When Aaron Vronko and Ben Levy were laid off from their information-technology jobs while students at Western Michigan University, they saw a niche for a small-electronics-repair business. It was 2004, and Levy had broken his iPod and couldn't find anywhere to repair it quickly. The two friends decided to fix it themselves -- and to launch a repair business out of their apartment to make some money.
The partners now operate Rapid Repair in a 3,000-square-foot facility at 1825 W. Main St. in Kalamazoo. What was a small enterprise now has 12 employees and logged millions of dollars in sales last year. The company fixes -- typically in 24 to 48 hours -- iPods, iPhones, Zune MP3 players and the latest editions of game consoles, including PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation PSP.
Even though the business faces a lot of competition, Vronko said, Rapid Repair is now servicing about 500 customers a week, which would make it one of the largest end-user iPod-repair companies in the United States.
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