Dorothy, Herman, Wendy, Stephen, Diane, Michael, Alizabeth
company, and now I had three kids in the business (Michael, Stephen, and Wendy), so, I decided to make it bigger. Everyone, expressed interest, even Max, and Frank. At the time, I couldn’t see a proper role for them. Today, I can’t see the business without them. Dorothy and I did accomplish one thing that may, in the long run, transcend all the business accomplishments; we built a genuine family business. Eventually, every member of the family and their spouses worked together in harmony, with each member making a real and valuable contribution to the welfare of the whole enterprise. This doesn’t mean that the family members didn’t have spirited discus- sions or even occasional arguments. After all, this is a group of highly intelligent, opinion- ated people. But, at the end of the day, they all wanted what’s best for the customer, and each recognized the talent and value of the other. Their spouses also joined the compa- ny. They are each extraordinary people who I have come to think of as my own children. Max, Diane, and Liz have each made incred- ible contributions to the success of the family and the business. In one funny anecdote, Mike was the last to get married. I told him to find someone with a degree in HR, welcome Alizabeth Shooster,
with her Bachelor in Human Resources from the University of Michigan. THE 800 NUMBER REVOLUTION 1984, the phone company came out with another nifty idea, free nationwide calling via 800 numbers. If a caller dialed an 800 number, the company who they were calling would pay the long-distance fee instead of the call- er. It took off. Everyone liked to call toll-free. Suddenly, we could take calls from anywhere in the USA! There seemed to be no end to our potential for growth. With 800 numbers the concept of a call center was also born. We went along with the trend and added a DBA to our company, Communication Service Centers (CSC). The company was doing well. Beepers were a huge profit maker. Our original office by the beach was out of space. It was time to take the next step. We opened a new office from scratch a few miles west in the bedroom community of Margate, Florida. As soon as we opened our profits shrank. Opening a new office is a tremendous expense. Not just the equipment, but staff needed to be hired around the clock. To offset the costs we placed all our new customers at the new
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