I have been in the IT industry professionally for over a decade. I have a mixed background before that which often involved sales, training, and other people-oriented work. I even waited tables and entertained for tips. Before that, I competed in drama/speech tournaments and even took it all the way to the California State Finals. I was active in Drama and Chorus and was an Honors student lettering in English and Drama.
My first job while in high school was at Mesa Computer Mart as an Apple salesman. I worked ultra-part time (11 hours a week) and sold Apple ][ computers and Macintosh computers. And I made more than any of my friends did flipping burgers and frying chicken. The Macs had just come out, so we still even had a Lisa on the sales floor! “IBM-compatibles” were still new as well, and at the time were quite foreign to me, but I learned about them and CP/M machines like the Kaypro as well.
And even before that, when I was still in Elementary School, I would often ride my bike to the local MicroAge computer store and hang out until the salespeople asked me to leave. While I often treated the place like a free arcade, there was certainly more there than casual interest, and I have continued with that spirit through the rest of my life.
OK fast-forward back to things more relevant to the work I do today. I lived in Oregon for about 14 years up to 2004, when I moved to Utah for 2.5 years, and then down to PHX. In Oregon, I really built my professional resume in IT. I had made the near-fatal mistake of working in the hospitality (restaurant) business for almost too long, but I moved back into a more comfortable, more geeky, setting of a consumer electronics store. I started in the camcorder/VCR department, but moved into the store trainer position, then into management and eventually into Guest Services the store Ombudsman.
I’m pretty good with people, so this kind of work, which was really hard for most people, came pretty easily to me, and I did very well at it.
But what started when I was the store trainer, came back full circle to me when the store needed to pioneer and launch their “Incredible University” consumer training program, and I was asked to head that up. I created paid training classes for customers and taught them about the Internet, and how to use their computers.
Eventually, I was enticed away by a young ISP that wanted me to run their training classes about the Internet as I managed their little company. At the time, this was a great experience for me that I was able to learn and grow a great deal from. I pretty much got to “run my own company” without any of the risks.
I learned a ton with the autonomy I had because of the trust that the owners had in me and my abilities. I carried that company through the toddler stages of dialup internet, to v.90, and into ISDN and DSL. We set up business customers with Frame Relay and T1 services as well. At this time I was often to “go-to guy” in my local community for helping fix computer problems, and I turned that into a part time business on the side. I helped people over the weekends and in the evenings, and was a regular resource of training and support.
That ISP was eventually sold to new owners that were really determined to run the company into the ground, so I moved on before that train wreck happened. It was sad, but I really couldn’t stand by and watch. I had to leave. I went to work for a short while with another ISP and then moved on to work for a large computer manufacturer out of California and became their Field Tech for most of the state of Oregon. That was an interesting job that had a huge amount of road time. It wasn’t very challenging, though, as it was mostly hardware replacement.
One of the original owners of that first ISP I worked for also owned another ISP in Salem. He found that he had many requests from his business Internet customers for PC and networking services, so that naturally led him to start a consulting firm. He contacted me and asked me to come work for him to help out. I did, and for the next 4+ years, I really formed the foundation of my consulting experience. We did almost everything you can think of except for large Enterprise-level stuff like Clustering. But we set up WANs, many a server, from NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003, and many Small Business Servers, too. Migrating and upgrading were regular projects.
We were Microsoft Partners so I was regularly involved in Microsoft events, and got to work with high-level engineers when we encountered the really tough problems. Ultimately the growth came with the fact that we were the ones in the trenches fighting for our clients, solving the puzzles we faced, getting technologies to work at their peak for them, and learning the pitfalls and danger zones as well as the Best Practices.
We always joke that “computer years” are kind of like “dog years” in that one year immersed in the technology completely, living on the cutting (or bleeding) edge, is like 10 years for everyone else that just uses the stuff. So lots of really great experience gathered there in the “real IT world” not some corporate, filtered mish-mash behind the firewall. 
My interests in my side business turned to focus more on Internet Security. I was introduced to a great product from a company that targeted small business and home users, and paid good residual commissions on their sales, so I added that to my offerings as I continued to help people solve their computer problems.
After moving to Utah, I moved into another high-tech sub-field that combined my previous corporate training experience with the technology that came so naturally for me. I worked for a company developing video and flash training supplements for the sales trainers to use. Much of the work was intended to deliver over an online LMS training system called CENTRA. I really enjoyed that work while it lasted. It was a brand new position, and while they regularly praised me for the quality of my work, the company dissolved the position 5 months later with another restructure. Gotta love Corporate America, don’t ya?
Between jobs, I increased my efforts in my own business, to keep my skills honed, and bring in supplemental income, but my focus was always more on gaining new employment rather than develop a business of my own. Eventually, I moved to Phoenix due to the stronger IT job market. I contracted for IT Support work, and then went to work as an employee of an IT company that services clients around the Phoenix area.
It was during this time, while doing my own, unrelated personal research, that I discovered LogMeIn.com and the powerful tools they bring to the industry. Finally, in LogMeIn Rescue, I found the set of tools that I needed to really get serious about running my own business! Combining that with a growing concern that clients I was servicing while working for these other IT companies could have been paying a lot less for my work than they were. They often paid for my travel time, and then a minimum time charge as well. So if I was sent out to do something in person that I could just as easily accomplish remotely with the client over the Internet, they would actually be paying MORE because of travel time, and the minimum charge.
When I work remotely, I have less overhead, too. My clients still get the same great quality service and expertise, though. But when working for these companies, I was required to charge the same amount for remote work as I was charging for onsite work. I am a big fan of making a profit in business. That’s what it’s all about, after all, but I think that you can still make a profit without overcharging for the work. I believe clients respect the value of my time, and are willing to pay for it just fine, but there is no need to overcharge them. This way we can all benefit. There is plenty of profit, and the client saves a good amount of money.
Over the following month and a half, I worked out my business plan, prepared to officially incorporate, and started bringing it all together. Then a catalyst in my personal life created the need to move on it. It was time to launch the business.
i-SupportDesk.com was launched in February 2008, and we are charging forward, offering the same fantastic service, backed by the same years of experience in the field, but offering it at a lower price…because we can. We are forging powerful partnerships with other IT companies to provide remote services for them, creating very positive and energetic Win-Win scenarios for all involved. We are marketing to clients all over the North American continent through a network of contacts and using Web 2.0 on the Internet.
In our first week, we also picked up our first client in Japan!
Why this long Bio about me as the founder of this company? I want to make sure you have a solid idea about who you will be dealing with, and where I am coming from. Just telling you I am honest, and hard working doesn’t cut it these days. You need to really get to know who you are working with.
For more on me, check out my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JimDickinson where you can see several recommendations about me and my work as well.
