wendy gauntt’s tech zest

My name is Wendy Gauntt, and I often call myself a “technology evangelist” because I love technology and what it can do for growing businesses. I’ll be posting my favorite ideas here to share with other business owners.

My day job is running CIO Services, a fast-growing tech company in St. Louis. We do website design and development as well as network and technical support. Between the two areas, we cover a wide range of computer and web technology needs. We focus on providing peace of mind to our clients, via well-designed solutions that keep our clients’ best interests at heart.

My background? Totally corporate–nine years as a Price Waterhouse consultant, where I traveled for years and saw a wide range of companies and IT solutions, then three years in IT management at Anheuser-Busch. While I treasure the experience I got and the people I met, ultimately I felt too much like a cog in a machine. This led me to start my own business back in 2002.

In the past several years, I’ve found the small business world to be exciting, challenging, and filled with ever so many interesting people, all passionate about what they do. What a fun world to live in!

I’ve also been fortunate in recruiting a wonderful team of staff and advisors who share my enthusiasm for what we do. Everyone is friendly, collaborative, and easy to work with. Many say you can’t find techs with people skills. Not true–you just have to look. No arrogant techs or design snobs here.

We hit our share of bumps in the road–everybody does–but I work to keep us focused on doing the right things, and doing them very well. The last thing I want us to be is “just another” tech company or web developer. Why be content with average when we can do so much more?

That fabled work-life balance still escapes me, but I’m having a wonderful time.