Business: Certified Tech PC and MAC Computer Repair Services of Peterborough, NH
Website: www.ctechrepair.com
Owner: Jeff Bruere

Family: Single

First Job: Farm hand

Where did you grow up: Tewksbury, MA

What did you want to be when you grow up: I didnt know

How did you end up owning your own business: Entrepreneur at heart

What is the biggest decision you are wrestling with now: Pricing

What is one thing you would change about your job: Relocate to more urban area

What do you like most about your job now:  Troubleshooting

What motivates you: Learning and Fixing

What do you do for fun: Yoga

What do you consider your greatest achievement so far: Bachelors Degree in Business Science

What the best career advice anyone has given you: Do what you want to do not someone else

Featured Business
Business: Mid-Iowa Computers, Inc.
Website: www.midiowacomputers.com
Owner: Noah Deters

Family: My lovely wife of 8 years and a smart and sassy daughter

First Job: Retail computer sales

Where did you grow up: Central Iowa – So I know the area that I am trying to serve.

What did you want to be when you grow up: I wanted to either run my own business or try and be a high end specialist in computers

How did you end up owning your own business: While working my full time position I had a large number of people asking me for computer help, and after I reached a certain customer base decided to formalize it into a company.

What is the biggest decision you are wrestling with now: How to grow the business while still having a balance between family and my full time career

What is one thing you would change about your job: I would like to become fully employed by my business and still provide the same lifestyle for my family.

What do you like most about your job now: It’s exciting to deal with small businesses and learn the way they use computers to complete their jobs.

What motivates you: I have a pure excitement for life and for technology, and seeing my daughter grow up normalized to the internet, smartphones, and all the things I didn’t have when I grew up.

What do you do for fun: I love going fishing on my 16′ flat bottom boat, swimming and spending time with my family.

What do you consider your greatest achievement so far: Landing my full time position at age 23 and proving to the organization that I could be trusted with the responsibilities they needed me to handle.

What the best career advice anyone has given you: Always be responsible and try to work with the situations that have been put in front of you. You never know when the worst week of your professional life will turn into an amazing opportunity.

“Mid-Iowa Computers, Inc. Serving Ames, Des Moines, and Surrounding Communities”

Featured Business
Business: Catanoso Computing
Website: www.catanosocomputing.com
Owner: Nicholas Catanoso

Family: Nicholas, Anne, Nick

First Job: Garden Greenhouse and Nursery (with family)

Where did you grow up: Cape May County, NJ

What did you want to be when you grow up: I wanted to take over and run my family business’s.

How did you end up owning your own business: I always had a strong interest in computers and technology. This eventually led me to start my own business in computer repair.

What is the biggest decision you are wrestling with now: Considering I am also helping run my family business’s I am wondering how much more I can take on with my computer repair business before I have to consider hiring someone to help.

What is one thing you would change about your job: Nothing

What do you like most about your job now: Helping people.

What motivates you: The desire to have a successful business outside of my family business’s

What do you do for fun: Play sports. Hang out with family and friends.

What do you consider your greatest achievement so far: My family

What the best career advice anyone has given you: When it comes to your career you need to choose something you enjoy doing.

Featured Business
Business: Prime Choice Media
Website: www.primechoicemedia.com
Owner: Mike Whytsell

Family: Married to my wife of 5 years but been together for 15. Have two kids one 15 and one 6 years of age. Have two cats one is Crystal and the other is Cuddles.

First Job: My first job was a telemarketer collecting donations for fire departments and veterans association for 2 years. This job gave me a lot of sales experience but was shortly lived after 2 years.

Worst Job: I would have to agree with Patrick Palmer on the blog that being a dishwasher at Shoney’s restaurant while I was in high school was also my worse job that I have ever done.

Where did you grow up: I was born in Germany but became a US citizen at age 6. We then moved to WV in USA tell I was 23 then I relocated to WA State and have been here since.

What did you want to be when you grow up: I always liked to fix things and take things apart to see how things worked. I love the accomplishment of fixing something it’s a great feeling! I have always been around computers and tinkered with them and must say got shocked a few times and blew some processors but that was before I knew what I was doing lol. I have self taught myself almost everything I know by reading and trial and error. I have always known I would eventually have my own business in computers fixing or building them. Without computers I would be a sad sad man!

How did you end up owning your own business: Well I would have to say the current economy pushed me into starting my own business. I have been fixing friends and family computers along time and they told me I need to open a store because I am awesome at what I do. I did just that and I am now the proud owner of Prime Choice Media and loving every min of it! I never knew how getting paid for what I’ve been doing for free for years felt like. I also have to give a shout out to Enterprise for Equity.
http://www.enterpriseforequity.org. They are a local company who help small low-income businesses to start a business. They have taught me so much and helped my business prosper to what it is today. Two thumbs up!!!

