Answering the Cry for Help

Rick Gordon’s lack of a technical background may be the biggest asset his computer-training company has.

Yikes Inc. aims to make computers easy to understand for novices and inner-city schoolchildren. Gordon founded the West L.A.-based company last year after spending many hours in seminars trying to boost his own computer skills.

“Paying $300 for a four-hour class and being given a manual the size of a dictionary is counterproductive,” Gordon said. “This is conceived of as the company I would’ve wanted to use when I was training.”

Yikes charges $40 an hour. Trainers make house calls, have flexible schedules to accommodate individual learning paces, and use the company’s own short, illustrated software manuals.

“The manuals have to get by me--call me the in-house crash test dummy,” said Gordon, 27, who has a liberal arts degree. “My trainers have to train me, because I will know if they’re making me nervous, making me anxious or intimidating me.”

An entrepreneur since he began selling coffee to people stuck in lines for gasoline in the 1970s, Gordon started planning Yikes 13 months ago. He hired partner Erik Papke, 22, who has a degree in business and a self-taught knowledge of computers.

The pair searched widely for start-up capital, finally raising about $75,000 from an independent investor. The business concept evolved from a storefront operation to one focused on in-home training. As a result, the company shares space with two cats and a couch in Papke’s living room and is reached only at (800) OHYIKES.

Gordon hopes this down-to-earth approach will tap into the rapidly growing demand for classes given by the likes of computer retailers Best Buy and CompUSA.

CompUSA’s training business has grown at about 40% per year for the last two years, said Sam Crowley, executive vice president of operations at the Dallas-based company. Its 122 stores maintain about three classrooms each. Three Los Angeles-area Best Buys offer $49.99 half-day sessions in the morning, afternoon and evening six days a week.

“It’s a pretty burgeoning industry,” said Jim Langemo, training curriculum coordinator for the Minneapolis-based chain. “There are large companies that do nothing but computer training. With the Internet making computers accessible to just about everybody, classes are important for people who need to get on right away.”

Yikes also wants to stand out for its community service with the 32nd Street Elementary School in Los Angeles. By March, students will be able to take Yikes-donated computers home for a week, with free training for their families. As the company grows, so will its community involvement, Gordon said.

With one trainer and two technical writers on staff, Gordon and Papke have spent recent months fine-tuning their methods, training people at reduced fees. Gordon said the courses are clear enough for him, so they’re probably clear enough for anyone.

“We recently trained a 90-year-old woman,” Papke said. “Her kids bought her a computer, and she wanted to be connected to her grandkids and great-grandkids. We had her going on e-mail the first day. She’s surfing the Web. She learned amazingly fast.”