We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brad James a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brad, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

It was the early 1980’s and I had just graduated from LMU with a Major in Film and Television Production and a minor in Business Administration. I had many contacts within the Television and Film Industry and was prepared to start writing letters, making phone calls and knocking on doors to get an entry level position, regardless of where it was on the ladder.

The very next week, I was playing golf with one of my college pals at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake. It is literally surrounded by Universal Studios, NBC and Warner Brothers.

My friend mentioned that he had attended a franchise conference in Downtown Los Angeles and was going to buy a Distributorship for a Start Up Company in the Telecommunication’s Industry. The Company was “Phoenix Network.”

The telecommunications Industry was really in its infancy in the early 1980’s. You essentially had local phone service, toll phone service and long distance/International Phone Service. There was no public Internet and cell phones were also in their infancy. There was no such thing as a “smart phone”. AOL had that loud dial up.

Phoenix Network had a unique proposition. They had contracts which allowed them to “rebill” the long distance and international telephone services of the 3 major carriers of the time: AT&T, MCI and Sprint.

A client could stay on the major carrier of their choice, but, because Phoenix Network had wholesale agreements with those major carries, out client could be billed at a discount of about 20% to 30%, all while staying on the carrier of their choice. It almost sounded too good to be true.

I decided to go into business with my college pal. After 4 years of college at a private university, I took a job at a courier company from 4am to 9am, 5 days a week. At 9am I would then head over to our office and begin to try and build our Telecommunications Business. To say my parents were not thrilled, would be an understatement. They did however encourage me to “have a go at it” if it was truly something that intrigued me.

It was a huge risk. I was now essentially a salesman looking for clients. And, because the income was 100% residuals based, it meant I did not receive any compensation until I signed a new client and they used the service, received a bill and then paid their invoice! It was a 90 to 120 day cycle on every new account!!

After 6 months of working every day, first at the courier company from 4 am to 9am and then 8 hours a day at my new business, my first commission check was $2.75!! (I was asked if I framed the check. I immediately cashed it, I needed the money lol).

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I previously described how I got into the business, as it related to a huge amount of risk I felt I was taking at the time. The beauty and challenge of the Industry I am in, is that it is always changing and evolving. As I mentioned, in the beginning you had nothing but basic telephone service carried over POTS lines. (Plain old telephone service). I had built up a large stable of clients, many in the Film and Television Industry. Clients like Dick Clark Productions, Bob Hope Enterprises, Sony Pictures and numerous Public Relations Firms….The billings had grown substantially, as had my residual income.

As the industry changed, it was my job to stay on top of the new technology, as well as ferret out the legitimate service offerings from those vendors and suppliers who were spending large sums of money on advertising and promotion, but did not have the products or services to back it up. I was and am, very protective of my clients! They look at me as their trusted advisor. If I recommend a service or solution that hurts their business, I lose all credibility. They are looking to my company to provide them with the products and services that allow them to connect to the rest of the world, and to allow the rest of the world to connect with them. They cannot afford to be offline and down for any amount of time.

Of equal importance is my sense to give back when and where I can. My family has been involved with United Cerebral Palsy for over 70 years! My father, Dennis James, was the Host of their Telethons for 47 years! I sit on the Board of the UCP Center down in Palm Springs. Supporting UCP and many other worthwhile Charities is extremely important to me and my family.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

You cannot be a “jack of all trades”. Connectivity, Cloud, Hosted Voice, IT, Security and Software are all very specialized areas within the Telecommunications field. I carved out my area of expertise. As the industry changed thru the years, I partnered with others to take advantage of their area of expertise. This allows us, as a team, to provide a comprehensive solution to our ever-expanding client base! It also helps keep your clients! If your client is only relying on you for one specific service or solution, there is nothing to prevent another person from coming in and offering other solutions to other needs they may have, that you did not address. Once they have their foot in the door, they will certainly recommend replacing your service with something they have to offer. Clients like to have “one throat to choke”. They don’t want to deal with 10 different vendors in order to solve a problem. They want to make a call and have everyone work as a team to solve it!

As a result of partnering with other experts in my field, I am constantly receiving referrals from my team for new clients for my business. 80% of my new client acquisition is from referrals.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Without question, Honesty and Integrity MUST be the cornerstones of any successful business. Especially in this day of social media and Yelp! If you are not doing a great job, following thru on your commitments and going above and beyond for your client, the World is going to know about. Before I make a major purchase or engage a vendor to provide a service, I do my research. I am sure you do the exact same thing. Bad reviews, complaints and unhappy customers are the death nell to any business. If something does go wrong, take ownership of it…. even if it wasn’t your fault!! Clients and customers EXPECT you to blame something or someone else!! I cannot tell you how many times I chose to take ownership of a bad situation that was out of my control and the client IMMEDIATELY softened and instantly said “hey Brad, it’s not your fault”. It’s reverse psychology. It works. Many of my clients have been with me since I started my business! It is much harder to find a new client than keep a client by properly taking care of them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jamescom.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/JamesComCorp.
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bradwjames