Co-workers Take Bad Situation, Make New, Improved Enterprise

Technology 101

Owners: Tim Ward and Beverley Martin

Address: 5211 Village Parkway, Ste. 1, Rogers

Phone: 479-273-5533

E-mail: [email protected]

Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday

Web site: www.tech101training.com

Startup date: September 11, 2009

One August morning, Tim Ward and Beverley Martin learned their employer was going out of business.

By that afternoon, the two had hatched a plan to pick up the pieces and start something of their own. The result is Technology 101, a business-to-business computer training company.

“We weren’t ready to give up,” Martin said.

Technology 101 offers training in Microsoft Office, Adobe Design and additional business skills, but its “bread and butter,” Ward said, is IT certification training such as Microsoft, Cisco and Linux, among others. The company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a licensed Prometric testing center, which means it can administer the certification exams required upon course completion.

Course prices range from $225 to $600 per day and are led by a pool of 20 to 25 instructors. Courses are taught in the three classrooms that make up part of the 2,500-SF space leased by Ward and Martin.

The two lease equipment from the previous enterprise, a New Horizons Computer Learning Centers franchise, which allowed them to start Technology 101 without any upfront capital investment. Ward and Martin also inherited their former company’s client list.

In an effort to show their dedication to providing top-notch customer service, Ward and Martin allow anyone who signed up for a New Horizons class to sit in at no additional charge. They’ve also instituted class experience evaluations to help determine strengths and weaknesses.

Small Businesses Boost Job Creation

A recently released report highlighted the impact of small businesses on job creation.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy issued the report, which was based on the analysis of quarterly data gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 to mid-2008. Small businesses created about 65 percent of the net new jobs in the private sector during that span.

While many of those new jobs were in startups, the report indicated an even larger share in expanding firms with 20 to 499 employees.

 “Fast-growing firms scattered across the economy create a large share of jobs-and because no one can predict which idea will be the next to catch on, it’s important to create an environment in which a wide spectrum can start up and expand,” acting chief counsel for Advocacy Susan M. Walthall said in a press release.

The Office of Advocacy touts itself as the “small business watchdog” of the federal government. Its primary functions are to examine the role and status of small business in the economy and represent the views of small businesses to federal agencies, Congress, and the President.

Submit tips about new businesses in Northwest Arkansas to Rob Keys at [email protected] or 479-725-0394, ext. 323.