By Rachel Schreiber
Two smart, computer savvy people make smart and savvy business owners. Such as the case with Mateen and Nabeela Jaffer, owners of Jafferson Computers since 2002. Born in Pakistan Mateen migrated with his parents and sibling to the United States in 1989. He graduated with an electrical engineering degree from U-M and worked in another state in that field for over six years. Nabeela, also born in Pakistan, earned a degree in computer science there. In 2003 their son was diagnosed with autism, they decided to move to Michigan where they could get more help and be closer to Mateen’s six brothers, sisters and his mom.
Mateen couldn’t get a job in Michigan, but they did get help for their son and he entertained the thought of going back to school for his master’s. Mateen says,” I just don’t want to sit down and be idle. So we worked from home.” Then, an opportunity presented itself and the two jumped at it. In 2004, a computer store, Skytec Computers, was going out of business and Mateen and Nabeela grabbed the chance to become entrepreneurs. They took over Skytec’s location and changed the name to Jafferson Computers. It became a computer retail store serving businesses. Nabeela says,” It was interesting. We found this place and we took it as a challenge, and that’s how we started doing business.” We didn’t have a plan six months before coming in. In a month’s time we saw the sign that said, going out of business, we investigated, thought about it and took money out of our mortgage,” Mateen adds.
With Nabeela’s increasing computer skills, (she is attending EMU and working toward her master’s degree), it seemed like a logical move to expand their business to include computer training classes. Last year, Jafferson Computers began offering customized computer training sessions for businesses and individuals at Jafferson’s training center. The courses include web site design and web programming. If a company wants to learn something specific about a program, Nabeela teaches that also. She says, “A company came to us because they wanted to learn how to use a pivot table (a feature in Excel) for their business. I designed a course for them and trained them how to use the table. If a customer wants to learn a particular part of a program, we teach them that. The rates are very affordable for the custom classes.” She is happy to teach the customer how to manage their web site or she can do that for them herself. Her custom design courses cover material in Microsoft PowerPoint, Access, Excel, Word Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Jafferson is unveiling their newest addition. Summer session classes for kids ages 8-14. Children will learn how to create their own Video Games with GameMaker or design their own website with animated graphics.
Mateen has given presentations about maintaining computers for the Ann Arbor District Library. His presentations are accessible via the AADL web site. He says, “I want to teach people how to maintain their computer so they don’t have to come back here (to the store) every six months. We’d like to have their computers functional for a couple of years. That’s the kind of service we want to offer.”
Jafferson Computers
Mateen and Nabeela Jaffer
4005 Carpenter Road
3800 Packard Rd., Suite 230
Ypsilanti, MI
Ann Arbor, MI
Phone: 734-975-6932
Phone: 734-975-4055
mateen@jcdeals.com
nabeela@a2computerclasses.com
Website: www.a2computerclasses.com