Why I Started the Tech Care Association (TCA) and Why You Should Join

I love this industry and I am passionate about seeing it prosper, especially the independent small businesspeople that make up most of its members. I started, like many of you, with an idea and a dream. I started my first tech repair business at the same time that Justin Wetherill, Eddie Trujillo, and David Reiff started uBreakiFix -- obviously they did a little bit better than I did. I realized, a little too late, that I needed help. I needed someone to help champion my business.

Our industry is taking care of tech after it's sold (repair, support, reuse & recycle)  and is a relatively new industry that is still finding its way. There are a lot of great companies within the industry doing some wonderful things, including UBIF, to help people take care of their tech after it's purchased. The "Tech Care" industry has helped many creative small businesspeople get into business while also helping a unique set of people find jobs that they can excel in. Truly the American dream in our modern tech dominated world!

Despite its early success there are a lot of challenges facing the industry as it tries to mature and establish itself for the years to come. As the industry has rocketed to success (a $20billion + industry) big tech companies have moved to control the products they make by limited access to our industry thus establishing more control of the market. The right to repair movement is chipping away at this practice but there is room for additional ideas and organizations.

The tech care industry needs a champion because the biggest problem the industry faces is that most people don't even know it exists. The industry desperately needs a true trade association focused on championing tech care!

Remember these recent slogans: "Avocados From Mexico" or "Beef. It's What's For Dinner". Both campaigns were produced by industry associations to change public perception or to champion their respective industries to help EVERYONE in their industry prosper. Every established industry has trade associations that help their members in many different ways.

The newly formed TECH CARE ASSOCIATION seeks to be your champion! Join the TCA now to help champion the industry and your business!

My Story On How I Got Here

I got into the tech care business in the early 2000’s, after a successful career with the wireless carriers, when I owned a chain of AT&T Wireless stores in the Washington DC metro area. Lots of our customers would come back to our stores with minor issues they had with their phones. Broken antennas, damaged charge ports and depleted batteries were common in these devices that would one day rule our lives.

Over the next 20 years I launched a successful chain of repair shops, worked with repair startups, and spent more than a year with The Repair Association organizing and fighting for right to repair legislation. During this time I always thought something was missing, which led me to the create the TECH CARE ASSOCIATION (TCA) earlier this year.

WHY START A NEW ORGANIZATION WHEN OTHERS ALREADY EXIST?

This is a question I get a lot. Usually followed by “don’t the other groups hate you now?” Let me address the second question first. They shouldn't hate me or the TCA if they are doing what they do well because the TCA is structured in a way that does not compete with any of them. If they are doing what they do well then there is no reason why multiple organizations cannot exist at the same time and have members that belong to multiple organizations.  

Allow me to expand on that thought. The Repair Association (repair.org) is an advocacy group that is focused on the right to repair political movement. They have been valiantly fighting for anyone and everyone’s (consumers & different business segments) right to repair what they own. They cover a lot of ground, yet their focus is a singular mission of advocacy work to get a right to repair law for everyone. They are good at what they do, and people should donate to their cause if they believe in it. The same holds true for Louis Rossmann’s (a very popular industry YouTube personality) new organization called the Fight to Repair (fighttorepair.org). Louis has been passionate about right to repair for many years on YouTube and has now raised more than $700K in a couple of months for the cause. Personally, I support the movement and I appreciate the work they are doing – lot’s smart people involved here who deserve your support.

There are existing groups in repair, reuse and, recycling that are doing awesome work as well and some tremendous events within the industry. The ERC show, for instance, is a long running show that has worked hard to bring the different parts of the industry together to help people network and find more success. There are other groups  that exist too that offer discount programs for the people who sign up for their services which brings value to companies that cannot get these discounts on their own. Then there are more groups offer valuable industry certifications. I support you all and wish you the best in what you do for the industry. I hope we can all work together to help further everyone in the tech care industry.

Join the Tech Care Association Now!

The TCA is not seeking to do the things that already exist. We seek to partner with these organizations because we want to see them all succeed as well. Friends, its simple, a RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS! There are too many petty arguments within the industry that are holding everyone back. If you think the TCA is going to damage your organization then that is a YOU PROBLEM not a me problem. We are here to help anyone who is serious about the industry. Please work with us to help raise the tide for EVERYONE!

As long as your organization is running a legitimate operation that helps the industry then the TCA will be happy to work with you AND promote the heck out of what you do. Which leads me to this…

PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW YOU EXIST

For years I couldn’t figure it out. I had built a successful tech repair business, but customer acquisition costs were extremely high. We had gotten to the point where we were spending half a million dollars a year on Goggle AdWords. It just didn’t make sense to me. Having built such a strong brand with a great reputation would usually mean that acquisition cost would come way down over time not go up. So, I started an annual survey to ask people, “if you broke your phone where would you go?”

