

Lee Kantor: Um, was that kind of a big change? Because now the business is managing people, not just doing the work. So that adds another layer of complexity.

Moneisha White: Yes it does. So at first I really didn’t know what I was doing, but thank goodness for, um, GWB Webank who actually assisted with Invest Atlanta, um, to mentor me and make sure that I had my bookkeeping, CPA and my licensure correctly done. And I’m following all the major rules and state guidelines.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And your business, there’s a lot of rules. So that takes a lot of you got to pay attention, a lot of details in that part of the business.

Moneisha White: Oh gosh. Yes. I was like, I worked so hard for these certifications and these licenses. I definitely don’t want to lose them. So I want to make sure that I’m actually doing everything by the book and doing everything accordingly so that I can continue to grow and not just Georgia, but be the source that everyone looks for in the southeast.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs when it comes to maybe measuring success and then not not just measuring success by financial metrics, maybe other metrics as well?

Moneisha White: Yes. Um, knowing that you’re building partnerships, um, and working, you’re collaborating with healthcare providers, um, senior living communities and corporate wellness programs and making sure that it not only serves you, but it serves your purpose and what your mission is and what you’re trying to acquire. Because not all the time is money going to be involved. Your image will be involved. Um, your name, your integrity, and also just you. Um, and people will know you because that’s your brand.

Lee Kantor: And the impact in the community is real. Right. I’m sure you’re making a difference in the community every day.

Moneisha White: Yes. The community is very real. The contributions that I’ve done, because I see, um, some people do the school back to school things for the parents. I go in a community where they do the back to school community thing every year, and I do it for the grandparents. So there was a lot of grandparents that were complaining, and that came to me and let me know, hey, I take care of my grandkids and but we can’t make it over to the Georgia Dome to get book bags and school supplies. So I went on Martin Luther King. Um, in my neighborhood. And I set up shop at the Dollar General, and the manager was very nice letting me set up there, and I was able to service 350 families. Um, the grandparents that had children that they were taking care of, of their adult kids. So I know that White Labs is making an impact because we’re helping people that most people leave out of being helped.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And that’s an important lesson, I think, for everybody is just because something’s done a certain way. If you listen to your community members and see what they need, you know, from their their mouth, not somebody else who has an idea of what they think they need or how they want to deliver the services. You you might be able to be creative and solve the problem differently like you did.

Moneisha White: Yes, yes, and I did. And a lot of people are very thankful. Now, when people see me on the street, they’re like, oh, that’s the lab lady. They might not know my name, but they know who I am because they’ve seen what I’ve done and they’re seeing what I’m doing. So it’s not something that I did just for the publicity stunt. I did it because I knew my community needed it.

Lee Kantor: Now, how has that kind of changed? Maybe your perception of what entrepreneurship was, because that’s an important element of it. And I don’t think people realize how rewarding it is to be an entrepreneur when you are making that big of a difference, because when you start a business, you don’t think about some of these things until you’re kind of in the business.

Moneisha White: Correct? I was also thinking about, well, how am I going to eat? How am I going to pay my bills? So there was a lot of personal growth for me. Um, the challenges and responsibilities of my entrepreneurship, um, brought on self improvement for me as far as a woman, a mom, and now I’m a grandmother. So my skills and my confidence grew, so I had a lot of personal growth. I seen that with my entrepreneurship, I had impact on my community, just not just through my marketing, but through making a job creation. I’m actually able to hire other people and help them feed their families. They might not be full time, but I know they’re independent contractors and they’re making a livable wage. Then I had the flexibility and management, you know, um, well, I can work mornings, I can work evenings, I can work weekends, or I don’t have to work at all during the day. It’s a it’s about the flexibility for me as an entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: And your role modeling how to be an entrepreneur to your family and to your community. I mean, that’s so important as well.

Moneisha White: It is, it is. I didn’t know that other people were watching me and my family. I have three cousins now that are in college that really are, um, going for the entrepreneurship. Now they’re doing their, um, college degrees in financial management or something with healthcare management, and now they’re thinking about doing their own thing.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Isn’t that that must make you feel proud.

Moneisha White: Oh, my gosh, that does make me feel proud because I didn’t go to college myself. But knowing that I have the educational and the resources and the women behind me that are helping me, I really do want to continue to make sure that I’m a great, um, perspective. And someone can look at me and say, hey, yeah, I think I can do that too.

Lee Kantor: Now, you’ve mentioned several times the word community and how it’s important. Can you share a little bit about the GWB community? How has that helped you take your business to new levels?

Moneisha White: The brand reputation, just having that name attached to my business, it gave my business brand, um, a better perception. And more people know that I am a quality business. The diversity and inclusion with it, um, with the women. Because women are so left out sometimes on different things, they’re able to help you and help you negotiate and also help you be confident in what you say when you’re trying to negotiate your value. And also that helps me with my network growth. Um, because I’ve met some amazing other businesses that I’ve able to talk with, um, get some pointers from and soon to be collaborating with some of these women. So gwdc oh my God, if it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to even have this interview.

Lee Kantor: Now, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Moneisha White: What I need more of is more Visibility. Um. Get it out there that this small business is here for the community, not just for the Adamsville area. We’re here for the entire state of Georgia. We just need to know, let them know that we are here to help service whatever community needs services, because a lot of the rural communities don’t have as much access to lab services as well as the Atlanta city region does. And that’s where I come in. I’m here to go to those areas that those small doctors practicing in a lab or in a doctor’s office. I’m here to service your patients. You have a business that might need drug screening or wellness screenings. I’m here to come to your business. We come to you for a one stop, one shop. We’re there for you.

Lee Kantor: So that, like, if a business needs that service, they can say, okay, every Monday, um, Maneesha and her team will show up, and then they’ll be able to service whoever needs that service on Monday, right?

Moneisha White: Yes, sir. We are. We can make it. And we detail that service just for that business. It’s not a one fit all category because every business deserves to be fit to what they need. So I try to make sure that it’s service based on that business, however many people they need there and how they service their teams, because there are some businesses that just don’t have morning stuff that they can get done. They might need some night people or midnight people, and we try to cater that to them as well.

Lee Kantor: Wow. Super service.

Moneisha White: Yes.

Lee Kantor: Now if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, is there a website? Is there a best way to connect?

Moneisha White: Yes. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. My website is w WW dot White Labs services.com. Um, you can also reach me at our phone number and it’s (470) 445-8772. And you can email me if you need to email me anything at White Labs 2017 at gmail.com.

Lee Kantor: Well, congratulations on all the success. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Moneisha White: Thank you. Thank you for having me. And I appreciate that.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on GWBC Open for Business.