From Aspiring Engineer To Premier IT Provider: How A Hotel Job Turned Dennis Jock’s Personal And Professional World Upside Down And Resulted In Him Creating DenBe Consulting
As youngsters, we all have some idea of what we want to be when we grow up, whether that be an astronaut, a teacher, or a marine biologist. Dennis Jock, however, always wanted to be an engineer. But it wasn’t until he took a modest position at a local hotel while finishing his engineering degree that a new career path revealed itself to him—IT. And today, with support from his wife, Betty, he’s built DenBe Computer Consulting into a powerhouse provider of robust IT solutions, servicing businesses in the Metro Detroit area and beyond.
An Accidental IT Tech
Growing up, Dennis always had an interest in technology. “At an early age, you could find me playing with older versions of Windows, like the 3.1 version, and tearing apart computers to figure out how they worked,” Dennis says. “Although technology was something I always found fascinating, throughout high school, all I remember being focused on was becoming an engineer.” Following through with this dream, Dennis began studying aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan in 1996. “I needed a job to help offset the costs of school and living expenses,” Dennis explains. “So I got a job with a local hotel because I figured it would be something easy to do when I wasn’t at school.” Little did he know this decision would end up fundamentally changing the course of his life.
Dennis has always been a person with a “get-it-done” attitude, and he certainly brought this perspective to his new workplace. “Even though I wasn’t hired to do IT work for this hotel chain, the company that was supposed to handle their technology frankly lacked the urgency and expertise needed to support an organization of this size,” Dennis says. “We would call problems in, and our requests would sit unanswered for days, sometimes even weeks, so I would jump in and fix them.” He adds, “Someone had to do it.” At the same time, this job had introduced him to a person who would become integral to his life and subsequent business success—his future wife, Betty.
Regarding the early days at the hotel, Betty says, “I was in charge of overseeing the systems and software, meaning I was the one coordinating—or trying to coordinate—with the IT people we had at the time. I remember we were switching over computer systems, and I had this giant binder that took me over a year to go through because I had little to no support from this third-party IT team. Fast forward to inspection day, I was being asked all these questions that weren’t in the binder, and I was starting to freak out. Well, Dennis comes along and starts answering all their questions—and keep in mind, I hadn’t shared any of the prep work documents with him or anything—and basically saved the entire day.” She continues, “At this point, we were already dating, and I looked at him and told him that he should start his own IT business and that this hotel chain could be his first client.” Said Dennis, “It made sense. I was already doing all the work without getting paid, I enjoyed it, and I had always wanted to start my own company. I just thought it would be in the engineering space.” Dennis and Betty ended up getting married the same month that DenBe Computer Consulting was created!
Building DenBe Consulting
First established in 2004, DenBe Consulting soon shifted gears from servicing hotel chains to instead focusing on professional trade services, such as electricians, landscapers, plumbers, and the like. “We’ve become so successful in these niches, because we understand what it’s like for your systems to go down and you’re just stuck waiting for help,” explains Dennis. “That’s one thing that I like to think sets us apart from our competitors is our responsiveness. Our average ticket time is under five minutes, and we always act like every ticket is the most important ticket we’ve ever seen and needs to get settled now.”
He continues, “We’re also vendor agnostic, meaning I’ll give clients my recommendation, but I will never force them to buy something just because I say they need it.
And this relates directly to our mission statement, which is to ‘Do the right thing at the right time for the right reason.’
So, this is how we’ve gotten a lot of business recently—from people either tired of their previous IT team’s lack of responsiveness or who were told they need to pay tens of thousands of dollars to align their procedures with these other IT vendors.”
Regarding the trajectory of the business over the past 20 years, DenBe Computer Consulting has experienced massive growth, particularly in the last few years. “At first, our growth was slow and steady since we were basically learning as we went along,” notes Dennis. “But, last year, for example, we grew by 71%, and we hope to see that same type of growth in the coming years.” And with a second generation entering the business, this goal could easily come within reach. “My 17-year-old has been working with me since he was probably 8 or 10 years old,” says Dennis. “He’s not only grown up around the company but has an amazing business sense. For example, he’s the one who documented our procedures and processes, taking the mess of things living in my head and putting them down on paper to help train future employees. Not only that but he’s very curious about things like profit margins and how we’re going to scale, and honestly, he’s probably the best tech I have right now.”
Ultimately, it’s clear that if Dennis hadn’t taken that random hotel job, his life would have turned out completely different. Thanks to this decision, he gets to enjoy this wonderful life he’s built, including his thriving IT business, amazing wife and kids, and he even has some time leftover to spend with his newest grandson. It just goes to show that sometimes deviating from your original path can lead you to exactly where you need to go, and Dennis Jock and DenBe Computer Consulting stand as a testament to what can happen when you have the knowledge, the right support, and a little faith.
For more information about DenBe Computer Consulting, visit DenBeConsulting.com.
