To the untrained ear, a career transition from professional opera singer to employee background investigator might sound a little off-key.
But coincidence and confidence transformed trained singer Cindy Franklin into the owner and president of Covington-based Background Bureau Inc.
''I was trained to put a lot of things on the line,'' Ms. Franklin said. ''If you are willing to put on three layers of makeup in the opera, there aren't a whole lot of chances you won't take.''
Ms. Franklin risked her credit and her future when she took over Unifile Inc. in 1993. The company was operating at a loss after the company's owner pleaded guilty to illegally accessing Ohio's law enforcement data bank in 1994.
Today, with the help of her 11-person office staff, Ms. Franklin has moved the company from downtown Cincinnati, incorporated it as Background Bureau Inc. and revised the company's methods of checking the criminal and work histories of clients' prospective hires.
Ms. Franklin said the firm's 1996 revenues topped $1 million.
Through what Ms. Franklin called ''blind luck,'' she had landed a clerical job at Unifile in 1992. Before she found the Unifile job, however, Ms. Franklin suffered some hard luck.
Severe asthma ended her singing career in New York and her mother, who lives in Covington, was diagnosed with cancer.
To be closer to her mother, Ms. Franklin moved to Covington in 1990. She worked a series of temporary jobs, trying to find a field she liked.
''I've always believed that whenever one door is closed on you, God opens another,'' the 41-year-old entrepreneur said.
Background Bureau has clients and independent researchers in all 50 states and Canada.
Each criminal history check is done by hand in the counties where the subject has lived. Although the company doesn't guarantee it, about 88 percent of the background checks have a two-day turnaround, Ms. Franklin said.
Ms. Franklin's clients include Wendy's International, Burger King, Hershey Foods, Baldwin Piano, Huffy bicycles and several public and private school systems.
''Anyone who hires employees should use this service,'' Ms. Franklin said. ''People are not what they seem anymore.''
The rise in workplace violence during the past decade makes background checks essential, she said.
The latest study of workplace violence, released in 1993 by Northwestern National Life Insurance Co., reported that 2.2 million U.S. workers were attacked, 6.3 million were threatened and 16.1 million were harassed on the job in 1992.
''If you've got a child that has been molested by a bus driver, we're the ones that might have kept that man off the bus,'' Ms. Franklin said.
Single county conviction history checks cost $25. Background Bureau has several packaged offers ranging from $35 to check criminal and credit or driving history to an $85 deal that investigates convictions, credit, driving, education and prior employment histories.
''Turnover (of employees) is expensive,'' Ms. Franklin said, noting that background screens also can help weed out incompetent and unreliable employees.
Joan Collum, human resources assistant for Cincinnati's Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences (IAMS) which has about 78 employees, said every employee the organization hires must have a background check from Ms. Franklin's company.
''We want to make sure that the employee is representing themselves accurately,'' Ms. Collum said. ''We want to make sure that everything is as it appears.''
For more than a year, Ms. Collum has worked with Back-ground Bureau, coordinating employee background searches. And she said the companies thoroughness is impressive.
''If a prospective employee puts down a school they attended, even if it is a small school that's difficult to find, they will continue to probe until they have some information for us,'' Ms. Collum said.
Like most business owners, Ms. Franklin depends on such glowing reviews from customers to build her firm's reputation.
Although they are different from the musical reviews of her past, Ms. Franklin said she is as passionate about background investigations as she was about her singing career.
''I feel I'm doing a very ethical, moral business,'' she said.
And when she delivers promotional presentations about Background Bureau, she gets to use the skills she learned on the stage.
''This is my performing now,'' she said. ''I go out and talk about Background Bureau.''
