Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Klein.
Hi Shawn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Walking through the story is easy, doing it briefly is the hard part. The shortest part of it is that I was looking for a part-time work from home job that I could do to supplement my income so I could move my family out to a hobby farm. All I could find were either part-time and on-site work, or work from home and full time work, so after 3 months of frustrated hunting my brilliant wife said. “You repaired your own phone, why don’t you start a business repairing other peoples phones.” I’d like to say that was the start of it, but it wasn’t really and even though that was a little over 2 years ago, a lot has happened since that got me where I am today. It really started when I was a kid, going with my dad to my grandfather’s house and visiting him at his lawnmower repair shop. Learning to fix things was a way of life in the Klein household. Anytime I brought something broken to my dad, his response was “Well fix it!” When I was a junior in high school some recruiters had come talking about the military and it didn’t take me long to decide that I wanted to join the Air Force and become an aircraft mechanic. I entered basic training on pearl harbor day 1994. “A day that will live in infamy” and before I new it, I was stationed in England working on the F-15E Strike Eagle. Two 2-year tours later, I got out of active duty and joined the Air Force Reserves to move back home to Delano, MN and work on C-130’s with the 934th Flying Vikings which I did for 18 years. In the meantime, I got my first Civilian full time job working Quality Control for a biomedical company. Going from inspecting forty million dollar aircraft to thousand dollar products. Though the experience was invaluable as I ended up becoming a Certified Quality Inspector with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and learning GD&T or Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing. Unfortunately, after 9 years of working there, they decided to move my job to Boston, and I did not want to move to Boston with it. Lucky for me, my Reserve unit set me up with a summer job: my second tour to the desert. After that I attended college to be a computer admin as I’ve had a love for computers since my mother brought home my first personal computer when I was I think 8. Though once I was nearing completion of my associates degree, I realized I didn’t want to spend years of my life asking: “Have you tried rebooting your computer?” as help desk jobs were all that was available at that time for someone with my kind of degree. A head hunter asked if I wanted to work for a copier sales company fixing copiers and I thought it would be a perfect fit with my newly acquired networking knowledge and lifelong mechanical knowledge, and I was right for a bit until I repaired my first copier in a QC lab. Then I quickly realized that I really missed being in Quality. I was fortunate enough to get contacted by another head hunter that found me a job at what is my current place of employment, a government contractor that does research and development on medium to large caliber ammunition for the military. I was initially contracted as a circuit board inspector and have been certified as an IPC (Institute of Printed Circuits) inspector ever since and that was over 13 years ago. After 9 months I was able to go from a contract to full-time position moving to the Receiving Inspection department that allowed me to maintain my IPC certifications as well as give me the opportunity to utilize my GD&T skills. That is not so briefly what got me to the point where I was at the beginning of my story. Hopefully, I can share how I got to where I am today in another segment of this story.
Alright, 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?
For the most part, it’s been a kind of smooth road. Maybe more like a slightly bumpy road. I’ve ben very blessed that it only took me about a year to vet out a reasonably priced, and reliable vendor. It has eliminated having to spend a lot of time “hunting” for good well priced parts for my customers, though I often take on some unique projects that require me to look elsewhere for the parts I need. I must say that first year was not very fun! Learning by trial, and mostly error how to rightly disassemble and reassemble devices so that I didn’t cause more damage than good, was also a struggle in the beginning. Fortunately, I was able to find some resources online to mitigate those trials and errors. Some of the unique repairs I’ve done have been a projector, a remote controller for a boat crane, and an Insta-pot, though most of what I do is smart phone and tablet repairs.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Klein Technical Services is a technical device repair shop that was created in July, 2023. The first thing I did to build my business was create a website. Being able to utilize my logo and create a layout that was pleasant to explore was important to me. My logo is unique to me as it is something I designed for myself nearly thirty years ago. So how did I come up with the name Klein Technical Services? Well my name is Shawn T. Klein, and the logo I created is based on my initials so I wanted a business name that would share those initials. Klein Technical Services repairs technical devices; mostly smart phones and tablets, but I like a challenge and learning how things work so I really enjoy the less common items that I’m asked to repair. I try to keep my costs low and affordable for my customers. I know how difficult times can be sometimes, and when it comes to our smartphones they’ve become our lifelines. I really enjoy being able to help people get their devices working again so they won’t have to spend the money they would have to buy something new. What I believe sets me apart from others is my integrity. It’s partially why I don’t sell smartphones. Too many places are willing to upcharge a customer so that it will appear to be more cost effective to just buy something new which helps their sales. Conversely, if I find that it’s not worth it to repair a device because they could purchase the same thing online for around the same price it would cost me to repair it, I’ll let let the customer know. I would rather lose the potential income than have someone pay the same or more for something they could have just bought outright.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
The Bible is my most favorite and effective resource to help me do my best in all aspects of my life. Though I do have a long list of podcasts that I enjoy listening to weekly or daily, not only to keep me informed of what is going on in the world, but to help me understand the Bible and how I can apply it to my everyday life. I do enjoy science fiction as well as WWII and other historical books.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kleintechservices.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kleintechnicalservices/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawntklein/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/klein-technical-services/posts/?feedView=all
- Twitter: https://x.com/KleinTService
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/klein-technical-services-watertown?osq=Mobile+Phone+Repair&override_cta=Get+pricing
