July 14, 1997
Boca's PC Professor Launching First Computer-Training Franchise

Before he became the first franchisee for Boca Raton-based PC Professor, Allen Reback managed several car dealerships.  He was the guy you called when you got really fed up with your mechanic.

"Basically, I got yelled at by customers from the time I got in in the morning to the time I left," said Reback, 38. "I got tired of it."

So Reback turned to Howard Fellman, a longtime customer who co-owned the computer training and repair firm PC Professor.  Fellman, who had just received government approval to sell franchises, was sifting through inquiries from around the world after some local press and a favorable mention in Entrepreneur magazine.

But Fellman knew that his eight-year-old company, run with brothers Steven and Robert, was successful largely because of its relationships with customers. With Reback, whom he had followed from one dealership to another for a half-dozen years, Fellman felt confident he would be making the right choice.

"Customer service is key for us, and I didn't have to ask Allen about his customer service philosophy because I knew about it firsthand," Fellman said. "The truth is that I didn't even particularly like Allen's dealership, but he always made me feel important. And when I would wait in line, there were always other people in line too who only wanted to deal with Allen Reback.

"We also weren't looking for a traditional franchisor/franchisee relationship where the franchisor dictates how it has to be," Fellman added. "We were looking for more of a strategic partnership that would allow us to reach out to customers that we were not reaching in our geographic areas of Boca Raton and West Palm Beach."

So Fellman awarded the first PC Professor franchise to Reback and his wife, Karen, who opted for the territory of Southern Broward County south of I-595.

Reback, who taught himself about computers when his wife started having trouble with her laptop, spent several weeks managing the Boca Raton office to get the hang of things. Then, he and Karen chose a location in fast-growing Pembroke Pines, where they plan to open this month in a Publix-anchored shopping center at the heavily trafficked corner of Pines Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

Allen, 38, will man the office with three other employees. Karen, 31, plans to work there this summer but will return in the fall for one last year as a teacher at J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs.

Computer sales and repair will be part of the picture, as will corporate training; clients already signed include an insurance company, a chiropractor's office and Miami's Fisher Island residential community.  The couple said the PC Professor connection made nearly everything easier than it would have been on their own.  Credit and insurance matters were simpler to arrange, they said, and ads that feature three locations are more likely to impress potential customers.

"I feel like I'm in at the beginning of a great thing," Allen Reback said. "Someone might not want to bring their $3,000 computer in for repairs at a place they've never heard of, but being part of the PC Professor family makes people think we're larger than we really are."

With the Rebacks already talking about future locations in Naples and Orlando, Fellman plans to work closely with the couple for several months before signing on more franchisees.

"I've been looking forward to this moment for the last nine years," Fellman said. "I have other people who are interested in becoming franchisees, but at this point I want to focus on the Rebacks first. They've got a lot of new ideas, and we're going to give them the leeway to run with them."