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Pointer Salutes: MicroHelp, Inc.: Providing mom and pop computer expertise and service since 1988 Old clients still regularly called him for advice on their computer problems and potential purchases. Bird kept taking their calls and giving them advice (often informing them that they really didn’t need that upgrade), eventually realizing that he could probably get paid to do this full-time. That week, he began filling out the necessary paperwork to incorporate his own business, which began in one room in his house. That quickly turned into three rooms, and an expansion into a friend’s garage. Finally, Bird opened an office in Oyster Point, where he has been for the past two decades. Bird and his wife, Darcey, run MicroHelp, Inc., specializing in computer sales, service and repair—“anything related to computers,” Bird says. There are three employees: Bird, Darcey and Andrew Bucklin, a college senior who has worked for the Birds part-time since his last year of high school and will join them full-time upon his college graduation. There is also a fourth, if you count Elsie, their dog, whose job is official greeter. Darcey says, “Elsie thinks she’s a working dog.” MicroHelp provides computer repairs, virus removal and recovery, computer upgrades, custom computer builds and networking setup for both businesses and homes. You can have Bird come to your site to fix your computer or drop it off at his office. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Bird offers overnight repairs—you can schedule a drop off of your computer on your way home from work that night and pick it up fully repaired on your way into work the next morning. MicroHelp’s latest offering is its “SmartPlan” service, which reduces support costs through subscription services. One subscription provides automatic backup so that data is maintained even if there is a massive hard drive failure, keeping data loss to just the last few minutes before the computer crashed. “We’re doing remote communications,” Bird says, referring to the other subscription service. MicroHelp can set up a remote connection with a client’s computer so that a client can call Bird with a problem over the phone, and Bird can fix it without leaving his office. Bird says this feature can save clients 40 to 60 percent of what it might cost for him to drive out to their site; it also saves time for both him and the client. “In busy times, I work seven days a week and several all-nighters,” Bird says. His expertise and hustle have netted him a loyal following. “We have a lot of clients who trust us and won’t go anywhere else,” he says, adding that his clients tend to call him before they make any big computer purchase. This probably stems from his business philosophy: “I consider myself a business partner with my clients,” which enables him to develop a relationship with them that lasts for years. “With 20 years in business, I’ve watched the little kids [of clients] crawling on the floor” grow up and go on to start their own businesses, Bird says. People—meeting them, getting to know them, helping them—that’s what he enjoys most about his job. The biggest change he’s seen in his years in the computer industry? “Our reliance on the computer as a tool in our daily lives. The computer has moved from an item of convenience” to a necessary business expenditure, Bird says. |
Sitting at home one night 20 years ago while his wife was at work late, Jim Bird decided to turn his computer hobby into a business. He was a financial planner at the time but had previously worked for computer companies.