Colin Thornton - Built a $10 million Computer Repairs Business

NAME: Colin Thornton
AGE MADE FIRST MILLION: 20
COUNTRY: South Africa
BUSINESS NAME: +Dial A Nerd
BUSINESS SECTOR: Computers Repairs
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION: Repairs

START UP CAPITAL: Borrowed R5 000 ($1,000) to print fliers

SUCCESS STORY: Out of school, broke and only 20 years old, Colin decided to do what he knew best – fix computers. Borrowing 5,000 Rand (about $1,000 at the time) from friends and family, he printed fliers and distributed them within his neighbourhood to let everyone know about his services. Business started slow and was run from his parents’ garage where he repaired and serviced the computers of his first clients.
At a very competitive fee of $7 per hour, business started to pick up and he had to hire some extra help to satisfy the growing orders he was receiving. His ‘small’ business was getting bigger and needed to expand… and that’s how his company, Dial-A-Nerd, was born!

Dial-A-Nerd has built a consistent reputation as the go-to experts and professionals for fixing computer problems. Dial-A-Nerd technicians travel to...
private homes to solve computer problems which often range from downloading music on iPods (yeah, there are people who walk this earth who can’t do that) to more technical stuff like repairing broken down computers and removing viruses. By going over to people’s homes to solve their problems, Dial-A-Nerd created a niche business that no other service or company had been exploiting. Awesome!

Today, Dial-A-Nerd’s team of mobile technicians can build, repair, upgrade and even replace computers and gadgets at home and office premises. According to Forbes, the company has yearly revenues close to $10 million, with over 150 staff operating from more than 10 different locations in major cities and towns in South Africa. The company now services over 200 small and medium-sized businesses and a handful of large corporates in its portfolio. Although it has its roots in fixing computers, Dial-A-Nerd has now offers a wide range of services including: network maintenance, server design and maintenance, consultancy, design and implementation, and cloud solutions.

Colin Thornton and his company have come a long way from the humble ‘garage’ beginnings back in 1998. In 2011, Dial-A-Nerd won the first prize in the IT and telecommunications category of the South African Service Awards, and was featured on CNN Africa in the same year. Colin was named among the ‘Top 200 Young South Africans you should take to lunch in 2011’ and was recently featured in the Forbes list of Ten Young African Millionaires To Watch In 2013. Credits+

BUSINESS GROWTH: annual turnover of R45-million ($10 Million), 14 branches and 135 staff around the country.

LESSON TO BE LEARNT : Do small things in a great way. Colin took an ordinary repairs business and transformed it into a global brand.

Are you a Nerd or are you skilled in anything?, Do not belittle it, build a business from it.

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