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From Pakistan into the PC AGE
SUNDAY, AUGUST 22nd, 1999
The Star Ledger
Zafar M. Khizer, the owner of PC Age Group in Parsippany, has used
lessons from his past to nourish his entrepreneurial development.
His company offers training for people looking to become Certified
Novell Engineers and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. The
company also provides test preparation software.
Khizer is the eldest of seven children and was raised in a
lower-middle class household in Pakistan. He received a master’s
degree in electronics and applied physics from the University of
Karachi in 1983. But Khizer realized that he did not want to work in
this field. He then emigrated to the U.S. in 1985 to continue his
education, and eventually earned a master’s degree in computer
science in 1988 from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in
Newark. Having taught science to students in Pakistan, Khizer looked
for a way to combine his love for teaching with his computer
training. “What I really wanted to do,” says Khizer, “was educate
people so that they could get a better life.”
Khizer started PC Age in December I991, billing it as the first
independent training center in New Jersey to offer affordable
certification training in Novell systems. His goal was to provide
training specifically to people changing careers who were looking to
move into the computer field. The company now offers training for
both Microsoft and Novell. PC Age, which began as a husband and wife
operation, currently has more than 50 employees and experienced
back-to-back years of more than 50% sales growth in 1997 and 1998.
Khizer’s original idea was to set up a computer information
television program, but he didn’t have the necessary resources. So
he tackled general computer training, deciding to set up seminars
for anyone who was interested. The early years at PC Age were tough.
At times, Khizer had only two customers paying a total of $100.
That, he says, revealed his first mistake. “Instead of offering
general training, you have to specialize,” he says. “Not everyone is
going to be your customer. To be successful, you have to narrow your
customer base.”
At the time, certification training was popular but expensive, and
it was only offered by Novell authorized educational centers. Khizer
recognized a way to narrow his focus. He became a Certified Novell
Engineer.
Khizer and his wife, Arifa Khizer, began providing private
networking classes to customers from a 200 square-foot office in
Fairfield. Novell’s manuals were only licensed to Novell Authorized
Educational Centers, and that would have cost Khizer about $10,000.
That price was much too steep for the developing PC Age. In
addition, he believed that the material in the available manuals was
not reader-friendly, so Khizer started producing his own instruction
manuals. He has so far written 17 books and manuals with titles such
as System Administration Netware 4.11, Networking Fundamentals and
Troubleshooting and Supporting a Network. These are used by such
institutions as New York University and Wright State University in
Ohio.
“Not everyone is going to be your customer. To be successful, you
have to narrow your customer base.”
“Education is the key to success”, says Khizer: “The world is
getting better for those who are smarter, and worse for those who
are not.” With this as its mantra, PC Age focuses on providing
students with intensive training that will enable them to pass
computer certification tests. Students get not only lots of class
time but also lab work, where they are supervised by trained
assistants. According to Khizer, 94% of his students pass the
certification tests on their first attempt. Microsoft Certified
Professional magazine and Windows NT magazine have given both PC
Age’s test preparation and its computer-based training products good
reviews. According to company figures, students who finish the
$9,885 six-to-nine-month course earn, on average, about $40,000 a
year.
The company has long since grown out of its original 200-square-foot
office. After two stops along the way, it settled in 1995 into its
present 7,200-square-foot headquarters in Fairfield. PC Age II, a
separate company formed by Khizer in 1995 to handle some of the
company’s expansion, is based in Edison. The company posted revenues
of $918,000 in 1996, which grew to $1.4 million in 1997, and then to
$3.8 million in 1998. Enrollment has exploded from just two Students
to more than 400.
But there is still a lot of room to grow. The Wall Street Journal
has reported that there are more than 150,000 vacant jobs in the
U.S. in information technology. That is sweet news, says Khizer, for
a company that trains people for the field.
Even in today’s fast-paced world of technology, Khizer is confident
about the future. “To remain competitive, I have to continue to hire
and surround myself with intelligent, service-oriented people. I am
not too concerned with technological change. If I hire better then
my competition, we’ll always come out ahead.”
If Khizer is right, and all goes smoothly, he hopes someday to
franchise the company. Then he could perhaps take his company
international-possibly, even, into his homeland of Pakistan.
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