AMERICUS — Robert “Lennox” Scarlett, owner of Lennox Computer Café, is in business for himself, “taking care of all your computer repair needs” as his business card aptly puts it. Scarlett’s concept of Lennox Computer Café is to provide an honest and competitive source for computer repair and other technical services. Scarlett finished up course work in Computer Information Systems (CIS) in March and received and an associate’s degree in CIS from South Georgia Technical College on June 10. He has had A + certification for more than a year. “The CIS program at SGTC gave me the skills to repair computers  and to do information technology work,” Scarlett said. He says that after meeting with CIS instructor Gary Prince, he became aware of the many areas of work in the IT field and the many opportunities it provides. He says that he has had a lot calls since he officially opened for business from his home on Woodland Avenue in May. He says that “the Café” is a work in progress, but he says that he feels that there is a need in the community, especially near Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW), for a mixture of services, including computer repair, computer instruction and even a place where someone can come in and surf the Internet and have a cup of coffee and a snack. As his clients increase, he has begun to offer pastries and coffee for customers that stop in. Scarlett’s proximity to GSW is close enough that expanding his services to an actual café is quite feasible. For now, Scarlett takes both house calls and does repair work from home. “You would be surprised the issues people have with their home computers,” Scarlett said. He says that installing memory or drives, trouble-shooting programs or replacing hardware parts such as fans are common problems that he is happy to help with.

“I don’t take advantage of customers who don’t know that much about computers. I’m fair and I charge for the work that I do. I will beat any competition as far as price goes,” Scarlett said.

He says that if a job is too big for him or beyond is ability that he will pass the work on to his competition. The stagnant economy was a motivating factor in starting Lennox Computer Café. There is a lack of jobs, even in the IT field, in small towns and rural areas. So, as he prepared to complete the CIS program at SGTC this spring, he and his wife Kim discussed his options. They both agreed that Robert should start his own business rather than the both of them picking up and moving to a different town. Kim has taught school in Americus for 14 years and admits that her job security was too important to move. As Scarlett expands Lennox Computer Café, he plans to offer clients instruction with programs such as PowerPoint and Excel and even offer services such as typing to college students or writing resumes. He also plans to further his education in IT at GSW. “I would like to get a Certified Cisco Network Administrator’s certification as well as Security + and Network + certifications,” he said. Eventually Robert and Kim want to move their business to the downtown area and provide an atmosphere where people can come and enjoy a nice place to sit and work with access to wireless Internet. For now Scarlett is content with being a friendly and knowledgeable neighborhood computer technician. “Just give me a call,” he said.

Call Robert Scarlett at Lennox Computer Café at 928-8986 or 942-5248 or e-mail at lennox7@live.com or visit the website at lennoxcomputercafe@webs.com