Begin with a ton of ambition and incentive 

Recently married and unemployed near the end of the Depression in 1936, Max Kelley started a one man telephone answering service that has grown over 60 years to be the largest family owned and operated telephone answering service in the nation.

But in the early years, the business was often on the brink of financial disaster. With one telephone, desk, and his cot all in the same office in the former 519 White Building at 4th and Union in Seattle, L.M. "Max" Kelley opened shop. He worked 24 hours per day, seven days per week as a telephone operator, message taker, janitor, president, bookkeeper, and salesman. 

In this way, on October 10, 1936, Business Exchange was born, the forerunner of Kelley's Telephone Answering Service, Inc. Max's wife of only a few months, Peggy, brought in meals and clean clothing from their apartment at the foot of Queen Anne Hill. Her support of Max continued for over 50 years of marriage.

Why start a telephone answering service during a Depression? There were few job openings anywhere, and Max recognized a growing business need: companies that closed their doors at the end of the day needed someone to answer their phones. At the time, that could only be accomplished by a listing in the telephone directory, which read, "If no answer, please call...(a different number)."

Main 0713 is the phone number Max used for his first "If no answer..." customers, and for "joint user" customers who listed his office for their calls and mail delivery.

But Max was not satisfied because he had a better idea. Even before he started his telephone answering business, while still employed by a failing residential construction company in early 1936, he tried to connect his office phone to a different company's office phone next door, so a secretary there could answer his phone while he was out.

His efforts failed along with the company, but he did not give up the idea that someday a company could close for an hour or for the day or night and know that someone "off-premise" would always be ready to answer the company's telephone ...at the same number it used during the day.

Meanwhile, at the end of each call that Max answered, he announced that he was the "Business Exchange" that answered telephones for people. And with an ancient mimeograph machine, he ran off letters to state officials for support of his filing to permit off-premise extension phones to make his idea work. The problem was that it had never been done before.

By December, the company's income had reached $100. The telephone bill was $9.63, and the rent was negotiated down from $75 to $22.50 per month. The balance nearly covered living expenses. More importantly, Max's telephone answering service was still in business. 

1937 - Severe money problems