Ray Estrada’s Business Report sponsored by SYNERGY Business & Technology Center
Does anyone want to buy a used Mini Cooper that works, but its company can’t any more?
The award-winning Santa Barbara-based company Make it Work, best known for its red Mini Cooper service cars, has abruptly shut down after 11 years of repairing various computer-related devices.
In a prepared statement, company owner Eric Greenspan said declining revenue and few new customers forced him to close.
“Today, June 25, 2012, Make It Work halted operations and is currently in the process of closing the business. It’s a very sad day for man,” the company’s website said. “If you are a client and wish to be directly connected to a technician, please e-mail support@makeitwork.com.”
The company employed about 35 workers when it shut down.
Three-day Solstice Celebration Aids Commerce
The effect of this year’s Summer Solstice Parade and three-day festival was “excellent” in the eye of the nonprofit celebration’s Executive Director Claudia Bratton, who has held that post for 14 years.
Bratton rode a float in the parade and said it appears more people lined State Street than in years past. She said it also appeared more Solstice revelers listed to live music, drank in the jammed beer garden, ate food and visited an array of vendors under blue skies at Alameda Park on Saturday.
However, the big boon to business was the buzz on the 500 block of State Street where Baja Sharkeez Cantina bar manager Charlie Roth told KEYT the parade really brought in more customers. “It’s actually increased significantly,” Roth told TV reporter Kelsey Gerckens. “Everyone’s drinking and having a lot of fun; it’s really been great for all of us.” He said it appeared all the bars and restaurants in the area were doing booming business.
Since expanding the Solstice Festival to three days last year, it appeared lodging establishments and shops reaped benefits from it as well, but the metrics on that won’t be in until next month. The Sunday crowd at the park was small compared to Friday’s kick-off day.
A weary Bratton on Monday said the 38th annual Solstice Celebration did a little better than last year. Police reported no serious incidents that might have marred the otherwise peaceful event.
Dressed as a pirate, Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider said the weather couldn’t have been better with no early morning fog, an onshore breeze and temperatures in the low 70s. Schneider joined other elected officials including Councilwoman Cathy Murillo and state Assemblyman Das Williams.
} – 
Sad. Thought they had a good service
Every bar downtown was packed after solstice. Have never seen so many people in SB!
From 35 employees to 0 overnight? I understand Windows 7 and Google searches have made these services much less necessary (not to mention the fact that several generations have grown up with computer technology now), but there’s something fishy here…
This isn’t that surprising. Nearly every residential computer service and repair company in the county has closed in the county. OS and other options have had very little effect compared to the shear drop in costs to replace instead of repair. Most comapnies like this employee a mix of contract, on-call PT, PT, and FT employees, so 35 to 0 isn’t surprising.
Are they really going to sell their cars? Maybe Whole Foods can expand into that nice space.
Techease is still around using even cuter Fiat 500′s. How much is it going to cost MakeITWork to get the logos off their leased Morris Minors.
I always saw “Make (it) Work” instead of Make IT Work.
I usually see a large crowd participating as we make our way up to the park. This year it seemed that the crowd was prevented from doing so. It would be nice to see the crowd follow us up to the park allow others to depart and the crowd would eventually make its way back down town.
Remember, 90% of the locals Do Not participate…. Those extra customer are likely tourist here for the day. In my opinion this is even etter for business
whoops
…with that in mind I hope we celebrate these tourists by making it our theme for one of the coming years!
Too many people buying reliable Apple computers, resulting in fewer reasons to call a technician for help.
I’m always sorry to see a local business close. But, frankly Make it Work didn’t work for me. at all. I tried them twice (I guess I just didn’t learn fast enough), and both times was disappointed, and remember it well. The first technician they sent knew nothing, and after spending 5 hours trying to back up my computer – on a portable hard drive he had handy to sell me, he had to call for back-up. The other technicial fixed the problem in about 30 minute after he got there. Result – a bill for 6 hours of work, for what should have been a 30 minute problem. Why I called them again, I don’t know, but after 2 hours I just sent them away, and called a tech savy friend who fixed it. Their business model was – sell a service contract and pray we don’t have to come back. That, as well as changes in the computer world, caught up with them.