Greenville Tech Co.: Building a Family Business in Greenville, Texas
When I walked into Greenville Tech Co., I expected to find computers waiting to be repaired, tools scattered across a workbench and maybe a gaming console or two taken apart somewhere in the back.
All of that was there, but it wasn’t what caught my attention first.
In one corner of the lobby was a large playpen filled with toys, with a little television positioned just right for one-year-old Emmie. She was perfectly content when I arrived, playing in her own little corner of the shop while her parents, Johnny and Kaitlyn Honeycutt, finished up what they were doing.
Right before we sat down to talk, Johnny picked her up, and Emmie spent the rest of our visit nearby while we talked.
It was a small glimpse into one of the biggest reasons Greenville Tech Co. exists in the first place. Johnny and Kaitlyn wanted to build a business of their own, but they also wanted something their previous careers couldn’t always give them: more time together as a family.
As I would learn over the next hour, that decision required both of them to walk away from steady careers, take a chance on a business that had started from home, and eventually move into a building that already held an important place in Johnny’s story.
Because long before the name Greenville Tech Co. was on the door, this was where Johnny got his first job in IT.
From Century Computer to Greenville Tech Co.
If you’ve lived in Greenville for a while, the location of Greenville Tech Co. may look familiar. For decades, it was home to Century Computer.
For Johnny, the connection to the building is personal. A lifelong Hunt County resident, this is where he got his first job in IT and learned computer repair from former owners Ron and Amanda.
After about a year, Johnny moved on to other opportunities and eventually spent 11 years working in IT at Innovation First. During that time, he continued building the experience that would eventually allow him to start a business of his own.
Years later, his career brought him right back to where it began, only this time the name on the door is Greenville Tech Co.
Greenville Tech Co. didn’t begin with a storefront. When Johnny and Kaitlyn learned they were expecting Emmie, Johnny started doing technology work from home after hours to bring in some extra income.
For about a year and a half, it remained a side business while Johnny continued his career in IT and Kaitlyn worked as a teacher. Then the former Century Computer location became available, and the possibility of turning Greenville Tech Co. into something more began to feel real.
It was still a big risk. Going all in meant both Johnny and Kaitlyn would leave steady jobs, salaries and benefits with a young daughter at home.
“Are we going to make enough to feed her?” was one of the very real questions they asked themselves.
But they also knew there might never be a perfect time.
“If you wait for the right time to do it, there’s never going to be the right time,” Kaitlyn said.
They wanted more time together as a family, and when the opportunity presented itself, they decided to take it.
For all the uncertainty leading up to opening Greenville Tech Co., their first day gave Johnny and Kaitlyn a little reassurance.
There was a line out the door.
Some of that early business came from people who already knew the location. Even now, Johnny says customers sometimes walk in expecting to find Century Computer and are surprised to discover something new.
Johnny and Kaitlyn understand the trust the previous business built in Greenville over many years, and they respect that history. But Greenville Tech Co. is their business, and they’re working to build that same kind of trust with the community in their own way.
For Johnny and Kaitlyn, simply making the leap is already something they’re proud of.
Computer Repair in Greenville With a Personal Touch
Computer repair makes up much of Greenville Tech Co.’s business, along with commercial IT work and gaming console repair. Johnny especially enjoys microsoldering and motherboard repair, specialized work that isn’t widely available locally.
But the repair itself is only part of the service Johnny wants people to remember.
When a computer comes in, he takes care of the original problem but often cleans up a few other things along the way. Computers are wiped down before they’re returned, and when an older customer brings in a desktop, someone will help carry it back to the car.
Johnny compared it to the full-service experience businesses used to provide. You came in for one thing, but someone took a little extra time to make sure you were taken care of.
That approach becomes even more important with some of the customers walking through their door.
Helping Customers Navigate Computer Scams
One of the biggest technology problems Johnny sees right now isn’t actually a broken computer. It’s scammers.
Instead of traditional viruses, he increasingly sees customers who have been tricked into giving someone remote access to their computer. By the time they reach Greenville Tech Co., some have lost thousands of dollars or had files held hostage. Many of them are senior citizens.
It’s something Johnny takes seriously, especially because many of those customers have already lost money before they reach him.
“They’ve already lost a bunch of money,” he said, and it’s one reason he tries to be mindful of what they’re charged to get things working again.
He also doesn’t want to repair a computer and send someone home unable to use it. If a system has to be reset, he’ll help customers get logged back in and make things feel familiar again before they leave.
For some of his older customers, his advice for the next time something suspicious appears on their screen is even simpler.
“Call me first.”
Before giving someone access to the computer or trusting a support number they found online, call someone they know.
In a world where technology can feel increasingly impersonal, sometimes what people need most is a person they trust.
Computer Repair, Gaming Consoles and Small Business IT
Some of the computers Johnny remembers most aren’t memorable because of what was broken.
One belonged to a local minister who has spent about 30 years ministering to inmates and keeping up with them after their release. Over the years, he had accumulated more contacts and records than Johnny had ever seen on one computer.
The challenge was helping him manage decades of information across several laptops, but Johnny remembered the man and the years of relationships stored inside those files.
Not long after Greenville Tech Co. opened, a customer brought in a computer Johnny immediately recognized. He had built it himself about 12 years earlier while working at Century Computer, and it was still running.
