About Us

I was brought up out in the country.  Part of the time, we lived in a small farming / cotton mill town, and part of the time, we just lived out in the woods.  I absolutely loved it out there.  But you know how things go, when you grow up and get out of school, you have to start making a living. 

I joined the US Army as my first way of doing that, but when I got out at the end of 1989, I needed to come up with something to do.  After several months of thrashing about, a supervisor for the Information Services department of a big telephone company (CONTEL) out by Dulles Airport decided to "give someone a break," and I was it.  They sent me to a whole lot of computer classes during my first year with them, and that's how I got my start repairing computers.

If you want to read more about my career, you can look at my Resume here.
Tim King
They say you've gotta go where the money is, which I guess is Northern Virginia, but since we lived in Winchester, that meant a long commute and a lot of stress.  The jobs I had out there were really interesting and challenging, but the higher up the "ladder of success" I climbed, the more stressful they became.  And even if I'd had a good day on the job, the ride home would be so stressful that I was often irritable and edgy by the time I got back with my family.  The people at work kept on telling me to move out there, into the city, to be closer to my work, but with the cost of housing and gas being so high out there (even before the big housing boom), I just never felt I could afford it.  Besides, life in NVA is stressful even after you get home.  My heart was in the Shenandoah Valley.  What can I say?

Even while I worked out in NVA though, I always repaired computers for friends in and around Winchester.  And I always knew if anything ever happened where I lost my job suddenly, I could fall back on repairing computers full time as a business.  Eventually, my interest in doing that grew, and I started hanging around various business owners and learning how to run a business from them.  After all, knowing how to repair computers is one thing; knowing how to run a business and be successful at it is another.  If you'd like to know more about how that works, click here.

One of the things I learned from them was about the value of people and our relationships with each other.  I suppose the biggest reason why I ended up repairing computers in the first place was that I felt more comfortable working with machines than I did with people.  It's been a long, difficult process learning how to value people and have good relationships with them, but I think I've finally come to a point where I can do that.  You can ask my wife about that if you'd like.  So as I was considering how to set up a computer repair business, I decided that I had to put people and relationships with them first in it.  You can click here to see how I try to do that with Country Boy Computers.

Anyway, I had a car accident on I-66 near Fairfax last year (2004) on the way home from work, and that's what finally pushed me over the edge and started me seriously preparing to launch this business.  Having an accident anywhere is bad enough, but on I-66, it's enough to scare the living daylights out of you.  No matter how much I was making or how good I thought my job was, it simply wasn't worth risking my life for 3-4 hours every day just to keep that job.  Staying alive for my family, and being relaxed enough to appreciate them, was and is much more important to me.  So I started working part time on the side to prepare for my business launch.  It's taken a long time, but I finally did it.
Oh, before I wrap up, I need to give some credit where credit is due.  I've mentioned my wife several times throughout this web site, and she's done a lot of work helping me prepare this business.  She did most of the folding and envelope stuffing for our Market Survey, and she's done a lot of other things too.  Her name is Tammy, and here's a picture of us together.  I probably couldn't have done all this without her.  Thanks Tammy.
Tim and Tammy
I also need to give credit to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Ultimately, I believe He is the One Who gave me the vision for this business and Who taught me the things I needed to learn, especially about people, to make it successful.

And lastly, we actually have several businesses in various stages of development.  If you'd like to learn more about them, click here.

Ok, that's it.  Time to go back to the Home Page.