Company can send ultrasound 'movies' around the world
Posted On: Sunday, Aug. 24 2008 01:44 AM
By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily HeraldCrystal Scherer and Elizabeth Combest are betting that the number of young families in the Killeen area and the frequent distance of one young parent from another will prove a unique market for their operation called Now Showing 3d/4d
Ultrasound in an office building at 2210 E. Central Texas Expressway
An imaging technique makes three-dimensional real-time videos of a baby still in the womb that can be shown on flat screens to family and guests seated on a sofa in the room with the mother (depth is the third dimension; time is the fourth), and the image can be streamed to computers around the world. The company can then make DVD's of the event for families to send elsewhere or keep for posterity.
The business is a franchise of United Imaging Partners of Austin, which has gained 90 locations across the country since 2002. Scherer, a Navy veteran who began Wazoo's recreation center here less than a year ago with her husband, James, also an ex-sailor, heard of the opportunity first and convinced Combest to interrupt her plans to become a teacher to give the idea a try.
Combest's husband Todd is the director of Cisco Food Services. Both couples are young parents, the Scherers with two boys and the Combests with two girls, and Scherer had already been a UIP client in Austin. Both families live in Round Rock. Photos of their children are on the office walls.
"I had to think about it long and hard," Combest said. "I have a degree in family science, and I really wanted to be a teacher after four and a half years as a stay-at-home mom. I was ready to take my tests. But this looked so good as an immediate opportunity that I figured I could pick it up later."
She said most medical ultrasounds are only two-dimensional, and the medical environment can't provide the atmosphere of celebration that Now Showing has been building since its opening earlier this month. Besides the video room, the women plan to turn a spacious reception room into a venue for baby showers.
"Clients have to give us a doctor's authorization," she said. "We don't provide medical care, and we want to know the mother's and baby's health needs are being met."
Ultrasound showings are only by appointment. Scherer is on duty half the time and Combest the other half.
UIP founders Curt and Kathy Dimmick of Austin say that no one who has opened a location with them has failed. They claim several innovations including allowing local owners to choose their own names, hours and decor, giving greater weight to determination, motivation, persistence, perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit than financial statements.
Curt Dimmick said, "Seventy percent of people are introducted to the 3d/4d
ultrasound industry because they are pregnant or just had a baby. They see a market void and want to bring this exciting business to their area. We provide them with the foundation and necessary tools to succeed."
More information is available from Now Showing at (254) 690-2229.
Contact Don Bolding at
dbolding@kdhnews.com or call (254) 501-7557.