The Story Behind The Geeksultant Logo

In case you were wondering, or have to absolutely know, "Where did he come up with that logo?", here is the 411 on that story.

Prior to Geeksultant, and prior to my last 3 corporate jobs, I was a self employed small business I.T. consultant operating in South Carolina. Started in Charleston SC back in 1991 after leaving the Navy, then moved to Florence SC in 1994 and finally ended up in Columbia SC in the early 2000's. Along the way my business had many names. I made the cardinal mistake of allowing one of my customers to become a large part of my business. Something we would call today, "A single point of failure." This was a family owned business called Socar, Inc. Socar was a steel joist and truss manufacturer. In business for 25+ years, I had been a part of their culture since 1996. Almost 10 years to the date in 2006, the company owners decided to sell the business to a large steel conglomerate called Steel Dynamics, Inc. out of Indiana. In April of 2006, the new owners came to Florence SC to lay claim to their newly acquired business unit. Within days, outside contractors like myself were asked to submit their final bill. This hurt. Socar had become 60% of my business and losing a client this large would have but one effect, I would have to shutter my doors. By 2008, they had shutdown the old Socar plant for the last time and everyone who had worked there was laid off. The new owners had finally put their largest competitor out of business by using the Trojan Horse tactic.

So, during the summer of 2006, I was looking for alternative work. A close friend had a landscaping business and was living comfortably off of his business income. I decided that I would swing my business from I.T. to landscaping. Problem was, there were so many landscaping businesses, how do I set myself apart? The answer was simple, I needed a gimmick. Out of that exercise, with my background in I.T,, the Lawn Geek was born. My now ex-wife, who was an artist, came up with the logo. She took a picture of me, wearing my daily required spectacles, and rendered the Lawn Geek logo. Ergo, the green and grassy hair. Needless to say, that venture failed and I returned to the corporate I.T. world as an employee in 2007.

Fast forward to 2013, I was doing some I.T. consulting work on the side and needed a logo for my new business, The Geeksulant. Not wanting to re-invent the wheel, and already having a cool logo, I adapted it for my new business. The original logo had a an L instead of a G, a simple PhotoShop change. Today, the Geeksultant is who I am and what my business is and a reminder of the path it took to get here. I am a consultant, but also a geek. Identifying both on my tag line seemed fitting. "Geeksultant, Your I.T. Consultant of Choice!"