PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

L ike many small business own ers, there came a day when Brian and Annette Ford of Fac et Technologies, Inc. almost lost their house. No, it wasn’t the bank about to foreclose. It was a torrential rainstorm. Looking to move his business from the kitchen table to a non-existent basement, Brian hired a contractor to dig one. During construction, a rainstorm flooded the hole under his house. “At one point I was down there at 2 or 3 in the morning with a sledgeham mer, knocking the foundation in so it wouldn’t take out the rest of the house,” Brian said. “We were in real danger of the house caving in.” The house was saved, the basement completed and the burgeoning business that would become Facet Technologies moved downstairs. During those early years, Brian’s goal was to sell just 300 computers a year. Today Facet Technologies is provid ing IT support and cybersecurity to more than 500 businesses across the U.S. and Canada, with its larger clients receiving Facet’s services at some 500 distinct locations. With some clients, Facet serves as the customer’s IT department. Sometimes Facet handles only a cli ent’s higher-end cybersecurity threat protection, because its own employees “don’t know how to keep the bad guys out,” said Brian. “They take excellent care of us,” said Craig Williams, executive director of South Side Mission, who has contracted with Facet for the last five years. “I call them quite a bit. They’re very accommodating, prompt to answer any questions, to send out people to our location, take any call. They’ve been a great IT organization to work with.” Williams credits Facet for helping South Side Mission look out for poten tial hackers. “They send out information periodically to make sure our staff is not answering emails that we shouldn’t. They are very good with helping us pre pare for fraud, preparing us for what those emails might look like.”

Ellie Ford, director of marketing for Facet Technologies

he and Annette were able to get his business off the ground was because he reached out to the SBDC at Bradley.” Sampson commends Facet for its commitment to the customer’s experi ence. “Brian is always asking “if we build this, how will it impact the customer? Is it making their life better?” A FAMILY AFFAIR The story of Facet Technologies is the story of family. Annette, who grew up in Peru, Illinois, and Brian in Danville, both attended Eastern Illinois University. He graduated with a degree in envi ronmental science and she received a degree in computer management and marketing. She had taken a comput er class in junior college and liked it enough to include computers in her bachelor’s degree. The Fords married in 1986 and lived in Chicago a couple of years before they both lost their jobs within a couple weeks of each other. “I was working in quality assurance in food and put out 300 résumés, with no results,” said Brian. “Annette put out three résumés and got seven job offers. I thought maybe I can figure out this computer thing.” One of the offers Annette received and accepted was from OSF HealthCare, to work as a data base administrator, bringing the young Fords to Peoria. Brian was accepted for the MBA pro gram in computer science at Bradley,

“They have supplied us with com puters, sourced software for us, they troubleshoot, they are our help desk,” added Denise Moore, CEO and founder of the Minority Business Center, which has worked with Facet for the last five years. “They will let us know we're hav ing problems with our system before we even know we're having problems with our system. “With cybersecurity threats and technology changing so fast, it pro vides a peace of mind knowing I have a partner who's more than capable of taking care of those things.” Meanwhile, Facet has served as a mo tivator for her students as a potential source of jobs, said Moore. ‘A GREAT COMMUNITY SPIRIT’ Facet Technologies is the 2023 Turner Center Small Business of the Year award recipient, nominated by Eric Sampson, director of the Small Business Devel opment Center at Bradley University. “Facet has such a great community spirit about their business,” said Sampson. “They strive to do really good work and take pride in working with other small businesses. “Brian has been an advocate for Small Business Development Centers and sits on the state’s small business advisory board,” Sampson said. “He’s an advocate for the process of SBDCs being able to help other businesses. He’s never been shy about saying part of the reason

SEPTEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE 29