‘I can’t imagine doing anything else’
Growing up in Lewiston in the early 1980s, Joseph Hume had a different mindset than most teenagers he knew. Rather than picking up the keyboard to play games on the then-recently released Commodore 64 home computer, Hume preferred to lift the lid to see what made the machine tick.
Today, the 39-year-old North Idaho resident still loves to tinker with computers – only now, he does it for a living. As the owner of F1 for Help in Rathdrum, Hume and his two-person crew handle computing needs for a single system, to small- and medium-sized businesses with dozens of computers across the state and beyond.
“I’ve always been kind of a tinkerer, I’ve always liked to take stuff apart,” said Hume, while seated at a table in the downtown shop Pleasant Land Books and Espresso, which is one of several local businesses with networks installed and managed by F1. “I guess I was a little different from people because I was actually programming computers.”
By building his business around the customer service-centric philosophy that “computers are an integral part of our daily lives,” Hume has grown F1 for Help from a home-based operation with a handful of clients, into its current location in the business strip along West Highway 53 with countless customers from Pullman to Pend Oreille County. Since moving to North Idaho in 1998, Hume has expanded his business by offering free in-shop diagnostic checks for a cost-to-fix estimate, upgrades for the latest software and hardware available on the market, including Windows XP reinstallation, and custom-built computers.
“We build computers, we build networks, we build routers, and we recycle the stuff when it’s done,” Hume said, adding that he’s a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and has extensive experience in the computer communication language known as TCP/IP. “Part of what we do is teach the computers to help themselves. It’s better management through script writing, man: Work smarter, not harder,” Hume said, laughing, about the custom-coded programming language his business writes to remotely control their client’s computer software.
About F1 for Help’s growing customer base over the years, Hume said, “I think the community has taken very well to F1 for Help. We do good work, and our prices are very reasonable.”
However, to get where he is today, from a tech-savvy teen to successful small business owner, Hume has gone through a host of entrepreneurial ups and downs.
After graduating from Lewis-Clark State College with an associate degree in computer repair, Hume landed an information technology job with a local Lewiston company. A few years later, however, he was “separated from payroll,” as Hume recalled, and left unemployed.
With only one mid-sized client in his pocket, the Lewiston native decided to branch out on his own, forming F1 for Help and following the company in its move north. “I actually followed my last job up here,” Hume said. “I didn’t make any appreciable money for 10 months,” he said, adding that his advice for any budding business owners would be, “give yourself nine months worth of personal expenses.”
Once relocated to the bucolic, mountain-side town of Rathdrum, Hume hit the streets – literally. With business cards in hand and a well-versed introduction in mind, he trekked from business to business introducing himself. “Actually getting out and networking is probably the best way to get your name out,” he said.
After working from home for the first few years, Hume moved into the business strip in 2005 and added two employees last year. When not out on service calls or working in the shop, Hume has been an active member of the business community, including his current post as vice president of the Rathdrum Area Chamber of Commerce.
That local allegiance and availability are what attracted the Rathdrum Police Department to Hume’s business, said Police Chief Kevin Fuhr. Since having F1 for Help install its server last year, Fuhr said Hume has been their reliable go-to guy for all their computer questions.
“He’s prompt, he’s very personable and he knows what he’s doing. All the issues he’s been able to fix right away, and he’s the right price,” Fuhr said in a telephone interview. “We’ll use Joe for as long as he’s around.”
While moving to Rathdrum and starting a business from scratch held an insecure and uncertain future, it’s proven to be a sound decision for Hume. With the community’s acceptance and the proximity to hike able and solitary wilderness nearby, Hume said he’s very happy with where he chose to set up shop. “I’ve been playing with computers a long time, and I still look forward to my day job every day I go to work,” he said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”