Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Adams.
Hi Jason, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I essentially started out in this industry by having tech repair forced on me. I was the store manager for a cellular carrier that only did sales when I began my employment there. After a few years, the company consolidated their locations and redistributed the service and repair locations. Ultimately ending up converting my store to sales and repair. I was sent to a training class for about 5 days (which was a horrible experience and didn’t learn much). I researched everything and anything I could to have a better understanding of the inner workings of devices, how they were put together, and different aspects of repair. The franchise I was working for sold some of their stores to another franchise-type company and they disbanded the employees. My journey led me to a broad search to see what fit and what I wanted to do for a career. About 6 years ago, I obtained a position as a technician for a company near my hometown in Illinois, refreshing and building my technical skills and learning even more about the tech repair industry. Over the nearly 3 years I was there, I began noticing several ways about how not to conduct business and fix things; as the owner of the company was into some fairly shady practices. I had decided to basically put my money where my mouth was and see if I could do it better and more proper. I sold my PlayStation 5 and used the money to slightly build and inventory and began advertising work out of a spare bedroom of the house I rented. As business began to grow and volume increased, I discovered a really small piece of commercial property for lease. I still wasn’t in a prime financial state to make that level of a jump forward, so I reached out to my grandfather with a business plan. He had always supported me and encouraged me to do something tech oriented for a career. He always felt I was “an expert” and was made to do anything with technology. My grandfather agreed on a proposal in which he would grant me a loan for $5,000.00. In return, I agreed to give him 10% of my company net profit until $5,500.00 was paid back to him. Once the loan would be covered in full, I would continue to provide him with 5% residual compensation from my company’s net profit for the rest of his life. Sadly, he passed in 2023 and I decided to move back to Michigan and bring my business with me. After signing a lease for a prime retail location that essentially fell in my lap, I have been able to progress and build a strong customer base. I’ve been able to vastly expand on my inventory, equipment, and even doing some advertising; which leads me to the present day. Every day I come into work and see my sign on the pole outside, I can’t help but to feel overwhelmed with pride and humbled from the opportunity I get daily to do what I love. I thank my grandfather everyday and wouldn’t be here without his help and faith in me. I currently have exceeded any expectations I ever had for income, average monthly traffic, and what the future could develop. Recently I’ve been entertaining and strongly considering hiring employees and the slight possibility of even opening a second location. I never in a million years anticipated that this journey would’ve gotten me to this level. It’s been a wild and educational ride and can’t wait to see where it continues to take me.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve always been the low man on the pole and only knew what I was shown. When I started this, I had no idea or understanding of advertising, marketability, taxes at a business level, or the amount of money and sacrifice it would take to continue doing this. I began this endeavor with the money I got from selling a video game console (which was approximately $500.00) and have had to put a decent amount of money into progressing and keeping it moving. I think the challenges or struggles would be attributed to having just a skill set, but no understanding or comprehension of what it takes to have and operate a business. Signage, licenses, certifications, maintenance, advertising, and inventory control weren’t in my thoughts and all new to me. When you work for a company as a standard employee, someone else is always the wizard pulling all the strings behind the curtain. I think we don’t tend to really understand what all happens behind the scenes. We just show up to work and collect a paycheck.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about iRepair?
iRepair offers repair options for most everyday handheld tech devices. I repair cell phones, game consoles, tablets, laptops & computers, smart watches, and some odds and ends things if it’s reasonably within my wheelhouse. I also perform micro soldering and board level repairs for more damaged devices. I think what sets me and/or my business apart is also what I’m proud of: the ability to offer honest repair options to customers at affordable prices, while being able to maintain a speedy turnaround time. Many similar surrounding businesses tend to charge more and take a lot longer to produce the results I can. I’ve also seen devices that have been repaired at other places and I feel they lack integrity and care for the customer and the device they bring in for repair. That’s been my goal since I started: to give customers a competitively better option all around for getting their devices fixed.
Any big plans?
As of now, I’ve explored some other options. I just started branching out and doing much more with advertising with schools and a few other local businesses. Based on how business has continued to grow, it’s definitely in the cards to expand. Whether it’s through hiring some help or the possibility of opening another location. I’m just taking things day by day and seeing where they lead me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.irepairyourtech.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/irepair49441