The results should not really surprise anyone in tech repair because we have all spent a few dollars on donut or pizza parties at the carrier stores around our shops. We know that's where people go first. Yep, in our survey, a huge majority of respondents said if they broke their phone they would go back to the place they bought it from (around 75%). While less than 10% said they would get it fixed and less than 1% could name a tech repair business brand name – for fun we even surveyed people directly in front of a repair shop and they still had no idea about repair. 

Here’s story I wrote in 2019 about the issue: THE TECH REPAIR INDUSTRY IS HUGE - But... No One Knows Much About It. Sad But True!

The same is true about tech reuse/refurbishing and recycling. Strangely enough, even within the industry itself, people do not know much about what to do with broken or outdated tech. I read an online debate recently among repair shop owners on what they do with e-waste. One shop owner said he dumps old batteries in the woods behind his shop and others said they do something similar. I was speaking to a few recyclers recently they had no idea that repair shops could fix some of the simple problems they had with their phones. If people in our industry do not know about everything the tech care industry does do you really think your average Joe does??!!

Here is my observation, the tech care industry is full of engineers or like-minded folks. Good, smart people who can do some amazing things when working on tech but are NOT very good at sales and marketing. In fact, I get the feeling a lot of tech care people don't think they need sales people or just outright hate them. When I first met Louis Rossmann, he -- like only Louis Rossmann could do – immediately told me I sounded like some kind of slick salesman and started to tune me out. Even though he and I were both just in the same room fighting for the same cause in front of state legislatures he had trouble recognizing the value of what I could bring to the table.

This is an age old issue in the tech industry that I have seen throughout my career. So many tech companies struggle with the relationship between sales/marketing and the people/engineers who make the product. I learned very early in my career to value the engineering mind and it helped find more success.

I love the engineering mind and people who have the ability and patience to fix complex things. It is truly amazing what they can do. I also try to respect their abilities as different than my own and try to listen to them when they tell me about things. At the same time, I see them leading seminars or webinars meant to teach people about the industry, and I often find myself confused or sleepy. No offense but engineer minds should do what they do best and leave the sales and marketing efforts to people who have those strengths. You got to stay in your lane people and respect those with differing abilities.

The problem with messaging in the tech care industry is that the engineers have been out in front for too long. Here's a thought that might blow you mind...

STEVE JOBS WAS A MODERN PT BARNUM

People seem to love Steve Jobs and the brand he created, including people within the tech care industry. And they are not wrong. He built Apple into one of the most profitable businesses on earth and the tech care industry should take notes from the company that many consider its biggest villain.

Apple did not build the first computer or cellphone. In fact, they were kind of late to the game in both markets, especially the phone business. I do not think anyone at Nokia or Motorola were worried about any of the rumors about Apple entering the market that went on for years. Motorola even partnered with Apple to create devices that included iTunes – anyone used to own a ROKR?

IMHO, Steve Jobs will not go down in history as a great engineer but as a brilliant marketer of his products. If you read books or see the movies made about him, you will see an obsession with making sure his product was thought of as the greatest thing on the market. Even when it clearly was not – the first iPhone was so bad as a phone Jobs himself called it the “best iPod Apple has ever made.” He committed himself to what he made, and he was thought to be quite arrogant when he talked about it to anyone. Despite the fact that other phone makers had superior products with more advanced features he convinced the world that his iPhone was what they really needed. So much so that in less than a decade Nokia went from being by far the biggest phone maker in the world to losing 90% of their market share. That’s the power of sales and marketing. Both Jobs and PT Barnum were two of the best marketers that have ever walked this earth.

THE TCA WANTS TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT YOU EXIST

Friends, I am no Steve Jobs or PT Barnum, but I know the value of sales and marketing. I want to use the God given skills that I have honed over the last 35 years of my career in sales and marketing to work with you to build an association that will be full of the best minds we can gather to help promote you and the tech care industry as a whole. Our only agenda will be your success and that of the industry. No hidden agenda or secret partnership, just our fulltime work to support and promote the tech care industry.

This is not going to be some fly by night operation, a flash in the pan, or something I use to further my own career. The TCA is a non-profit trade association that will be around for the long haul. We would love nothing more than to help you double, triple, or even quadruple your business. We are all about the industry and helping you do more business. The only favoritism we will show is to our members and the greater good of the tech care industry as a whole. I am going to work hard to make this an association that you will be proud of each and every day.

I hope you will join us in our efforts, which you can do by clicking this link and becoming a member today!

HERE IS HOW ELSE YOU CAN HELP

Support local tech repair by finding a shop near you on the WTR website at www.WhereToRepair.org to help support small business in your community.

Tell big tech companies to work with the independent tech repair industry and the greater tech care industry!

In the industry? JOIN US today by visiting our website at 

www.TechCareAssociation.org

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