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Seaside CEO

By Andrea Faiad

Big bucks, big boss, big office with a view…of the beach. Welcome to the world of 17-year-old Jayson Meyer, who runs one of the hottest tech solutions companies around, Daytona Beach, FL’s Meyer Technologies.

Sounds pretty good, huh?  Sounds even better when you add a sweet new Lexus and your company logo attached to the elevator button taking you to your third floor office.

Slippery Business  
It takes a little bit more than just dreams, though. Being a teen-age CEO of a company worth six figures calls for tough skin and a quick mind. "You have to look at everybody as a snake," says Jayson. "It's a really cynical way to think, but in business you have to. I've become a very cynical person by necessity."

His hardest lesson came when a stockbroker/partner Jayson trusted with a new project tried to pull a fast one. "He took a lot of sensitive materials, like job bids, and tried to start his own company with those leads," Jayson explains. "I was too trusting. I didn't do enough research into who I was getting involved with."

Research is key to Meyer Technologies' rise from a two-brothers bedroom operation to a full-blown company with corporate offices in Daytona, new offices opening in Orlando, and two dozen employees.

A Skilled Start  
But what got this smokin’ CEO started? It all started for Jayson during eighth grade. His computer skills were way popular with the teachers, who were constantly asking him to help fix the school’s machines. Then they began asking him to fix their home PCs. This was cool with Jayson, because, hey, he enjoyed it. Then something awesome happened — "a teacher paid me $20," Jayson recalls. "It clicked in my head, 'This might be something I could do to make money.'"

He and his brother Martin, now 15, set up shop in their bedroom, fixing and building computers for customers after school. From there, they began renting a booth at a weekend flea market. Within six weeks, they'd saved enough to move into an air-conditioned booth in the market's mall area. The money just kept coming. "We were rolling in between $500 and $1,000 a weekend, from selling computers and doing repairs," Jayson says.

New Faces, New Places  
After a year of flea market business and saving money, Jayson took an offer he couldn't refuse. Brian Sevigny, then 26 and working for the phone company, offered to ditch his well-paying job, take a severe salary cut, and join the Meyer brothers.

"Bringing Brian on board really was one of the biggest life-altering decisions," Jayson says. "It changed the direction of the company."

Today, Brian is chief of operations for Meyer Technologies. But back then, the guys decided to chance it by nixing the sales part of their biz and focusing on tech solutions.  The business took off, and they headed out to an affordable beach front office in May 1999.

They figured it'd take a month to open shop, but the torn walls and ratty carpet changed their minds fast. If they wanted to be professional, they had to look professional. "We were setting up corporate offices and we didn't want to do it halfway," Jayson explains. So they invested money in an office makeover.  

Come and Knock on Our Door…  
Three months later, the sharp-as-nails company opened and grew steadily. As more customers knocked on their door, they met new demands by refocusing again to provide corporate software solutions.

By December 1999, Meyer Technologies had grown so successful — with a gross of $500,000 and yet another employee — the Daytona Beach News Journal featured the company in a full-page business section feature the day after Christmas.

"That set things in motion," Jayson says. "Our phones rang off the hook. We almost doubled our sales from December to January."

Seaside Staffing  
As business increased, Jayson hired more staff and continued to keep tabs on industry trends. "Running a business isn't a matter of looking at today or yesterday," he says. "It's a matter of looking at the future. The more research we do on the industry, the more we realize everything is going to the Internet, merging the Internet and software."

They added Web-based software solutions to their company's offerings, and hired a marketing director to focus on the company's image and services.

As the company grew, Jayson's role changed. "My job, being a CEO, I do a lot of delegation," he says. "I make sure things are being run properly. I don't have to micro-manage or develop software. I have to make sure I'm working on the company rather than in the company. That's what it takes to grow a business. The mistake most small-business people make is they are basically technicians trying to run a business. We have balance."

Life Lessons  
Jayson admits running a business isn't as easy as it sounds. He's learned some hard lessons along the way, and he's learned to seek out trustworthy mentors for advice. His greatest mentor is his father, who Jayson relies on when heading into uncharted business territory. "He'll steer me in the right direction," Jayson says.

Meanwhile, he's hiring eight software developers and a sales staff to open an Orlando branch. From there, he hopes Meyer Technologies will keep growing so he can go public by 2005. To bring the dream alive, he will continue relying on qualified and trusted employees and mentors who can help him make educated business decisions.

"There are times in life and business when you think about giving up,” Jayson says. “But if I could offer one piece of advice, it's never give up, no matter what. The key to everything in life is staying focused and putting hard work and effort into it. By doing that, you can accomplish and achieve anything."