Communications business hits stride

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Greg Wilkoff, owner of Adept Business Communications, says he’s now enjoying success after five years of hard work. Mail Tribune Photo / Jamie LuschJamie Lusch

October 08, 2007

By Greg Stiles

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?

I do business communications networks. I've been doing it over 13 years — it involves business telephone systems, data and computer networks as well as structure cabling. I began this company in 2002. We're one of the few in the valley that can do all three of those tasks.

How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley?

I moved here from Carson City, Nev., in mid-2002.

What inspired you to go into this line of work?

My dad worked for Ma Bell and Pac Bell for 43 years before retiring. I have two brothers and one sister who also are in the communications field. It's more or less a family thing.

What decision or action would you change if you could do it again?

I would hire salespeople sooner than I have, hit the pavement and not wait for business to come in. Being a first-time business owner I was under the impression I needed to start with the technicians rather than obtaining the work. Salespeople create the work for technicians and staff.

What's the toughest business decision you've made?

The hardest thing is just to get up and do it every day, wondering if you were doing the right thing. The first two years was "Should I really be doing this?" After that, if I wasn't supposed to be doing it, I would've moved on to something else. The decision was to keep on keeping on. Another tough thing is finding qualified help. It's a high-skilled technical arena. Finding someone in the valley and having business to support them means the help needs to be paid well. I've lived in areas where there was a greater population and more high-end technical systems. My co-workers in the past, if they haven't been able to find the challenges, they've gone someplace else. One of the fellows I had working with me moved up to Portland because there was the opportunity to work on larger systems. Long-term security is based on knowledge and technicians need to be up on the latest thing to be more valuable. Businesses in the valley are often content to go with a mediocre product because of the cost.

Who are your competitors?

Lan Tel, Best Tel and Helix are local competitors (see correction note below).

What are your goals?

We worked hard for five years to establish ourselves so we could take on products from national brands. We now can offer telephone systems from ESI out of Plano, Texas. That's a product that I think beats the Cisco Systems and ShoreTel features. We cover an area pretty much up to Roseburg and over to Klamath Falls. We'd like to grow to where we can add employees with a stable business model.

What training or education did you need?

I've done everything from on-the-job training to technical courses, proprietary training for specific equipment, Microsoft certification, Cisco certification and CompTIA (The Computing Technology Industry Association) training that is not brand specific.

What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs?

Have a business plan and be prepared to go all or nothing. Once you make the decision, stick with it. We're now enjoying the fruits of five years of hard work. Enjoy it and have fun. There's also more security in being self-employed. Barring catastrophe and accidents, you create your own destiny, you can be dynamic and don't depend on others at a parent office.

To suggest an idea for this column, contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com

Correction: The original version of this story gave an incorrect home city for Helix Information Services. It's based in Medford, and this story has been corrected.

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