How To Support Remote Workers – Bullfrog for Business

Who is Ben Rife?

I am the proud father of two amazing little girls, Makayla and Hannah Rife.

We live in Oakland Township, Michigan, which is about 15 minutes away from my office in Troy.

I’m a part of Kensington Community Church of Lake Orion.

In my spare time, I read, run, and swim (every day).

What is Your Company?

My company is Bullfrog, our product “Bullfrog for Business” is the next generation phone system for small and mid-sized businesses.

Why did you get started in Telecom?

I started as a technician working for someone else, BUT I was miserable because I wasn’t living my dreams.

So I left my comfortable six-figure position in 2003 and stated a business out of my basement providing computer networking solutions.

In 2005, I saw an opportunity to provide a hosted voice solution to our customers and built our first voice solution on Cisco.

In 2013, after a conversation with Marcus Lemonis, I decided to abandon the Cisco solution for BroadSoft. We’ve experienced massive growth since.

Where did you catch the entrepreneurial bug?

When I was about 15, I started cutting lawns and shoveling snow to make money.

I realized very quickly that I was limited to the number of hours I could work and that manual labor wasn’t for me so

I recruited my twin brother and a couple of my friends to work for me so we could multiply time.

I could sell and they could labor.