BROTHERS GROW BUSINESS FROM DAD'S SIMI GARAGE.Byline: Douglas Clark
Douglas Clark (born 1942) is an English poet. Clark was born in Darlington, County Durham, England, to Scottish parents in 1942. Daily News Staff Writer Using skills they developed playing computer games, Richard and Brian Rock started a company in their father's Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. garage five years ago, figuring they'd be lucky to clear $300 on each PC they built. Business at Pure Computing was pretty steady during the first few years, but not strong enough for either brother to quit his day job. Then the Rocks began targeting pharmacies for their intra-office computer systems - and the brothers are literally on Easy Street. With $2.5 million in sales last year, the Rocks have expanded Pure Computing to a 3,300-square-foot facility on Simi Valley's Easy Street. ``Right now you've got the people who know computers and those who don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. ,'' said Richard, 30, an Apollo High School Apollo High School could refer to any of the following educational institutions in the United States:
Pure Computing, which now has nine employees, creates the computer hardware and plumbing for pharmacies that serve nursing homes and board-and-care operations. Their clients include several Fortune 500 companies, such as Omnicare Pharmaceutical Co. Yet the brothers knew nothing of the pharmaceutical niche in 1993, when they decided to begin building computer hardware so that they could be their own bosses. Their start came after seeing a personal computer their father, John, purchased from a friend who had his own small operation. ``We thought, we can do that,'' Richard said. ``We figured the guy probably made $300 on each computer. To us, that was big money.'' The brothers set up shop in their father's Simi Valley garage, and eventually saw their sales grow to $30,000 a month. The turning point came in 1995, when Richard was fired from his job at R&A Inc., of Dayton, Ohio Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. As of the 2005 census estimate, the population of Dayton was 158,873. . The company creates pharmaceutical software and was having problems dealing with its clients' outdated computer hardware. So the Rocks turned their attention to pharmaceutical companies. And Pure Computing is now the preferred hardware vendor for R&A Inc. Meanwhile, Brian, 28, a Royal High graduate, had become the computer expert for Weiss Accountancy in Van Nuys. Brian approached his bosses for money in starting up his company, and Weiss now has a 20 percent interest in Pure Computing. ``Given our close relationship with Brian, who's a brilliant young man, we were excited about being a part of it,'' said Jim Walker Jim Walker (né James Donat Walker) (born 1955 in Edmonton) was the original drummer of Public Image Ltd. in 1978. In 1977 he played drums for Canadian punk band The Furies and moved to London in October 1977. , a partner at Weiss. ``It was obvious that the marketplace had a tremendous amount of potential. And they had the capabilities to tap the market.'' Computer games, not college, are where both Richard and Brian began to develop their computer know-how. ``There would be these magazines with 20 pages of code you had to type in to get your game to work,'' Brian said Brian Said (born May 15 1973 in Valletta, Malta) is a professional footballer currently playing for Sliema Wanderers in the Maltese Football League, where he plays as a defender. External links
But taking the leap to start their own concern was no game, said Brian's wife, Nancy, who is the company's bookkeeper. ``They had to leave their jobs to begin this,'' she said. ``We dropped everything and said, let's do it. We thought we were going to work for ourselves, but you really are working for other people. You have to be nice. If you get frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: , you can't just go get another job, because you put all your money into this one.'' The future forecast looks good. This year, the Rocks say they will add several employees and go after large companies. They'll also market new software they're developing for the pharmacies that use their hardware. ``Small business is the next big market. Everyone - IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Hewlett-Packard, Compaq - is scrambling to create these small networks,'' Richard said. ``But we're not just trying to offer a commodity item. We want to provide a solution.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos PHOTO (1--Color) (Ran in Simi and Conejo Editions only) Brian, left, and Richard Rock Richard Rock (1690? - November 1777) was a well-known doctor in eighteenth century London. Originally from Hamburg, he was depicted by William Hogarth in the fifth scene of his 1731/2 satirical and moralistic series, A Harlot's Progress have seen Pure Computing grow since they founded it in a Simi Valley garage in 1993. (2) (Ran in Simi and Conejo Editions only) Greg Rogers Gregory ("Greg") Rogers (born August 14 1948) was an Australian sprint freestyle swimmer of the 1960s and 1970s, who won a silver and bronze medal in the 4x200m and 4x100m freestyle relays repectively at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. , director of operations, upgrades a computer for a client in Stockton. Evan Yee/Daily News |
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