Joe Zalewski said the decision to quit a steady job to join a former colleague in a new computer consulting business was not hard, even though he had a wife and two children.
After all, he'd spent two decades taking chances on a musical career, criss-crossing the country playing drums for the popular Toledo Polkamotion, which was nominated for a 1990 Grammy award.
"I've always been an entrepreneur because of the band," he said. "Just ask my wife. We'd be going to bed and I'd be like, 'What about opening a bar called Joe's Polka Band, where we'd be the house band?' "
Instead of being a bar owner, these days he is a managing partner and chief operating officer of Business Technical Consulting LLC, which does business as BizTech. The firm was started in 1999 by Michael Brown, who was the information technology director and Mr. Zalewski's boss at J Richard Industries in Toledo.
"I was single with no family and more able to take the risk," Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Zalewski joined Mr. Brown in Business Technical about a year after its formation, and the two have quickly expanded. It has 15 employees, and plans are to almost double this year's revenue to $3 million at the end of 2005, Mr. Zalewski said.
The company specializes in helping businesses with information management systems and offers consulting and customized help, particularly to manufacturers who use Visual Software Inc. products, and health-care companies. The partners specialized in Visual software because they were familiar with the product and knew that not a lot of instruction went along with the purchase of the software.
Employees are often called in on an emergency basis, but their expertise then often gets the company hired for routine projects, from fixing printers to servers, the two men said.
Customer service from the West Toledo business wins praise from Rick Way, manager of information technology for Omega Plastics in Mount Clemens, Mich.
"The things that stand out about BizTech is that their background is manufacturing," he said. "You are talking to people that understand your lingo, and they very quickly are able to steer you in the right direction." He added: "You don't fully understand what the software does, but they don't insult you and direct you again and retrain you without you even realizing it."
Mr. Brown and Mr. Zalewski said they are considering expanding their business into information-technology security monitoring and remote data storage.
The company has grown so quickly in the past year that Mr. Zalewski and his bandmates decided to disband Polkamotion in April. There are no plans for gigs anytime soon.
"You'll know BizTech is truly successful when I retire and go back to playing music," he said.
Small Business Profile is a weekly feature on local companies. To be considered, send information about your company to Small Business Profiles, Business News, The Blade, P.O. Box 921, Toledo, OH 43697-0921.
Contact Mary-Beth McLaughlin at: mmclaughlin@theblade.com
or 419-724-6199.
First Published December 6, 2004, 1:11 p.m.
