Firm Breathes New Life Into Old Electronics
Refurbishing company moving into bigger facility as orders soar
By DANIEL KURT - Freeman Staff
WAUKESHA - Joe Goods Inc. has only been in business for nine months, but owners Joel Ellington and Todd Goodwin are already outgrowing their second location. The Waukesha company, which refurbishes video game consoles and other electronics, will be moving from a roughly 1,000-square-foot faculty at 404 Travis Lane to a 2,500-square-foot space at 2111 S. West Ave.
"We're bursting at the seams," Ellington said
In addition to a workshop, the new facility will also have a retail component. The partners plan to sell new and refurbished electronics at the site, which Ellington likens to a Gamestop and Geek Squad rolled into one.
The owners are tentatively planning to open the retail business later this month. As part of the expansion, Ellington said he plans to double the company’s current staff of seven employees over the next three months.
While Ellington and Goodwin are enjoying recent success, Joe Goods started on the heels of a business failure. The partners were professional eBay sellers for two years, but they never made much money doing so, Ellington recalled.
One day a friend suggested they buy broken electronics and resell them in a reconditioned state. After overcoming initial skepticism, they decided to give it a shot. Joe Goods began buying distressed electronics - many of them brought into retailers as part of a warranty program -for pennies on the dollar, he explained. The company initially outsourced its refurbishing, but when they noticed the quality of' the repairs was consistently below par, Ellington said they decided to do the work in-house. "When word got out, people starting calling us left and right," he said.
In September, the owners started a Web site - www.joegoods.com that lets consumers send in their electronics directly for repairs. Since then, Ellington said sales have doubled. Ellington said the soft economy seems to be helping the operation, as repairs often cost less than half the price of a new model "You can pay $70 for refurb (work) and $200 or more for new," he noted. All services performed by Joe Goods comes with a 90-day warranty, although customers can buy extended policies for up to two years.
(Daniel Kurt can be reached at (dkurt@conlevnet.com)