Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Wright.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
When I was a kid, my father ran his own business. One day he brought home an Apple III, and it was one of those things where you bought it because it was the future but you didn’t know quite what to do with it. Somewhere along the line I figured it out, and that was my first introduction to working with computers. I attended Texas Tech, and during my time there worked at a computer company, I wanted to find a job that wasn’t just a means to make money; I wanted something that would actually help me in my career, and I knew I wanted to work in technology. I earned a business management degree when I graduated in 1995. Most IT companies are started by IT guys who decided to start a business. I’m a business guy who stared to an IT company.
During my Christmas and summer breaks I would come back home to work in Houston, and I started to establish business contacts. So, when I graduated, I had already had a strong potential customer base. In May of 1992, I registered my first DBA, and really started full time in 1995. For a long time, I was one-man show.
Over the years, I built my business debt-free, and today have 25 full-time employees. I believe this small business trend of not worrying about making a profit for the first three years, that’s a modern-day trend, and the more prevalent it becomes, the more dangerous it becomes. The true legacy in the U.S. small business world is establishing your business with minimal debt and hard work, building off your receipts, and building a 20-, 30-year type of commitment.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think it’s tough to start a business without being 100% positive that you’re going to succeed. When I started, I truly believed there was no limit to what we could achieve. If I’m brutally honest, today I’m kicking myself about things I should have done differently, or that I could have done better. But, that positivity is what has helped me not lose sight of my bigger picture business goals, regardless of a few missed opportunities or bumps in the road.
One challenge is the ability to keep an eye on future technologies and monitor those future technologies, but not at the expense of the present. If I’m trying to build out a future scenario for a customer, and I’m solely focused on newest technologies, they could be obsolete in six months or not functioning. My company works best when I can show a business where, through improved IT services, his returns on his or her investment are. Our customers don’t want to be told what the coolest things out there are. We will show them that what they are buying truly helps their business. I have lived by the rule that everything we recommend to someone should either increase their revenue, decrease their costs or improve their service to customers.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Wright Business Technologies – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Wright Business Technologies offers its customers a full line of IT services, including computer network and server infrastructure, wireless network design and implementation, and proactive maintenance and security plans.
One of the many services we offer is establishing a cloud-based backup network which is one solution to reinforcing a data backup system. Many companies come to us lacking adequate data backup. This problem can be extremely detrimental to them if they were to suffer some type of data loss.
Business owners don’t necessarily need to have a firm grasp on technology trends to work with WBT––in fact, we prefer to initially understand the goals of the business rather than its IT challenges, and then we adopt and implement tech systems toward that goal.
I believe what sets us apart is that I have a firmly established business-first background, rather than an IT-first background. I understand that businesses want to see a return on their investments, and that’s no different with their IT systems. We are able to show that to them.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’m a big believer in market forces and self-correcting dynamics, especially in a relatively deregulated market place. I’ve seen corrections in the marketplace in instances in which companies are pushing a particular technology in one direction, but market forces are pushing in another direction.
One example of that is over the last 10 years, certainly over the last five year, there has been a significant trend toward moving software and services to monthly fee-based subscriptions––nobody wants to buy anything outright, nobody wants to own anything. What happened to old days of just buying it? Everybody wants to get on these monthly plans, and it makes me wonder if we’re going to see a resistance to it. Some of this software and these services are great for monthly fees, but some companies may have to abandon that and go back to a traditional model.
Contact Info:
- Address: Wright Business Technologies, Inc.
333 North Sam Houston Parkway East, Suite 880
Houston, TX 77060 - Website: http://www.wrighttechnologies.com/
- Phone: (281) 260-8001
- Email: contactus@wrighttechnologies.com
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