by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Tony Butler has set up his business to operate like a health club for computers and their users.
Those who want to tone up their abs, pecs and lats would get a membership in a club, get someone to aim them toward the equipment and have at it.
They might even get a personal trainer to help etch some cuts in those flabby spots.
“That’s the same thing we do,” said Butler, executive director of The Computer Spa in the Beaver Street Enterprise Center. “We are to technology what health spas are to fitness.
“We have a wide variety of software and technology that we’re constantly developing and customizing. That technology is made available to our members, who get memberships just like you would at a health spa.”
The Computer Spa, which officially moved into the Enterprise Center on March 18, will have an open house from 3-6 p.m. Thursday. There will be food and plenty of information about how the business will take the jitters out of computer use.
“It’s all about pampering. Our niche is customized services, a customized approach in a customized time frame.
“We create and host the country’s only 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week technology resource. You’re a customer and call us at 9 o’clock at night and say you need to stop in at 3 in the morning, somebody will be here at 3 in the morning.
“That is something most large companies cannot do. It’s not worthwhile for them to do it.”
Butler will also use the open house to explain his company’s tithing program, through which Computer Spa will donate a percentage of a customer’s bill to worthwhile causes. The opportunity is open to for-profits and non-profits alike.
“I’m looking at school groups, housing and neighborhood associations, community groups, senior centers,” said Butler. “Our goal is to get to maybe 50 organizations that really make a difference.”
Butler said he has already been asked if that offer is any more than a marketing ploy.
“It would be if we accepted everybody and if we tried to peddle our high-profit margin items,” he said. “We don’t do that. We won’t take everybody. It has to be a worthwhile cause, something that will benefit the whole and effect some type of social change.”
A second major initiative will also be announced on Thursday, said Butler.
The Computer Spa and 100 Black Men of Jacksonville are setting up a youth achievement technology program for children on the city’s Eastside.
“The whole philosophy of The Computer Spa is based on a theory called E3,” said Butler. “Educate, Encourage, Empower. That theory is really the whole mantra for everything we do.”
In addition to the many aspects of software training and computer repair, Butler offers “signature trainings” to executives in their offices.
“This is like the key service we offer,” he said. “All the people who feel they’re too busy to come to a class, we go to them.”
Butler is the company’s main trainer. Two other trainers work for him who are independent contractors. He has two interns and is looking for five to 10 more.
“We teach interns how to do business and actually put them in real-world situations,” he said. “They don’t have to know computers. They do have to be people who are good with other people.”
The Computer Spa’s services are available to anyone, but seniors “by far” make up Butler’s main demographic group.
“Seniors I love to train,” he said. “They are most often left out of the loop, and they just want to belong.
“These are former CEOs, middle and top management. These guys and these ladies are sharp.
“And they make great food. If I do a home visit, and you have some iced tea, I might have a discount for you.”
Those who cannot attend the open house but would like more information about The Computer Spa should call Butler at 265-1909 or go to [email protected].
The Beaver Street Enterprise Center, at 1225 W. Beaver St., is a non-profit center dedicated to developing for-profit businesses and jobs in distressed economic zones. It was developed by FreshMinistries and the City.