Vadim Levitan came to this country speaking no English. Ten years later he’s a successful immpreneur with two thriving Wireless Zone franchises.
When Vadim Levitan moved with his wife to Brooklyn, N.Y., from the Ukraine in 1993, the odds were stacked against him. With almost no money saved and no fluency in English, Levitan’s previous training as a programmer did him little good in his new country. Working seven days a week as a driver, attending night school to gain new programming skills, he eventually found work as a computer analyst. Then, with no previous experience in sales, he bought a franchise with Wireless Zone. Ten years later, he owns two successful stores in Brooklyn. “The hours are long, but I like it,” he says. “I’ve learned I have sales in my blood.”
Getting Started in the U.S.
When Levitan and his wife decided to leave the Ukraine—it was still part of the Soviet Union at that point—they headed for Brooklyn, where relatives had settled years before. “We didn’t have any idea what we were going to do,” he says. “We just wanted to be in a place with more opportunity.”
It was tough going. Levitan’s wife spoke a smattering of English, but he knew none at all. And while he had been trained as a systems analyst in the Ukraine and his wife was an accountant, their skills weren’t applicable to the U.S.
“We didn’t have any idea what we were going to do,” he says. “We just wanted to be in a place with more opportunity.”
Within a few weeks, Levitan found out through friends of his relatives about a computer school where he could be retrained as a programmer, and he got a job driving a limousine. It meant working virtually all the time, attending school at night and driving during the day. After a few years, Levitan finally found work as a programmer with a computer company, creating software systems for a wide range of businesses.
One of those clients was Wireless Zone, then a fairly new franchise company. Levitan created point-of-sale applications for the business, traveling around the East Coast to retail stores and, as a result, getting a good feel for how the system worked. The more time he spent at the company, the more Levitan liked what he saw.
Levitan decided to leave what seemed to be a secure job to become a franchise owner.
Becoming a Franchisee
One day it hit him: Levitan was tired of his job, getting restless. What he really wanted to do was go into retail. In fact, what he really wanted was to buy his own Wireless Zone franchise. “I said to my wife, ‘I think I should risk it,’” he says. Levitan decided to leave what seemed to be a secure job to become a franchise owner.
Financing, it turned out, wasn’t difficult to come by. With a good credit history, Levitan was able to get a bank loan to pay for part of the startup cost. Wireless Zone also lent him part of the rest. (More information on how to get startup financing.)
At that time, however, the training system at the company was considerably less developed than it is today. “You just put your money down and you opened for business,” he says. With no experience in retail, however, Levitan knew he needed some training before setting up shop. So, he asked the company if he could work as a volunteer in one store while waiting for final approval. When they said yes, he quit his job and spent two months learning the ropes.
“You have to understand the right way to talk to customers,” he says.
Soon after he opened his first store. It was hard work—much harder than Levitan’s previous stint as a programmer. And, while he quickly learned that he had a knack for working with customers, he also realized he had a lot to learn. “You have to understand the right way to talk to customers,” he says. “Some people like for you to greet them immediately, others are more private.” It was especially tricky, he says, because most of the customers were native-born Americans and he didn’t always understand how best to relate to them.
After four years, he opened a second store in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, an area with a large Russian population. Interacting with those customers was a lot easier for Levitan, though it proved to be harder for his salespeople. Two years later, he opened another store in an area with a big Chinese population. Eventually, he closed down his first location to concentrate on the others.
“I never for a moment thought I made a mistake moving here or buying a franchise. I’m so proud to be in this country.”
Levitan still works hard, though. He arrives at one of his two stores every day 20 minutes before it opens to “make sure everything is nice and clean,” he says, and to go over reports about the previous day’s activity. When the doors open at 9, he spends almost the whole day working nonstop with customers. “If we have time, we clean the windows and vacuum,” he says. Around 7 in the evening, after the store closes, he goes over sales reports for an hour or so.
It’s a long day. But, says Levitan, “I never for a moment thought I made a mistake moving here or buying a franchise. I’m so proud to be in this country.”
