"The telecommunications industry is a mess," spouts Russell Hann, CEO of Recovered Capital Corporation in Mary Esther Florida. Perhaps many consumers would agree with him. We contend with heated competition among carriers and an unrelenting telemarketing juggernaut wooing us to switch allegiance. It has been a wild ride since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 began the deregulation of the industry. The smile never left Russ’s face as he recanted the deplorable state of the industry – he discovered the silver lining years ago and turned it into a gold mine for his company and for his clients.

From his airy and expansive office overlooking the intracoastal waterway and the Gulf of Mexico Russell reflects on the niche business venture he pursued with his brothers years ago that led to the development of the their proprietary Capital Recovery Process.

"What we do is we get refunds and savings for businesses and we do it by auditing their telecommunications bills. The Capital Recovery Process is our proprietary process we use to get those refunds and the savings. We earn our money by sharing the refunds and the savings. It is a win-win situation. It is really a simple business model."

Initially the simplicity of the process was lost on their first prospects. Recovered Capital’s niche took awhile to find itself into mainstream business thinking.

"Today I will have to say that most companies are aware of it but very few today have had it done," he states. Five years ago when he cold called on clients and shared this win-win proposal he had to overcome perceptions that his concept was a telecommunications scam. The toughest part for the prospect to comprehend was that there was no fee charged. If a telecommunications refund was discovered and executed the refund was split 50-50. "Today we don’t’ have that problem," he adds.

Russell’s upbringing in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and his double major in Civil Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University had less to do with preparing him for this business than his long standing desire to find something unique that was his alone.

"I have always wanted to have my own business since I was young. I had a grass cutting business when I was in high school and I worked all through my college years,’ he adds. "When I graduated I had an engineering degree and couldn’t decide what I was going to do. I read in Entrepreneur Magazine about utility bill auditing. I thought, ‘this is a legitimate business.’ If I can actually go to a company and say I am not going to charge anything but if I get you a refund we are going to share it. Who would possibly reject this idea?"

Russ quit his existing job and found the company with his brothers after some training. Originally formed as Hann Brothers Inc., he later changed the name to reflect more accurately what the business does. Russ’s brothers are in the business with him. After starting out in utility bill auditing the company migrated to telecommunications exclusively due in part to the rapid developments in the industry. Their first business deal was a successful audit capturing a monthly refund of $880 without having to switch carriers. The customer saw a $440 drop in their monthly telecommunications costs and Russ’s business earned the other half for 24 months. Russell beams, "Some of our present customers are realizing savings in excess of $100,000 per month."

Due to client confidentialities Russ did not want the names of the companies mentioned however several of them are Fortune 100.

But to make it a truly profitable venture Recovered Capital has specific prospect targets, which are typically market leaders. "A fast growing company with anywhere from 10-25% sales growth with employee base of over 500," he says. He adds that companies that have a data-intensive infrastructure are prime targets. A software giant and an online stock trading company round out his client base.

And Russell is not optimistic that the telecommunications carriers are going to ever be able to do their own audits, a notion that might help them bolster customer allegiance but is fraught with conflicting interests. Why wouldn’t it be in their best interests to do their own audits and retain customers?

"How?" he says. "What is the incentive? You can’t have the fox watch the hen house."

After a mere 5 years of living in the area Russell is convinced this is where his business will prosper. "This area is just awesome. The Gulf of Mexico attracts me. I can’t think of a better place."

Aside from a concern about infrastructure Russell is optimistic about the regions’ future and is excited about being a part of it with his uncompromising win-win business philosophy.

"If a mistake is there we are going to get our money. I don’t care if it takes us four years."

www.recoveredcapital.com