What is the biggest decision you are wrestling with now: I would have to say I having difficult time if I should hire someone now or wait. I am a one man show now with my wife as the secretary and I know that I can’t do it all. I am building my Image and a wrong employee could destroy my image since my business is based on 110% customer support. I’ll leave it in Gods hand for now.

What is one thing you would change about your job: The only thing I would change is our Office space its small and we share with another business. Once business picks up I will relocate to my own building and continue to plant my seeds and wait for the fruit to come!

What do you like most about your job now: Oh well let’s see. NO BOSS breathing down my neck. Take vacations when I want to. Able to spend time with my kids when I want to but most importantly is helping people solve their computer issues and seeing their smiling faces when I tell them problem solved.

What motivates you: My motivation comes from my family. To be able to provide for them and buy them anything they want. I also look at my business as I have to repair it because it isn’t fixed tell I am helping at least 100 people or more a month. When you first start a business its broke and you have to apply yourself and get it up and running like a well oiled machine.

What do you do for fun: I like going paintballing with family and jet ski-ing. I love to just take the weekend and go camping and BBQ-ing and just be silly with family.

What do you consider your greatest achievement so far: I would have to say that would be starting my own business Prime Choice Media and building my business plan. It’s not been easy but it has had its rewards!

What the best career advice anyone has given you: That would be to under promise your clients and then over deliver to them. Been using that tactic and it works well I must say!

Mike Whytsell
Owner
Prime Choice Media PC Repair
1804 Olympic Hwy N.
Shelton WA 98584
360-426-6741
www.primechoicemedia.com

Featured Business
Business: The Computer Guy
Website: http://www.thecomputerguy.bz/
Owner: Patrick Palmer

Patrick Palmer

Family: Married to my wife Becky of 3 years and we have 2 cats, Hershey and Pumpkin.

First Job: The first full time job I had was working as a morning announcer/program director at a local radio station. At the time, it was a pretty neat job, but as time wore on, it got to be a grind. It was tough pretending that I enjoyed the work, so after 17 years and 4 different radio stations, I gave it up and did something else.

What did you want to be when you grew up: I wanted to be a pitcher for the New York Yankees, but looking back, if I would have thought more about it, I would think that being a funeral director would have been a job that I feel I could have done pretty good at.

How did you end up owning your own business: When I was at the radio station in 1995, the owner suggested that I give myself a name and start doing some work for people on the side, since I was doing some of that already. I knocked on a lady’s door and the daughter hollared, “Mom, The Computer Guy’s here.” — so that kind of stuck. After working on commission selling cellphones for 6 years, I decided to go full time and have never looked back.

What is the biggest decision you are wrestling with now: I just opened my storefront on 7/1/09 — lots of people seem to have their hand out. I need to really take a step back around the end of the month and figure out what is really needed as far as advertising, promotions, etc. Right now with the new store, many decisions are being made.

What is one thing you would change about your job: Being local and from here all of my life, I think that a few people in the downtown business community really don’t respect me or what I do. I’d like a bit more respect from a few people in town that lets them know that our town NEEDS this business. A few people need to understand that I don’t HAVE to be in Hampton, I could have located in several other communities but I believe in Hampton and want to be here. Lots of small-town politics, but overall, I really wouldn’t change much.

What do you like most about your job now: I really love helping people and feel that the business will grow because of it. I have a good tech at the store, which gives me the confidence to go on the road for 5 hours a day knowing that everything is handled back there.

What motivates you: I like to think of new ways to promote the business, new things to do with the business. The challenge of the new day motivates me.

What do you do for fun: a big fan of the 3-day weekend. I’m not the kind who leaves on vacation and can be gone for a week at a time. With the new storefront, I think that there will be more time to spend with my wife doing things her — I certainly owe her for the time and patience that she has given me over the past six months through my new venture. Lately, for me, spending a peaceful night at home is fun — without a house full of computers staring me in the face is enjoyable right now.

What do you consider your greatest achievement so far: Last year my business was name “The Best Of The Best” by a North Iowa newspaper, based on votes and other public opinion. That was a big feather in my cap, as I beat out the Geek Squad who had held the title for the past 3 years before that. On a personal level, becoming an Eagle Scout when I was 14 years old and being able to help other scouts achieve the same success that I have had.

The second best advice given to me was by the person who was teaching a small business class at the community college that I was taking. He said, “The fastest way out of business is to cheat the government.” That was probably pretty good advice as well.

**Patrick Palmer is the owner of The Computer Guy in North Central Iowa