HISTORY OF FRIENDLY COMPUTERS

Friendly Computers was the brain child of L. Steven Ward while attending college at BYU in 1992. "I saw the rapidly growing number of people using computers for homework, email, etc. and realized the unlimited potential of the computer industry." says Ward. "I started taking orders and building them from my college apartment."

"After about a year, I realized somebody was going to have to service these machines when they had a problem", he continues. "I started doing my research to figure out the solutions to the hardware and software problems clients may run into. Once I determined the best sources for solutions to the problems we were seeing I expanded the business to incorporate service and repair along with the building of the machines. It really turned out to be the "one stop shop" for all computer needs. Little did I know at the time, that this would turn out to be the forerunner to the Friendly Computers Home Based franchise model."

In 1994 Ward left BYU and moved home to Las Vegas where he set the business up in his garage. At that time his family joined the operation. It was only 4 years later that the business outgrew its surroundings and he opened his first, full service retail store.

"When we opened that store, that's when I realized we had a great concept and it filled a big need." "We were a success from the start", Ward stated.

He documented everything he did, so as he added employees they would have a resource to go to when they had a question about any procedure. Little did he know, at that time, that that documentation would be the start to assembling the manuals for the future Friendly Computers franchise.

2000 was a banner year; the company decided there was an even bigger need for computer service. The major computer companies had moved their support centers overseas. These customers would have to call an 800 number, wait up to an hour for help, and then talk to people that spoke broken English and were hard to understand.

At the same time, Microsoft released their new Windows Operating System, Windows 2000 and later that year Windows ME. "That really kicked our business into high gear. Clients had so many problems, the phone started ringing off the hook and hasn't stopped since", says Ward.

"We then decided to franchise. We had been doing computer service, repair and sales for eight years. We had everything documented and all of our procedures had been tried and tested. The system worked and anyone could understand them. In addition, we set up an 800 number so we could answer any questions franchisees had." "In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP and again more problems, good for us," says Ward.

In 2003 Friendly Computers was ranked, by Entrepreneur Magazine's Twenty-Fourth Annual Franchise 500 as, #1 under Miscellaneous Tech Businesses.

"That immediately gave us creditability as a real player in the world of franchising", states Ward. Since then Friendly Computers has been ranked numerous times on the different Entrepreneur lists including the new one America 's Top Global Franchises: #187 (2007). To date, Friendly Computers is the only computer franchise to have been listed on the Franchise 500 for eight consecutive years.

“In the fall of 2007, we acquired the Computer Renaissance retail chain. With Friendly Computers still growing at a steady pace, the acquisition put us at 92 locations in 38 states,” states Ward.

IDC, a market researcher, projects 333.2 million PCs will be sold in 2010 in the U.S.

Does that mean business will explode again? I wouldn’t wait too long to find out. According to www.ResearchandMarketing.com, a Dublin, Ireland International Market Research and Market Data company, the US IT Services market is estimated to reach $229 billion in 2010. Now is the perfect time to explore the Friendly Computers franchise opportunity. Friendly Computers is positioned to capture their share of the IT services market. So call now!

After all, "Why call a geek when you can call a friend!"