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Smartphone sales are expected to pass overall PC sales by the end of this year as approximately 60 percent of Americans now own and use mobile phones with Internet capacity.
When high tech devices are broken, the loss for dedicated users goes beyond dollar signs, they become cut off from the rest of their world.
Recognizing consumer need when these pieces of equipment might otherwise be relegated to becoming expensive paperweights, Louisiana entrepreneurs Jeff Lyons and Conrad Green went into business 24 months ago and opened smartphone repair centers, which they have named myPhoneMD.
With six locations already established in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Mandeville and New Orleans, they have now added their seventh smartphone health center at 6525 W. Main St. in Houma.
“We are a smart device service center,” Lyons said. He and his crew took a break from painting and arranging furniture at their shop to talk business. Brown paper still covered the windows and no exterior sign was displayed three days before having a soft opening, which arrived Saturday. A festive grand opening is scheduled for July 14.
This business focuses on repairs, refurbishment, recycling and accessory sales for smart devices and cell phones of multiple brands as a dedicated line of work and not a side to new device sales.
“We’re aggressively expanding,” Lyons said. Even as the Houma location is made ready to open, Lyons said he and Green are making plans to add two additional stores. “We are based in Louisiana but making a push out of state both east and west,” he said.
Consumers that have dropped their electric communication gadgets and caused internal damage, or broken screens, cracked LCDs, lost buttons, or had their software crash can bring the device in and have it repaired while they wait.
“Our average turnaround time is 20 minutes,” Lyons said. “We can have some devices in and out in seven.”
The myPhoneMD chain is already listed as the No. 3 company of its kind in the nation and the first business of this nature in the southeastern United States. It generated $1 million in sales last year with 17 employees.
Lyons is a Houma native and grandson of former Terrebonne Parish President Edward “Buddy” Lyons. As president of his own company, the younger Lyons is focused on technology and credits the rapid expansion of telecommunications for helping him answer his career call in a new and growing arena of consumer demand.
Jeff Lyons, left, owner of myPhoneMD, offers his cousin and employee, David Lyons, instructional tips. The smart phone repair business opened its seventh store in Houma on. MIKE NIXON
