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.
