In Conversation with Brian Boston

My conversation with Tim Raetzloff from Abarim Business Computers was much longer and wider ranging than the bits and pieces you see below.  Besides some editing for clarity, we had to limit his interview here to the computer side of his life.

Besides running Abarim Business Computers for nearly 35 years, Tim is on the Edmonds Historical Preservation Commission.  He is an amateur historian focusing on railroads and the ghost towns like Wellington and Alpine they served near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains.  He also started “Friends of Edgar Martinez,” successfully promoting the Seahawks designated hitter to be honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019 and for many years ran a local Snohomish County stock index known as ASCSI

We are here to explore Tim’s history, his computer expertise, and to see why I consider him one of my “retirement resources.”

Hi, Tim! You have been running Abarim Business Computers for a very long time. When and how did you get started?
I was a stockbroker. And I was a part owner and branch manager of a stock brokerage company.  The stock market crash of ‘87 is now completely forgotten by everybody, right? It was huge at the time.  The primary owner thought that he recognized the pattern of the trading was similar to the same thing in September of ‘81. And at midday, he put all our net Capital, which was about 10 million dollars in the Futures market and went long.
 
The company collapsed. And it took about six months before the SEC caught up to the primary owner and put us completely out of business.  I initially started another firm but that didn’t work out.
 
Well, one of the people who was going to invest in the new company had a little computer shop out in Kent at 2nd & Meeker. We called it “Computer Place.”  And he said “You know money.  Why don't you come and be my business manager?”
 
So, I went there.  On the first day.  I told him, “This isn't a business. This is a hobby” and he said, “I know, I want you to turn it into a business.”  I took him at his word.
 
It was a full retail store.  The brand they sold was called High-Tech Computers. I don't think they've been in business for 30 years now.
 
He didn't like some of the things I was doing. I was paying the computer techs too much.  However, first day I was there, I could see that without techs, you're nothing, right?
 
So, I did my job every day. And then I spent about three hours a day, learning from computer techs. I spent long days in the shop.  It worked out well.
 
I finally had a blow-up with the shop owner over an opportunity with Microsoft.  He wouldn’t do it. So, I said. “Okay, look, this is the opportunity everybody looks for. We've been building this business nicely.” I said, “We've been profitable last year. You never were probably before.  We've got a good reputation.”
 
I ended up giving him two weeks’ notice.
 
I assumed I'd find work somewhere, so I started this place. It grew nicely. I still had the fire then.  You will see two plaques by the front door. Puget Sound Business Journal, which I think then might have been Seattle Business Journal listed us as being one of the fastest growing private companies in the state of Washington.

So, you've really been “through it.”
Oh yeah, we've been through it.  What happened then is, in 95, my number-three daughter had cancer.  She was 11.  We nearly lost her. I decided that my daughter was more important than the business.  I lost a good-sized customer over that decision.  I thought probably the whole company was going to die.  It didn’t.  I recovered and did well for the next five years.
 
Then Y2K happened.  The market oversold new computers leading up into 2000…then it just stopped.  And it stopped for a lot of other people too, which is why we had the collapse in the stock market. Microsoft stock lost what 2/3 of its value and so on.
 
In 2000, I needed to start cutting back.  It's a lot easier running a growing company than it is for a business that's in decline. Yeah, you're letting people go.  You understand the personal toll of that.  Heck, I laid off my son-in-law!
 
Less than two years after that, my wife got cancer.  Unlike my daughter, who was touch and go, her mom did not survive. Jan fought cancer for three and a half years. She died in early 2005 at age 65.  And that’s when the fire left me.  I probably should have quit, except there were a lot of people still depending on me.
 
My sales now are well below what my sales were then. But I kept at it.
 
I want to tell you this as it may affect people’s choices; this business doesn’t really pay for itself, now.  I subsidize some of it out of my retirement and Social Security.
 
Sounds like it has essentially become your hobby.
It is my hobby. Now, it's my place for showing up.  And I get to meet people every day.  I'm useful to some of them.  I was just useful to Doug there [who walked in during our conversation], who I've known. 40 or 50 years.  And Andy [who called with concerns about his computer security].  I'll go out and see Andy this afternoon.  The biggest thing I have to do is calm him down.
 
There is a certain amount of psychology that you must employ.
Yes.  I need to stay calm with people.
 
