Florida. The fellow who bought our old home was unknown at the time, Michael Milken. Milken would become rich and famous as The Junk Bond King, eventually becoming so successful with his audacious way of doing things that he went to prison. Meanwhile, back in Florida, I believed it would be better to buy a going concern rather than start from scratch. I can’t tell you how many companies I reviewed or how close I was to make a serious mistake, but luck must have been with me as I found a business I could afford. To find that one gem, I hired a busi- ness broker. He asked me what type of busi- ness I was interested in, I said, ‘A telephone answering service.’ I don’t know why I said it. I had just recently heard some intriguing things about them and was willing to give it a chance. The broker found a small answering service called Ding-a-Ling, owned by two brothers, Frank and Joe Brooks. Frank and I took some time to get to know each other before attempting to negoti- ate a deal. I took my son Steve [15], and Frank took his son, Jeff [12], on a boating trip on the Loxahatchee River. The river was overgrown with vegeta- tion. Trees formed a natural canopy. The water was a deep shade of black. Muck lined the bottom. It was about 6-10 feet deep. We were in alligator country. In fact, it was everything country; every snake, spider, and frog found Florida friendly. Many of them were poisonous. We dropped anchor to do some fish- ing. It was just a bucket on a rope. When we
BROWARD BUSINESS SERVICES
1974, one of the most fateful decisions I ever made was when I decided to buy Ding-a-Ling Answering Service. At the time it was losing money. What I was able to do with that little company lead to a business big enough to support my entire family and to success I had never dreamed of achieving. Out of work, I had been searching for my future. My prospects were bleak. I was 48 years old and did not think I could get a job that would pay enough to live as I wished. I felt strongly that I had to be back in business for myself. But, the only cash I could count on was the equity from our house. Just as I was seeking my new future, my mother-in-law moved to a retirement commu- nity in South Florida. My wife wanted to visit. I needed a little sunshine in my life, too. So we went for a visit. During that trip, Dorothy said she wouldn’t mind living in Florida. Reacting to her, I told her I could just as easily look for a business in Florida as New Jersey. She agreed, and we put our house for sale. Desperate as we were, I also saw this as an opportunity to change our lives. Most people get committed to a course of action that becomes self-perpetuating. I was willing to move, open to different types of opportuni- ties, and living in Florida was always a dream. Growing up in the Northeast, pondering the trains that traveled to Florida, as a youth, I imagined, ‘paradise.’ I started to search for a business in Florida. It took over a year to find one I liked. We sold our home and rented a new one in Hollywood,
Ding-a-Ling Answering Service Business Card
Dorothy Shooster, business card
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