LANSpeed Computer Service Takes Flight In Storage

It's hard enough to start your own business these days, so starting a solution provider business by yourself might seem crazy to some. But not to Jon-Paul Kern, founder of LANSpeed Computer Service, in Miami, Fla. Kern started the company in January of this year. He had no partners and no full-time staff members, but it hardly slowed him down.

It started after he got laid off from his job at Ericsson, not too long ago. Kern decided to try freelance consulting, hoping that he might find a full-time position. Unfortunately, nothing opened up.

"I couldn't find any consulting work with the network companies and telcomms; the more I searched, the more people they seemed to lay off," Kern says.

Kern, who has a strong background in networking integration, developed during stints with Ericsson and Lucent, has an even stronger interest in storage. "People told me during some freelance jobs that I should start my own consulting business, so I gave it a shot," Kern says. "I've been saying for a couple years now that storage was going to be big, so I started building around storage technologies."

Currently, LANSpeed features 24-hour, 7-days-a-week support service for LAN/WAN implementation and SAN integration and also offers other disaster recovery and backup solutions for small and medium businesses. Kern also offers a "9-11" onsite emergency support service, and has gotten a number of customer referrals in just a few months of business.

Unfortunately, LANSpeed has struggled with finding vendors partners, as most major vendors aren't bothering with the one-person startup. "It's impossible to get into a vendor partner program because of all the requirements," Kern says. To counter the neglect from vendors, Kern teamed up with D&H Distributing.

Nevertheless, Kern is building the business and hopes to add staff soon. Despite not having enough customer contracts to hire full-time staff yet, he's employing a number of sub-contractors and freelancers to help him with the work load. "Some people said this was a bad time to start a company, but I think it's perfect," Kern says. "A lot of companies are desperate to sell or are going out of business. You'd be surprised how many IT professionals are looking for part-time or freelance work, too. There's a lot of opportunity out there."

Curious about those entrepreneurs taking the plunge? Coming May 26 in VARBusiness Magazine: "A VAR Is Born."