(FORTUNE Magazine) – Environmental Testing & Certification Corp. No one understands the government's complex environmental regulations better than the people who once enforced them. At least that's the thinking at Environmental Testing & Certification, of Edison, New Jersey, formed in 1981 to help companies keep track of the substances they release into the air, soil, and water. ETC's management includes two former senior officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and former Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus is a director. The company expects earnings to more than quintuple to $3 million on revenues of $16 million this year, and ETC's stock, first offered to the public at $5 a share in 1982, has risen to $23.75. ETC monitors and analyzes industrial wastes, storing the results on a computer so that comparisons can be made when new tests are done. Just telling executives about their potential legal liabilities brings in new business. Says Chairman Eckardt C. Beck, ''We've probably given a few hundred managers some sleepless nights.'' Innovative Software Inc. Though reviewers have consistently rated its personal computer programs among the best in the industry, Innovative Software hasn't had the sales and marketing skill to enjoy the success of better-known rivals Lotus Development and Ashton-Tate. Innovative, which sells spreadsheet, word-processing, and data-storage programs that make up the Smart Software System, lost money in each of the last seven quarters, and its stock has dropped from $8.50 a share when it was first issued in 1983 to $2.75 in early June. In what may be the Overland Park, Kansas, company's last play for profitability, it is offering discounts of up to 60% on high-volume purchases. For large customers such as Wells Fargo Bank, the discounts bring the price of all three Smart programs down to that of Lotus's Symphony. Company executives say the discount deal is working. But even optimistic industry analysts think Innovative can do no better than break even on sales of $6.2 million in the current fiscal year. Guest Supply Inc. Many of those little bottles of shampoo and body gel found in better hotel rooms around the U.S. come from Guest Supply of North Brunswick, New Jersey. Started in 1979, Guest Supply sells toiletries with the hotel's name on the labels to the Marriott, Hilton, Ramada, and Holiday Inns chains. Hotels pay from 21 cents for shampoo and two bars of soap up to $30 for a 15-piece set that includes razor, toothbrush, and toilet water. In fiscal 1984 Guest Supply's profits climbed 120% to $792,000 on sales of $11.7 million. Financial analysts expect Guest Supply's sales to double this year. The stock, traded over the counter, has been cleaning up, rising to $16.50 a share from its initial offering price of $7 in 1983. Rax Restaurants Inc. Rax Restaurants of Columbus, Ohio, followed Wendy's International, of neighboring Dublin, into the fast food business. But Wendy's followed Rax in a few areas too: adding stuffing-filled baked potatoes to its menu and salad bars to its interior. Rax, which sells roast beef sandwiches, not hamburgers, has 450 restaurants and expects sales of $115 million this fiscal year. But profits will be only about $1 million vs. $7 million last year, partly because of disappointing sales in new locations. The stock is trading for less than half its mid-1983 offering price of $23.50 a share. Hoping to rack up a better performance, Rax recently recruited a new executive vice president for marketing, Daniel Corrigan, as well as a vice president for real estate development from Wendy's. ''In the past, Wendy's has taken ideas from Rax,'' says Corrigan. ''It's about time we took some from them.''