During the past year, scientists around the country have encountered various challenges, including an unpredictable world economy, thousands of job losses, and pharmaceutical megamergers. There cannot possibly be a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, can there? Think again.

Independent labs are a service business that thrives on the need to perform quality testing services to answer a variety of customer questions. Successful labs protect their customers confidentiality, meet timelines, act as the independent third party and build relationships based on customers' needs.

Sales and revenue growth are stalled at many companies in a variety of industries. As a result, these firms have frozen or reduced laboratory budgets and in some cases have reduced laboratory staffing levels. There are several ways laboratory managers can effectively respond to these situations.