Call him Mr. Fix-It

Jaime Gonzalez has always enjoyed fixing things. In fact, the 23-year-old from Hamilton City has been fixing his own cellphones and other electronic devices for years. Then he was asked to repair relatives’ and friends’ devices. Before long, he had a long list of clientele. Many offered compensation, and he realized he had a business on his hands. In 2015, he opened All About Tech as a home-based business. Gonzalez knew he could draw in more customers with a storefront, especially near the Chico State campus, and kept his eyes open for a vacancy. He jumped on the opportunity in early August to lease his current space at 206 Walnut St., Ste. C, and opened shortly thereafter. The shop is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. Check it out online at phonerepairschico.com or call 966-2972 for more information.

How did you come to open your own business at such a young age?

I took some beginning business classes at Butte College that sparked my interest a bit, but mostly I just really liked the idea of being my own boss. I had some money saved up—I’ve worked a lot of different jobs. People would pay me to fix their screens and stuff, and I did a lot of “lifting”—buying in bulk and selling in smaller amounts—on eBay, along with selling phone parts and other small parts.

What are your most popular services?

iPhone screen repairs. I do the repairs on-site and usually have about a 20-minute turnaround time. I repair Androids and most any other electronic devices as well, but those take longer, and require an estimate.

You’re open late—any particular reason?

Not really—I hang out with my friends to kill time and people still come in for repairs, so I stay open. The hours just work well for me.

What do you think you might be doing if you weren’t doing this?

Working full-time somewhere else probably. Maybe I’d try to get into the engineering field somewhere—that was something I had also thought about getting into before doing this.

Any strange repairs or breaks?

Oh, sure—you name it, I’ve seen it. People bring in all kinds of electronics that just stopped working and they have no idea what happened, and I’ll have to take it in the back and go over everything with a microscope to find the issue and fix it.

Do you have a typical clientele?

College students a lot, being so near the college and downtown, and people that want their things fixed right away.