Continuing to expand and grow his businesses across the region
Two recent posts on businessman Will Bradham’s Facebook page shared his pride in the athletic accomplishments of his son Wilkes, 14, and daughter Anna Reese, 12. “Always proud of both my kids,” he wrote about son’s track meet win. Daughter’s game winning shot post was signed “Proud dad.”
So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Bradham took the call for an interview with Mississippi Business Journal while attending his son’s recent track meet in Tishamingo County.
Over the last several years, Bradham, owner of the Bradham Enterprises co-located in Cleveland, Oxford and Starkville, has gotten proficient in balancing his family commitments and running his thriving businesses.
After attending Delta State University, Bradham began his career in sales with Sysco Foods and at age 26 was named a district sales manager. He spent a total of 15 years in insurance and the foodservice industry before deciding he had had enough of corporate America and “just decided to go do my own thing.”
He established his first business in 2012, a Right at Home franchise that provides non-medical personal care services to the elderly and disabled. With corporate offices in Cleveland, it serves 46 counties from Desoto County to Oxford, throughout the Mississippi Delta and the entire Golden Triangle area including Starkville. “We are expanding coverage south to the Madison-Ridgeland area,” Bradham said. Right at Home has approximately 250 employees.
He also owns and operates Mississippi Maids, a thriving residential and commercial cleaning company he opened in 2013 as Delta Maids in Cleveland. Mississippi Maids covers the Delta, the Oxford/Batesville, and the Starkville area and will be expanding to the Ridgeland-Madison area this year, he said. It has 20 employees, as does Lenny’s Subs in Cleveland, another of Bradham’s venture.
“Entrepreneurship is in my blood,” he said.
Bradham credits his late father with inspiring him to go into business for himself. Jimmie (Red) Bradham was a mechanic in the Air Force and when he got back to the States, he went to work for a large tractor distributorship. He eventually opened up his own automotive parts store in Clarksdale, where Bradham grew up. At one time his father had three store locations. The young Bradham worked in the parts stores from a very young age.
“I really enjoyed that,” he said. “I was working around my dad from probably eight years old until I graduated from high school. That gave me a taste of starting businesses and expanding them.”
Sports has always been a big part in Bradham’s life and social media posts. He attends college ball games with his kids and travels to pro games with them as well. Bradham also is a serious collector of baseball cards, a hobby he started as a boy and revived when his own children became interested in his collection. Bradham’s favorite is a Mickey Mantle card and a sentimental favorite is his Charlie Conerly card. A Clarksdale native, Conerly played football at Ole Miss before playing quarterback for the New York Giants in the 1950s. “He was the number one football player in the state and my dad knew him,” Bradham said. “When I was a kid I got one of his rookie cards and got my dad to get it signed.” Coincidentally Bradham worked briefly at the Conerly family’s shoe store when he was in college.
Bradham is often asked to share his insights with business and community groups as well as students. His message to those thinking about going into business for themselves is to “really decide that’s what you want to do and save as much money as you can. If you think it’s going to cost $100,000 to start a business, then you need to budget $200,000.”
Also, he said, “It’s not as easy as everybody thinks it is, and you’re not going to get rich quick. And there’s a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of stress, but it is very rewarding if you keep your head down and do it the right way.”
Bradham also shares his views, and more, on his popular self-named podcast. “Originally it had maybe 100 listeners but we’re a little north of 6,000 subscribers now,” he said.
A crew of regulars join Bradham on the podcast as they talk among themselves and with special guests about a variety of topics.
“We just try to have a good time with it and talk about current events and things going on in our area,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun and I think people that listen to it get a lot of enjoyment out of it.”
The Will Bradham Podcast recently spun off into an entirely new venture. He is working with a publishing company to write a book about entrepreneurship and surviving life-changing events many people face. Using his own experiences, Bradham will tell his readers how to overcome obstacles and setbacks, stay focused on being successful and not get down on themselves.
Bradham will share his experiences, including the loss of his father when Will was just 19. At times when he felt overwhelmed, he said, “All I could hear in my head was my dad telling me, what are you doing? You have to pick yourself up and get back out there.”
Regarding divorce, a common but painful experience, Bradham said, “It’s very easy to kind of give up,” he said, “but keep your mind, your body and your finances right as best you can. It’s a time for you to push through even harder.”
Bradham said his publishers are optimistic about the success of the book, which could be published as soon as August.
“They really think it’s going to be a great book and I’m looking for big things out of that,” he said.