Scott Haas was a surgical instrument rep and decided to start his own business in 2002, which would offer a wide variety of used endoscopic and general medical equipment at low prices. Thus H&H Surgical Technologies was born in Madison, Wis.

"I jumped off on my own. The first year was definitely a scramble, trying to find any and all product lines to try to sell and purchase from hospitals and try to find capital to purchase the equipment," he said. "Things started to take off."

Today, the company employs three inside workers and one outside sales rep as they offer new and used laparoscopic instrumentation and surgical products, and extensive repair capabilities to hospitals, veterinarians and dealers. Because of Haas' background, he has seen many of the surgeries done hundreds of times and can make recommendations and prove a greater resource than other dealers.

"We can offer expertise in surgery. Regardless of who calls, whether another dealer or a surgeon or a surgical tech, I can help them," he said. "Whatever procedure that they are doing, I can make recommendations for equipment, whereas a lot of folks in my industry can sell the equipment, but not really understand what it's used for."

The last couple of years, Haas has come up with something he calls CPA, constant price adjustment, where it addresses prices daily to react to what's hot and not in the market.

"People keep coming back because we stand by our equipment," he said. "Anyone can buy the stuff and sell used equipment but to have the wherewithal to stand behind it and have the inventory to replace or repair--that's what keeps people coming back."

The company keeps a half million dollars of inventory, composed of endoscopy equipment and surgical instrumentation in a 6,000-square-foot warehouse. The equipment is shipped all over the world.

"Our biggest success has been getting into the international market and getting a good name out there to create returning customers," he said. "We started getting recognized internationally in our third year, and when you're talking about used equipment, that's the biggest market."

Looking ahead, Haas sees the potential for increased growth and is already in the process of making that happen.

"I have currently a small expansion office in Miami that we are getting ramped up with equipment for a rep that's in that area," he said. They're also exploring an office South America.

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