While striving for long-term goals is common in business, it strikes me as rare for a company’s long-term goal to be putting itself out of business. Oddly, that’s our goal. No doubt it’s an unreachable goal, an impossible dream, but we do dream of a healthy world – one in which no one is made sick by their home, office or school room.

The origin of MycoLab USA, the maker of the Got Mold? Test Kit, was the realization my son Jason and I had years ago that indoor mold growth is a serious health issue for millions of people. The follow-on realization was the fact that there was no scientifically valid, affordable home test kit available on the market.

All this percolated to the surface while Jason was working with his Mold Dog™ Oreo to develop what would turn out to be the model for MycoLab USA’s sister company, 1800-GOT-MOLD? During five years of business building, research and brainstorming, we got a lot of feedback from customers, and lots of unsolicited queries from all over the country, thanks to the internet.

The two most common questions from callers were: “Do you do inspections in my area?” and “Do you sell a home mold test kit?” The answer to the first was often negative, and the second answer was always “No,” but it started the gears moving. Eventually, it became clear: We would have to expand nationally by creating a franchise network of mold inspectors with dogs, and we would have to develop a home mold test kit. So it was that the original company Jason founded, Lab Results LLC, evolved into Mycelium Holdings LLC.

“Mycelium is created when the roots of mold growth join together to form a common structure which helps the organism to extract more nutrition from its surroundings, enabling stronger growth and ensuring its survival.”

Like a good mycelium, the parent company sprouted subsidiaries, including MycoLab USA LLC, 1800-GOT-MOLD? LLC, IndoorHealthSolutions.com and Moldfacts.org.

Okay, to be fully accurate, Mycelium Holdings does not cite “putting ourselves out of business” as its mission. Here’s the actual mission statement:

“Our mission is to improve the quality of the lives of everyone we touch – our employees, our customers, our stakeholders and our vendors – and to improve the indoor air quality industry by virtue of our innovation, our effectiveness and our integrity. We will do this by providing the tools and knowledge people need to breathe freely, one customer at a time.”

The unwritten version of that is: We want to help every person with an indoor air quality problem breathe freely again. If we succeed in that quest, we will have no more work to do. Of course, that’s the same as working for world peace; success is about as likely as getting a sunburn in a coal mine. But I can’t think of a better goal to have when you’re in the business of helping people.

The Got Mold? Test Kit was built from that premise, to be affordable, hassle-free and easy to use, while adhering to industry-standard science. We had to include a ton of information for our customers, to help them understand how to look at their homes and what to look for, before they actually use the sampling devices. We also decided to give much of that knowledge away, in a free ebook. If you haven’t read it, you can get it here.

Meanwhile, I’ll go back to work, putting us out of business.