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Success
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"We
are in a technological age - a computerized age.
Since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
the telecommunications industry has grown each year.
And fascinating things are going on. In the near
future people will be talking into wrist watch telephones."
In
these days post-Ma Bell deregulation, it does not
bother the Rocky Mountain businessman to be competing
with the giant AT&T.
Vali
Habibi owner-president, United Telephone Co., Denver
CO.
(photo
courtesy of Communication Associates, Denver, CO)
"We
are making a good living and maybe the big firms
will know that name United Telephone Company some
day. It's not how big you are that matters anyway.
It's how profitable you are that determines your
future."
Habibi
sees his company as part of the very important place
of small businesses in American life.
"I'm
glad there are little companies competing with such
giants as IBM, for instance. Maybe it will shake
IBM a little bit and cause them to decrease prices
and make higher quality products. And, a few little
companies have made it big in the process."
Sworn
in as a U.S. citizen in 1981, Habibi has no misgivings
about his country by choice.
"There
have been times of thinking - even ties of homesickness.
There have been times I didn't;t know what I was
going to do. But there has never been any doubt
about that decision. It has been a happy time for
me."
(Don
Turner is a Ft. Worth based writer and editor.)
Courtesy
Communications Associates, Denver, CO
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By
Don Turner
DENVER-
Though
Denver's United Telephone Company is quickly approaching
the $1 million sales mark, its owner only has
to go back 4 years to time his wife would have
been happy if he had gone to work for a burger
chain.
Vali Habibi, Owner and president of the four-year-old
telephone interconnect firm, said sales will have
doubled once again for 1985 to exceed the $500,000
mark. This follows a growth trend in effect since
an unemployed Habibi first opened the company
out of his basement in 1981.
Headquartered
at 900 South Sheridan, the company now provides
both mechanical and computerized telephone systems
to more than 300 Denver metropolitan area clients.
Sales for 1986 are projected to exceed $1 million
and there is some interest in purchasing a larger
and older Denver telecommunications firm.
All
of these developments are a long way from June
1981, when the unemployed telecommunications technician
after receiving his second $60 unemployment check
penned a note to have the checks cease: "Thank
you for sending m money. Don;t send me money anymore."
His
friends thought he was being hasty. Habibi had
been laid off six months earlier by the former
United Business Systems in Denver. Despite a reputation
for creative solutions to telecommunications problems
his efforts to find other employment in the industry
failed. After four months he had resurrected a
dream of forming his own company and had begun
to realize some income.
"Several
of my friends said I was foolish to discontinue
the unemployment checks so soon," the businessman
recalled. "But I had some income and figured
there were others less fortunate than I."
Beginning
a business in the basement with no employees,
no capital and no credit was not very reassuring
to a wife looking for a reliable income.
"She
didn't;t think we could make it." Habibi
mused, "She was encouraging me to go work
for Burger King or something steady."
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He
began offering his services as a problem solver
servicing customers of other interconnect phone
suppliers at a reduced rate. His first major project
involved integrating different phone systems for
a church, rectory and school through one main switchboard.
Habibi seemed to have a knack for using modern technology
to adapt existing equipment and in the process save
clients thousands of dollars.
The
business in its infancy was almost entirely oriented
towards service, and refer
rals
from customers were abundant. The company grew from
about $40,000 in sales in 1981 to more than double
that in 1982. A secretary and technician were hired.
"We
just set out to provide the best service for our
clients for the lowest price," Habibi said.
"In order for me to move up I knew I would
have to give instead of take so much."
In
1983 UTC realized $300,000 in sales and moved into
its present offices. Habibi had used money saved
from payment for his services to begin purchasing
equipment for sales and installations of new systems.
Initially 85 percent of UTC sales came from service.
Today, 40 percent of earnings are based on service
and 60 percent on new system installations.
(Ironically,
the young company is leaving little room for others
to get started through services as it did. Though
it offers seven-day service, it has had no emergency
service calls on its own installations.)
The
Denver business chose his telecommunications career
as a student in Iran. The son of a coal miner, Habibi
sold vegetables as a child from a storefront on
their home.
"My
father believed you should get an education so you
could get a good job, but that you should also know
business so that you have something to fall back
upon if you need it."
As
a telecommunications expert Habibi was sent to the
multi-channel equipment repair course on the Army
signal school at Ft. Gordon, Georgia in 1976. And
in 1977 he left Iran permanently to eventually move
to Denver and become a U.S. citizen.
The
Denverite sees continued growth in the telecommunications
industry.
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