April 24, 2017

Meet Craig Linton of CL3 Technology in Roswell

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Linton.

Craig, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was a mortgage loan officer for about 8 yrs. working with various banks and lenders here in Atlanta. When the market fell out in 2008, that job became very difficult. The market started to rebound, but do to regulations really tightening up and the fact that people were starting to be held accountable for bad decisions, underwriting became an unbearable experience. I knew it was time to make a change. My business partner and I found a niche where was could sell refurbished laptops at an affordable price online. It was an opportunity to reuse/re purpose older technology to provide affordable computer solutions. Most people these days use a laptop for basic computer functions like using the internet to pay bills, check social media, email, watch funny cat videos, etc. You don’t need a $500-$1000 laptop to do that. I started it out of a single spare bedroom in my home down in Cabbage town and it grew from there. I was working my mortgage job and the computer job at the same time, but soon realized I could make more money focusing strictly on the computer gig. I quit my mortgage job and headed down the path of owning my own business. My family was growing and I was getting tired of my home looking like a shipping center, so I moved the business to a small warehouse type space in Decatur. We have continued to grow and have moved to a larger space in Roswell. We currently are doing about a million in annual sales and looking to continue our growth.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s had its fair share of growing pains. Once you grow, then a new set of challenges pop up. Maintaining inventory, keeping sales up, so you employees are busy, working with some of the e-commerce sites we sell on can be very difficult and being able to deliver top notch customer service to our customers when our sales increased. It’s great to see sales go up, but if you can’t continue to deliver the same type of positive experience to your customers, then that becomes a problem.

CL3 Technology – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We provide affordable computer solutions for all types of people and businesses. Most of our laptops are under $200, so they can fit in most people’s budget. We sell to schools, businesses, or just someone who is looking for an inexpensive way to get online. We like to think our service sets us apart from others. When you are selling via the internet, it’s really easy to hide behind your keyboard when it comes to customer service. I come from a business to business type of background, so it’s important to us that someone can call us and get a live person to talk with. Lack of communication can turn small problems into large one, so a simple phone call can alleviate a lot of stress with customers.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Probably working with the people, I work with every day. It can be rewarding running your own gig, but it also comes with its fair share of restless nights thinking about new ideas. It always feels good when you try something new and it works. On the other hand, you have to live and learn from your mistakes. Regardless of the outcome, it’s good to work together with teammates and come up with new strategies.

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