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Network keeping Merced tech occupiedOct 03, 2011 (Merced Sun-Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- When you build your first computer at age 13, that just might be a clue about the career path you might walk one day. That's how old Ashley Smith-Jenkins was when he and his father, Henry, assembled a PC. Five years earlier he'd tinkered with Tandys (remember them?), but his passion wasn't fired till he built his own. After eight and a half years of university classes at two colleges, hitting the reset button three times on his major and a lot of time in computer labs, Smith-Jenkins, now 30, launched his own business, CVTech Computers, last year in Merced. The years of course work and practical apps of climbing under ceilings and below floors to lay ethernet cable at Fresno State have paid off for the Golden Valley High graduate. Although the recession still hangs over the Valley like Tule fog, Smith-Jenkins has managed to compile a list of steady customers. As an IT (information technology) consultant, he does everything from purging viruses from your system to building your website. A CPA, a mortgage broker, a chiropractor, a barber, two insurance agents, a retail store and an ag company are among his clients. He's on call 24/7, since if a hardware glitch erupts hours before payroll checks are due, the IT consultant has to be there to fix it. He makes a conscious effort not to come across as a nethead more comfortable with a pocket protector than a firm handshake. "In dealing with small businesses, you need to talk to them in their own language," he says. "How is this going to make me more productive? How is this going to help generate revenue? How will it affect my return on investment?" Smith-Jenkins first went to California State University, Stanislaus, majoring in computer science with a part-time job as a computer technician in the Office of Information Technology. Then he got a hankering for hardware, so he switched to Fresno State, changed his major to computer engineering and got dirty during three years as a computer technician, unspooling wires throughout campus buildings. Then he spent two and a half years as a network engineering assistant for the Information Services Department and got bit by the business bug. He changed majors yet again, to business administration, specializing in entrepreneurship. With his diploma, he turned up back in Merced in 2007. His dad was a general contractor, and Ashley thought he could add some value to his father's skill set if they founded their own outfit. So they did -- just in time for the bottom to fall out of the real estate market, and then the remodeling market. The enterprise went under, and the budding entrepreneur needed a job. He spent time as an insurance agent, not making much headway till the other agents realized he could fix all their computer problems. "A light bulb went off," he recalls. So he launched CVTech Computers early last year. "I'm your outsourced or virtualized IT," he says. "You don't have to worry about paying me workmen's comp, payroll taxes or benefits. I maintain your servers and am on call most hours of the day." Merced is a good place to do business, he says, because networking means a lot here. "You can really get the word out," he says. Over the next five years, his goal is to become one of the area's top IT consultants. To do that, he's focusing on two areas emerging as big-time clouds in cyberspace. One is network security. He's been seeing more fake anti-virus infections. Your computer will get a warning that it's been infected, just click here and enter your credit card number to pay for cleanup and protection. Except after you provide that information, you learn there was no virus and your personal data are gone. "That's beginning to keep me busy," Smith-Jenkins says. "I can clean them out for you." The other area is medical records, which will all be digitized in the burgeoning realm of life care in a few years. He's been studying the new fields of electronic medical records and electronic health records so he can be up to speed when hospitals, clinics and doctors begin to exchange digital patient information. As a solo practitioner, Smith-Jenkins has to do it all -- bookkeeping, marketing, selling and the technical work itself. His keys? "You have to market, you have to network, you have to be patient -- just don't give up." He's living with his parents and working out of their home till he gets a nest egg. He's happy with the arrangement for now, but someday wants his own shop. "It gives me a lot of time to get the business going," he says. Meantime, Merced's small businesses can access their own one-man help desk. Executive Editor Mike Tharp can be reached at (209) 385-2456 or [email protected] ___ (c)2011 the Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.) Visit the Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.) at www.mercedsunstar.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |