Carolina Advanced Digital - Siler City, NC

Families start businesses all the time – a restaurant on the street corner or a grocery store in the center of town. Sometimes, however, families have bigger aspirations, like starting an information technology business and turning it into a multimillion dollar company called Carolina Advanced Digital.

Former Petty Officer 2nd Class Susan Jabbusch assisted her husband, John, in her spare time after the company’s founding in 1984. In 1989, Jabbusch joined the company as a full-time employee. Carolina Advanced Digital provides technical services on both commercial and government levels.

Serving commercial accounts, hospitals, state, local and federal government, the company focuses on information technology infrastructure, security and management, as well as LAN/WAN design services. The company helps customers guard their core network, ensuring network security and availability of critical data.

Jabbusch and her husband, a former first class petty officer first class who served in the Navy from 1975 - 1982, both garnered their expertise processing intelligence in the Navy. It is a part of their lives that Jabbusch attributes as a factor of her success.

“It gave me confidence in my technical ability and in dealing with people,” she said. “It enabled me to be more firm in my business dealings.”

“We were concerned that the perception of a ‘mom and pop shop’ would be detrimental,” Jabbusch, vice president, said. “However, our reputation is so solid that we are finding that our customers like the idea that we are a family-owned business.”

“Our biggest surprise was that you don’t get in the door just because you’re good at what you do! You have to build relationships over a vey long period of time to build that reputation with each new customer.”

Through tenacity and continuous training, as well as willingness to grow in new directions, the company has built those relationships and risen up from scratch to success. While the company has grown slowly, it has grown with hardly any start-up capital and grossed over $3 million in 2007, more than a $500,000 increase over the previous fiscal year. To Jabbusch, the key to success is being prepared for setbacks and slow growth.

Jabbusch continues to build strong partner relationships and evaluate new technologies that fit with the company’s vision of offering and maintaining security-focused information technology solutions. The company will also be adding engineers this year and looks forward to participating in a $100 million blanket purchase agreement (BPA).

For whatever the future holds, Carolina Advanced Digital will be prepared to handle it with the concern of a doting parent.

Written by Michael Crawford