2007 Fast Growth 100: Company Profiles

NORTHWEST COMPUTER SUPPORT

After about 25 years of ups and downs, break/fix and warranty repair shop Northwest Computer Support reached a nadir in 2001 when it lost 40 percent of sales and was budgeting for revenue of only $1.8 million that year. Wanting to get out of the business, the owner persuaded the current president and vice president of sales to come back to the company and help him make it a more attractive acquisition target. Now, 24 consecutive quarters of growth later, it's a $9 million-plus business expanding into new practice areas.

To achieve this, Northwest didn't need to replace existing employees, quit any practices or change its name. It just needed to open the purse strings a bit and focus more on the top line.

When CEO James Watson and COO Lesleigh Watson bought the company in 2005, they replaced an owner who had focused too narrowly on cost containment. They have invested in the company's expansion, which helped it continue to grow by 90 percent in the 2004 to 2006 period alone.

Under its new direction, the company hired additional talent, put infrastructure in place to support growth, worked with vendors as early adopters of new technology and launched additional practice areas. The company also is looking at growth through acquisition. The changes "allowed our staff to see that we could be a $10 million company and eventually a $20 million to $50 million company. There is that much opportunity," said Northwest President Tom Rash.

Northwest's willingness to "put skin in the game" by doing testing and early deployments of new products, as well as its ability to fill a room with loyal clients for Microsoft or HP marketing events, earns them a lot of great client referrals from vendors as well.

Jeanette Boyne

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