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Ahwatukee Foothills News - Jan 15, 2003 |
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Entrepreneur succeeds by being timely, geeky
By J. Craig Anderson Staff Writer
Picture a freezing winter day in Ontario, Canada.
A heavily clothed young woman shuffles her way to the nearby bus stop with a broken computer console tucked under her arm. She rides across town to a repair shop, where she is talked down to by the patronizing technician on duty.
Upon returning to the shop days after the repair was initially promised, she is surprised to learn that the price has risen $200 from what was agreed upon.
To top it all off, when she arrives back at home, she plugs in the computer and guess what? It is still broken.
Ahwatukee Foothills entrepreneur Venus McNabb might want to go back and thank that repair shop (if it's still in business), because the bad experience led her to start her own computer repair business in an effort to spare others from a similar episode.
"Many people are taken advantage of due to their lack of computer knowledge," McNabb said. "They are overcharged, ill-advised, talked into purchasing software and hardware components they don't need, and have even had their systems serviced by technicians who do not know what they are doing."
Now, McNabb is a celebrated local business leader at age 26. Her company, GeeksOnTime, operates nationwide and has about 200 technicians in its network.
McNabb recently was chosen as one of the Valley's leading young entrepreneurs by Phoenix-based business magazine bizAZ. She attributes the rapid growth of GeeksOnTime to hard work and a real desire to give customers a good experience.
"It's more of a service company than it is a high-tech company," she said.
McNabb founded GeeksOnTime in 1999, shortly after moving to Ahwatukee Foothills from Ontario. She had owned a home-based Internet business selling goods and services through a Web site, but GeeksOnTime was her first foray into running a customer-service-based company. McNabb was not a technician herself, but she knew several computer experts through her Internet connections, and she hired two of them to perform service calls for her new venture.
The concept of GeeksOnTime is innovative and old-fashioned at the same time. When a customer calls the company's 800 number or fills out a service request at the company's Web site, a service representative asks a few questions to ascertain the nature of the problem. Then a technician is dispatched within 24 hours to fix the computer on site. McNabb figured customers would appreciatethe house calls, since they would save a lot of time and be spared from a major inconvenience.
Based on the growth of GeeksOnTime, it appears she was right.
Initially, the business catered primarily to Ahwatukee Foothills residents, who made up about 95 percent of its customer base during the first year. Local people and their computer problems kept the GeeksOnTime techs busy, but McNabb wanted to expand her model to include businesses and homes everywhere.
In 2000, she began setting up a nationwide network by contracting with technicians in different cities all over the country. Since they are paid per job, McNabb can keep costs down and have as many timely geeks as needed in her network. Overhead for the company is minimal, because all communication between customers and employees is handled by phone, Internet or at the customer site.
"I can work from anywhere - it's a virtual company," she said.
And McNabb does work from anywhere. She is constantly traveling to
develop her business and introduce it to new markets. McNabb said
hopping from city to city, working 18 hours a day, seven days a week is no
problem because she enjoys what she is doing.
"I love starting businesses and growing them," she said.
McNabb plans to keep expanding her territory and increasing her geek
supply, but she said condescending technophiles need not apply.
"We are here to change all of that," she said.
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"My partner and I are very pleased
with your service and the competency of your technicians . Thank you
for your time and being there in our time of need. We will be sure to
refer you to anyone we know that needs computer
help. Thank you again for getting my business back on track."
Saskia Melby
Melby Consulting
San Diego, CA |
Venus McNabb
Founder and CEO
GeeksOnTime
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