With clients coast to coast, Cellular Sales is the nation's largest retailer for Verizon Wireless products and services.
"Seattle, Washington; Portland, Maine; Key West, Florida," says CEO Dane Scism, describing the company's reach.
Its footprint spreads across 28 states with more than 560 stores and a new corporate headquarters in Knoxville.
"I didn't know it was going to go nuts like it did," says Dane. "I know this sounds corny and cliche, but we really didn't have a get-rich-quick goal. We had a make-a-living goal."
The company has come a long way from the early days of cold calls and mall kiosks.
"You see couches in this office, we had couches in our old offices, but we slept on them!"
"We were selling phones off the telephone - cold-calling people. It was terrible."Cellular Sales actually started as Cellular One in the early '90s.
So, they turned to full-time mall kiosks.
"I would like to say we kind of invented cellular retail. I was actually the first guy at a kiosk at East Towne Mall."
Dane and his wife purchased the company in 1993.
"We wrote out our business plan for the banks based on a certain number and I think we tripled that our first month."
They didn't just change the retailer's name.
"We changed almost every single system. The foundation of the company was built on what would I want as an employee or a front line person."
And, he tapped into his college friends.
"I was able to attract a core group of like-minded people to my company who were all kind of searching for something to do out of school."
They ran the company on a tight budget.
"We weren't even able to pay my commissions for the first three years."
The original footprint was a small radius around Knoxville.
"It had to be a cheap, reasonable flight from Knoxville, which was very limiting."
So, he learned to fly.
"I bought a little plane and then we expanded to a 10-hour circle around Knoxville."
As Cellular Sales grew, so did the retail side of the business.
"It almost doesn't seem real."
Dane attributes costumer service for the company's success.
"People want help with their cellular phones. They don't want to buy them out of vending machines. And, we track somewhere around 40 percent of our customers' bond with a sales person and do repeat business with the same rep over and over again."
In 2012, Cellular Sales experienced unprecedented growth.
"At one point in 2012, we were opening a store every 28 hours. It was daunting."
Real estate was cheap and labor was available.
"It made sense for us to grow as fast as we possibly could."
Cellular Sales has slowed down the last couple of years to focus on operations. And, in December, the company celebrated the consolidation of five different Knoxville campuses into one state of the art headquarters.
"This has got a lot of things that I admired in some other companies."
The renovated 61,000-square-foot building features an on-site cafeteria, fitness center, mock retail space, a digital lab and call center.
"And, we were able to do it within our own cost structure."
Three hundred fifty of the company's 4,500 employees work here. Nearly 50 departments, from advertising and marketing to insurance, legal and IT, are all under the same roof.
"It's fantastic having everyone in the same building."
However, Dane is still adjusting to being behind a desk.
"I like being in the stores, I mean those are my people. I still think of myself as a guy that sells phones."
Cellular Sales is looking to expand its footprint once again.
"We would love to see more growth around the Great Lakes region, the Midwest and Rocky Mountain areas."
And, perhaps one day globally.
"It would be very likely that we would wind up in other countries before it's all said and done."
Cellular Sales, Born in Knoxville
"I love the city and I love being an ambassador for the city."
HomeGrown in Tennessee.