After cleaning it up, the customer asked if it might finally be time for a new one. Johnny agreed that 12 years was a pretty good run and built him another.
The customer let Johnny keep the original, giving him a pretty fitting reminder of just how far he’s come since his first days working in that building.
Johnny also hopes to grow the commercial IT side of Greenville Tech Co.
When a local business needs a computer, he often prefers to build one using components that can be easily repaired or replaced later. His thinking is practical: when a computer is important to running your business, you don’t want to wait days for a specialized part if something goes wrong.
After years of working in IT himself, Johnny understands how important it is to keep a business’s technology working.
Now he gets to help other local businesses do the same.
Learning and Building the Business Together
Knowing technology and knowing how to own a technology company turned out to be two different things.
A few years before opening Greenville Tech Co., Johnny went back to school in his mid-30s and earned his associate degree. Looking back, he believes that experience helped prepare him for more than the technical side of the business.
Kaitlyn brought her own experience from years in the classroom, and together they’ve learned the rest as they’ve gone.
They’re also already finding ways to pass some of those lessons along.
Greenville Tech Co. currently has two young interns who attended the school where Kaitlyn taught, and Johnny wants their experience to include more than learning how to repair computers.
Right before our interview, he had one of the boys call a customer because he knew the young man was shy. Learning how to communicate with customers, create invoices and understand how a business operates is just as much a part of the experience as the technical work.
Building Trust in the Greenville Community
Apparently I wasn’t the first person to fall for Emmie.
Johnny and Kaitlyn laughed when they told me some of the neighboring businesses have started calling her the Carroll Square mascot. The businesses around them have embraced their little family, checking in on them and making sure Emmie gets plenty of attention when she visits.
That support has extended beyond their immediate neighbors. Joining the Greenville Chamber of Commerce has connected Johnny and Kaitlyn with other local business owners and even reconnected Johnny with people he hadn’t seen since high school.
For someone who has spent most of his life in Hunt County, those connections mean something. Johnny knows this community, and increasingly, when someone needs help with a computer, he’s hearing something he hoped would happen.
“Go see Johnny.”
When I asked Johnny and Kaitlyn what they hope people think when they hear Greenville Tech Co., Johnny’s answer was simple: honesty and trustworthiness.
That matters when customers are handing over computers filled with personal information, photographs and years of files.
Johnny has been surprised by how quickly people have been willing to give them that trust. Even customers who walk in expecting the previous business will often talk with him for a few minutes and feel comfortable leaving their computer in his hands.
When I asked what he would thank their customers for, his answer came back to the same thing.
Trust.
Back to Business With Greenville Tech Co.
As families and businesses settle back into their routines after summer, the technology they rely on becomes important again too. That’s exactly why Greenville Tech Co. caught my attention for our Back to Business series.
Johnny says computer repair tends to slow down during the summer, but that changes as school starts and families pull laptops back out after months of lighter use.
He’s also learned to work with the seasonal rhythm. During the slower summer months, gaming console repairs help fill the gap as Xboxes and PlayStations get plenty of use and travel with kids from place to place.
His simplest advice for protecting both computers and gaming systems is easy: unplug the cords before moving them. Damaged charging and HDMI ports are some of the most common accidental repairs he sees.
Building a Family Legacy
When I asked what owning a small business has taught them so far, Johnny answered with patience. Kaitlyn added sacrifice.
They’ve certainly experienced both. They walked away from two steady careers to take a chance on Greenville Tech Co., knowing there would be busy seasons, slow seasons and plenty they would have to learn along the way.
So I asked what keeps them motivated on the hard days.
Johnny didn’t hesitate.
“Her.”
Emmie was nearby as he answered.
Johnny has recently lost both of his parents, and that loss has made him think more about what he hopes to leave behind for his own daughter someday. For Johnny and Kaitlyn, building Greenville Tech Co. has become part of that.
“Starting a family business is like starting a legacy,” Kaitlyn said.
They hope the business grows, and as it does, they want to be able to give more, support more local causes and establish themselves as a family that helps.
As we finished our conversation, Emmie was still nearby, just as she had been from the moment I walked through the door.
She’s far too young to understand the risk her parents took when they left two steady careers or what they’re working to build inside this familiar Greenville storefront.
For now, it’s simply where she gets to spend her days with Mom and Dad.
Someday, though, she may look back and realize she had a front-row seat to the very beginning of something her parents were building for their family, one computer and one customer at a time.
About Greenville Tech Co.
Greenville Tech Co. is a locally owned computer repair and IT support business serving Greenville and surrounding Hunt County. Services include computer and laptop repair, gaming console repair, business IT and network support, along with additional technology solutions for homes and businesses.
Greenville Tech Co.
8709 Wesley St., Suite B
Greenville, TX 75402
(903) 274-4093
Monday–Friday: 9:30 AM–5:30 PM
Website: Greenville Tech Co.
Facebook: Greenville Tech Co.
Back to Business • August Series
Throughout August, The Local Letter is highlighting the local people and businesses helping Hunt County get back to school, back to work and back into the routines of a new season.
Also in the Back to Business series:
Spirit 66
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Lone Star Martial Arts
A Greenville family building confidence, character and community through martial arts.