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(Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli) Taking chances with business communications Locally based company shares lessons on personnel decisions, long-term goals and past mistakes Editor's note: This is one in a weekly series of profiles on locally owned and operated businesses in Southern Oregon. What do you do and how long have you been doing it? We install and service business phone systems everywhere from a real estate office to your family dentist. We do all facets from cabling of the building to installation and training the users as well as service after the sale. As Best Tel we've been doing this for five years, and before that Dennis started Business Telecom in 1985. We have offices in Portland and Eugene and provide services throughout Oregon and Washington. How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley? Dennis moved to Medford from Cave Junction in 1983, Chuck moved here in 1993 from Modesto, Calif., and Gary and Tamara live in Eugene. Advertisement What inspired you to go into this line of work? I Dennis was working for an independent telephone company, CP National. In 1984 the Supreme Court split up AT&T, offering a chance to compete with Ma Bell. I started Business Telecom in Medford, picking a couple of partners. We lined up a couple of suppliers, Toshiba and North Supply. Among our first customers was Ed Miller at Ed's Associated Tires and Rogue Valley Manor. What decision or action would you change if you could do it again? Biggest and costliest mistakes are hiring the wrong people who are not motivated toward success, don't have a work ethic, or misrepresented their skills during the interview process. Realizing these employes are not going to work and making the change sooner rather than later is best. Sometimes we carry them along instead of getting someone that wants to work and pull their fair share. What's the toughest business decision you've made? Agonizing over employees and sorting them out. Sometimes the chemistry isn't good and letting someone go is always a tough decision. Who are your competitors? Qwest, Cisco and large telecommunications firms that market into the area, such as Eschelon Telecom and Embarq. There are some small local companies that do cabling and building and do smaller business needs but don't get into the complex applications we do. How do you define success for your business? There are lots of different ways. Seeing revenue grow each year is one, because it's proof that our business plan works and customers like us and keep coming back. We provide family-wage jobs and a full set of benefits for our employees. We also like what we do in providing the technical aspects for our customers. To see them embrace our technology helps provide our customers a competitive edge in the market. What are your goals? We want to continue to grow. We're looking at the Bend area and we might open offices in the Seattle area if we find the right individuals who could help us open those markets. We're bringing on new products such as Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP, that's the big change in the industry right now. There are a lot of applications we're trying to get our hands around and our customers are asking for it. What training or education did you need? I learned about the industry working for the phone company. Business management is critical in running any business. To be a technician you need to know about computers and electronics. Account executives, office staff and technicians need to learn and practice customer service, and that leads to repeat business. Our account executives are college graduates driven to succeed and keep the wheels turning. What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs? Go for it. If you see a need in society for your product, take a chance and go for it. Make sure you like your partners. You spend more time with your partners than your wife, so make sure you can live with them. Getting the right employees will pay dividends; the bad ones will cost you a bundle. To suggest an idea for this column, contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems California Casinos Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews Advertisements Advertisement