During the mortgage meltdown of 2008, when many companies were laying off their employees, Josh Fox had a light bulb moment.
“Instead of massive corporations firing their employees, there had to be creative ways to save or recover money for Fortune 100 companies,” recalls Fox.
Now, he is the founder and CEO of Bottom Line Concepts. Their first client was Rolex. The pitch: Getting back 50 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing. Over the last 15 years, Bottom Line has worked with thousands of businesses and recovered over $5 billion in savings for them.
During the pandemic, Walmart and Amazon exploded while small businesses suffered. In turn, Bottom Line opened a second division, shifting to small businesses and serving as one of the first American companies to file for Employee Retention Credits, says Fox. “So now we’ve helped thousands of small businesses hurt by COVID-19 get this money back.”
“For sure, it’s more gratifying,” explains Fox. “If you get a huge company that does billions a check for $5 million, it’s a pebble in the ocean. But if you cover $1 million for someone who has three pizza restaurants, you’re making a massive impact.” Current clients include Blackstone, Rolex, Citibank, HSBC, the Miami Heat, Audemars Piguet and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Bottom Line’s charitable division, Line Up For Charity, is designed to enhance donations to nonprofit organizations through an entirely new source of funding. By introducing Bottom Line’s services to passionate donors and board members, nonprofits secure a portion of the resulting savings in the form of a donation. On the personal philanthropic front, Fox launched the Brady Hunter Foundation in February, a 501(c)(3) organization which supports animal rights (and is named after his dogs Brady and Hunter).
“I had very high aspirations and goals for the company, and I knew that I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way of achieving my goals. I want to grow this thing to be the biggest in the country,” he adds.
During the pandemic, Fox also made a geographical change. He had already moved from New York to Los Angeles, but the crisis pushed him to move back to the East Coast, this time to Miami.
“People just seem to be very happy down here,” Fox says. “You have the ocean. You have great weather. We have a lot of visitors down here. Every weekend, someone’s in town.”
Josh Fox
One thing Fox misses about New York is that “everyone loves to get dressed up—suits and pocket squares and ties.” In Miami, the lifestyle is very casual. “It’s acceptable to go to work in a T-shirt and sneakers.” Fox finds a place in the middle: loafers, a nice pair of pants and a polo shirt.
To get a glimpse of that old New York style, Fox enjoys going to Queen Miami Beach, an extravagant Japanese restaurant that opened in the Paris Theater earlier this year. Fox likes it because “you feel like you’re in New York in the Roaring ’20s, and they have a dress code.”
He likes to bring big groups there. “We’ll take one of everything. It’s all about variety: a little sushi, a little steak.”
Fox says he also frequents Bourbon Steak in Aventura and Eddie V’s in Fort Lauderdale.
Though he’s full-time in Miami these days, he won’t abandon New York completely. “I’ll definitely come back to the Hamptons this summer,” he says.
