From Entrepreneur to Franchisor: One Woman's Journey

By Pamela Gold

Have you ever wondered how and why a business developed into a franchise? Every company is different but we recently chatted with Georgia Jones, Founder of Computer Moms, the highly successful computer mentoring service that helps everyone from the small business to the stay at home mom learn everything from how to turn on a computer to mastering advanced skills. Georgia's story is both a joy and an inspiration.

How It All Began

In the early 1990's Georgia Jones was a stay at home in Austin, Texas. Her son was adopted in 1986. Prior to motherhood, Georgia Jones had worked for a U.S. Senator from Texas. In the 1970's, she attended a six week computer school sponsored by the U.S. Senate to help facilitate the computerization of the Senate. After successfully helping her staff, she began writing guides for other staffs that took the mystery of technology out of using computers, and made it a simple step-by-step process to learn and use them.

Around the time her son was starting school, people had begun to buy multimedia computers. In the early 1990's, technology was truly beginning to boom. Something very obvious occurred to Georgia: I realized that kids were fearless when it came to technology and computers and adults were absolutely terrified. My son played edu-tainment games on the computer all the time. Many children did, but their parents didn't even know how to turn the computers on. I saw a need and started to write guides to help my son's friends' parents. I eventually wrote ten guides. Everyone started calling me the Computer Mom. At that time, I started putting classified ads in the local papers offering my services. For some reason at that point, no one else had thought to teach computers in the same way that piano was taught. That's what I did. Instead of lecturing people for an entire day and giving them a crash course on learning to use a computer, I gave them a two-hour lesson and then gave them lots of homework to do. People cannot learn the computer without homework to keep it fresh and truly in their minds.

The Vision of a Client

What came about from those classified ads that Georgia had put in the paper? Georgia had many happy students, including Ed Jones, a retired executive who had worked for a computer company yet had no idea how to use one. After learning from Georgia, he asked her where he could find Computer Moms in other cities. I told him I was the only Computer Mom, stated Georgia. Ed couldn't believe it. Before I knew it, Ed and my husband, Milton Jones, were talking about franchising. My husband had been in the computer business since the 1960's, so he was very familiar with the industry.

What It Takes

I thought I had the perfect part-time job! I had time for my son and time to have my business and it suited me well, but I decided to go along with Ed and Milton's vision.

Georgia continued, If it wasn't for Ed and Milton, Computer Moms would not be what it is today. From the start, they saw it going national and eventually international.

The right timing and people can make a business. For Georgia, they entered into franchising in 1996 when the dot-com revolution was just taking off. There were many angel investors who happily helped companies such as Computer Moms succeed. The next integral step that Georgia, Milton, and Ed took was to build their ideal Board of Directors. They started with Mike Maples, a Microsoft executive who thought the missing ingredient in the technology field was training. He happily jumped on board. Virginia Rogers, a successful franchisor herself, joined the Board next. Finally, Jack Morgan, Schlotsky's Deli CFO, joined the Board. Georgia recalls, We had our dream team! We then hired a Franchise Consultant to help us with the UFOC. At this point, we were still working from around my kitchen table. We were then accepted into the Austin Technology Incubator, which was very significant for us. We were a service-based franchise named Computer Moms, not one of the many high tech companies in the Austin, Texas area that also wanted to be in the program, but they loved the concept and in 2000 we graduated and we were incubated out of the program.

Finding the Perfect Formula for Success

When Computer Moms first became a franchise, most of their franchisees were looking for part-time, professional opportunities. It was mostly women that signed on with Computer Moms. From this original concept, Georgia and her ambitious team sold about 50 franchises. It was a low cost, part-time opportunity and it sold well. Yet, at the same time, they had hit a wall and didn't know where to go. We found people who investigated the concept and liked it, but wanted a bigger business with more potential, remembers Georgia. I distinctly remember meeting and attracting Linda Burzynski to be our President and CEO. She worked at Molly Maid prior to becoming the President of Computer Moms. They say the sign of a good leader is knowing when you need help and when you've hit your ceiling. We had hit a wall and it was time for someone with more experience and knowledge to take over and bring us to a new level. Linda has done this for us. She took the franchise model and made it into a full-time business where our owners work on the business, not in the business. We now have franchises in 13 states!

I'm really proud that Computer Moms became the business that it is and that other people can carry on the concept I created. It took a lot of effort, money, and many talented people to get here, but I feel like the luckiest person in the world - All of these people and efforts to make this business and I get to sit here and tell the story, exclaims Georgia.

On Franchising

The franchise community is a strong and supportive network of franchisors and franchisees. Georgia explains, The franchising community is so open and willing to share. I can't think of a community that is so supportive. I can call up four or five franchisors and ask for their help. It's fantastic! She continues, Linda has been a mentor for me, and I have also learned so much from conferences and people at the International Franchise Association.

When asked what Computer Moms has gained by becoming a franchise, Georgia said, Anyone can start their own little business, but you are never going to brand your services or have a real presence on your own. Without a brand, it is very difficult to grow an influential business. Through time and experience, we have created an acronym for the M.O.M.s in our name, Mentors On the Move. Today, everywhere we go, people want to know what Computer Moms is. We have a strong presence in the community and I am so proud of that.