I didn’t know you did house calls.
Sure, I just close the shop and go when necessary.
 
So, I still do this. I'm useful. I try to keep up. There are some things I do not do now, which will be of interest to you.
 
I don't do Microsoft [corporate] networking. I didn't keep up with domains and all that.  I basically help individuals now.  I have very few business customers that have more than three computers. I used to have them with good size networks, and so on.  Some of those people I still see, and I still get along well with.  But I recommend that they get somebody else because I am not suitable for them anymore.
 
That said, I am very much Microsoft-focused.
 
How about other computing devices like Macs?
I won't say I don't do Apple. But I don't do Apple well.  Basically, the only people I do Apple for are people like Doug here [who just dropped by] and whom I have known for years. They insist I do it. I can figure out my way through most of the settings on Apple computers.
 
But the reason I don't really do Apple is that somewhere around here, I have a letter from Apple in the 90s.  It says, “We do not want you. We do not need you to work on our products. We do not need or want people like you.
 
A “cease and desist” letter?
Yes, from a vice president from Apple. And so, I don't.  It's just simpler than fighting them on it.
 
But there are enough Apple products out there that I've learned enough.  I can fumble around and usually find the right thing, but I'm not comfortable doing it.
 
What do you like most about what you're doing now?
I like it when somebody goes out of here, smiling.  The other day, I really did a simple job, he said. Well, it's got to be worth more than that. He paid me twice as much.  I did a job that basically anybody can do. There's nothing unique to it, and he said, no, you have your expertise. I said this didn't take expertise, he says. Well, from my point of view it is.
 
It’s all relative, I think.
Yes, It's all relative. 
 
I first found you when I was offering a class on finding good computer support.  There are certain qualities to look for and standards you should expect.  Part of that was how to find a repair shop that is good.  That’s when I started pointing people to your listing in Consumer’s Checkbook, a subscription service with crowd-sourced ratings.  I also showed them how to access the service for free with a Seattle Public Library card.
 
If you search on Computer Repair and click on the Ratings, Abarim Business Computers shows up right away with Checkbook’s Top Rating.
 
One item that shows up consistently in the comments is how “reasonable” your rates are.  With the situations you have described, it sounds like you don’t have a specific rate structure.
My official diagnostic rate if I am successful is $60 plus tax. The one fellow I mentioned. I told him if I fail, I'm still going to charge you $20 with tax. I've spent more time than either of those numbers suggest.  I generally give people a little bit of a range, sixty dollars to a little bit higher.  If it's going to be significantly higher than that, I'm going to call them and talk about it.  I am not just going to do it.
 
So, there are some things. Like scrubbing [all the data from] a hard drive. All I have to do is take it [the hard drive] out, plug it in that machine right there [pointing to a computer on another table]. It's all set up to do a low-level format of the drive. I'm set to do it there and it might run for a day or two or three. Doing a full wipe of the drive, but it doesn't take any additional effort. from me.
 
I was curious about the choice of “Abarim” as the name of your company.  I only know it as a mountain range in the country of Jordan.  How did you come to use it as your company name?
I was looking for a name that would be put me in the front of the local Yellow Pages, back when we used Yellow Pages and they mattered, . And I didn't want it to be “Aardvark” or something like that, so I went through the dictionary. Didn't see anything. I went to an encyclopedia, and there it was.
 
Abarim [pronounced correctly as “a-bear-ream´”] is a Hebrew word that translates as “regions beyond” which was very suitable for a computer company.  They said this was the mountain where Moses looked at the promised land. No. Moses didn't look at the promised land from Mt. Abarim. He looked at it from Mt. Nebo. Depending on where you are, the main body of the mountain is Abarim. Mount Nebo is the top of the mountain, and Pisgah is the point at the top.[more on this debate].
 
I thought “that's a good name.”  Somebody said, “Moses never got into the promised land.”  I said, “Yes, I'm aware. But his people did.”
 
And so I wanted to be a big hit. I never made it to the promised land. I got close. I got two plaques. But it all washed out. I lost my fire. Now I just try to help people with their computers.
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If you would like Tim and Abarim Business Systems to help you, drop into his shop weekdays at 120 W Dayton Suite # B5 next to The Branding Iron in the Edmonds Harbor Square complex.  If you want to confirm he is in the shop, best to call him at (425) 670-8167.  Alternatively, you can email him through tim@abarim.com.