Empowering Local Entrepreneurs: Woody Bailey’s Tech Vision for Johnston County

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] I know you’ve worked with Dwayne’s and a lot of the bigger companies

around here.

Woody Bailey: Our sweet spot is probably the 25 to 30 employees, but we’ve got some that have 90 to 100. It’s a varying range, but you’re not too small.

We got some people who have been with us 20 years, and they got 3 employees and that works for their business model, and we’re there to support them.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Woody Bailey: Just like they’re

300.

Jonathan Breeden: What is the number one mistake you see small businesses make when they call you to come in and help that you wish that they didn’t make?

Woody Bailey: I think the most misunderstood part of a business on any level is file storage. People are not backing the files up correctly. They don’t know where their files are saved. You go in the office, and you’re looking for something. “Well, I did it in Microsoft Word. I did it in Excel.” Well, that’s not really where the files are stored at.

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the [00:01:00] area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another episode of the best of Johnston County podcast. I’m your host Jonathan Breeden and we have a great guest here today in my friend, one of my very best friends, Woody Bailey, owner of Woody’s Computing Services here in Johnston County. Welcome to the show, Woody. Glad to be here.

This is, uh, I’ve been looking forward to this. If you and I start talking, it might be. An hour, an hour and a half later. So we’re going to try to keep it to a, a reasonable timely, uh, about what’s going on. So I guess introduce yourself to the audience. Um, I know you’re from Johnson County. Uh, just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Woody Bailey: Well, you know, I’m born and bred here, born in Wilson County, actually, but live in Johnson County around Stancils Chapel. My whole life now I’m out in the flowers, [00:02:00] plantation community. Uh, but then here went to NC state, you know, go Wolfpack, uh, came back here. Wanted to have my roots here. Small, small town feel great place to raise a family close to my family as well.

So we, we love Johnson County.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah, I know. And, uh, I know, um, you, uh, when you left NC state, uh, You came back and you, you, you took some classes at Johnson

Woody Bailey: community. College. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Did a little bit of a networking classes there. Uh, kind of just expanding the horizons, you know, different, different fields are good to know.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right. And then, um, somewhere along that way, I think, you started Woody’s computing

Woody Bailey: Yeh We, you know, I worked at IBM, about eight years as a project manager straight out of state, even during my time at state. And it was just. It was an easy fit to, I saw a void in the community for small businesses that couldn’t afford their own IT person.

I found that [00:03:00] they needed someone to help them along and not only just buy computers and laptops, but email hosting and websites and consulting on how technology can impact their office, how they can go paperless. And so I saw that need and I just kind of after. After eight years of doing it part-time went out full-time 21 years ago.

Now,

Jonathan Breeden: 21 years ago, golly, I tell you what, I mean, you, I met you about 12 or 13 years ago, um, at a, uh, chamber of commerce, um, sort of, I don’t know, like a business expo. Sure. Yeah. That’s right. And, and I was so happy to meet you because. You had been hired by my client’s husband to wipe her computer. Okay, I remember that.

And, and, you know, cause he, he was mad at her or whatever. And he brought you a computer and he wanted it wiped out. We should have like all her, all her, [00:04:00] all her passwords and her family pictures and all of that. Because he was mad that they were getting a divorce. And, uh, we had the best time talking about that.

And then, um, I hired you almost immediately. And you’ve been My IT person for the last 12 years. I think

Woody Bailey: time flies. It’s really amazing. Yeah, those some of those cases are pretty interesting I can I can tell you a few that would shock About people around the county. It’s interesting stuff. Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: no doubt.

No doubt. So, um, talk about the Services that you do provide through your computer

Woody Bailey: company Well, you know the biggest thing we do is again monthly retainer contracts for small businesses Monthly plans that they can afford and that we come in and we are their I. T. person. No matter how much they use us.

The plan is the same. Uh, we try to do consulting sales service of the existing equipment, the networking, the Wi Fi, the websites, your webcam speakers, audios TV. If it’s got a [00:05:00] plug. We’re going to do it. You know, okay.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. And so, um, and you can help, I mean, you, you, you could help people that are just working out of their house with their home office set up.

Sure. Right. And you can help big business. I know you’ve worked with Dwayne’s and, and a lot of the bigger companies

around here.

Woody Bailey: We’ve had, we’ve had a lot of, you know, our, our sweet spot is probably the 25 to 30 employees, but we’ve got some that have 90 to 100 you know, it’s a, it’s a varying range, but you’re not too small.

We, we got some people who have been with us. 20 years and they got 3 employees and that works for their business model and we’re there to support them.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Woody Bailey: Just like they’re

300.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, what is the um, what is the number one mistake you see small businesses make when they call you to come in and help that you wish that they didn’t make?

Woody Bailey: I think the most misunderstood part of a business on any level is file storage. People are not backing the files up correctly. They don’t know where their files are [00:06:00] saved. You go in the office, and you’re looking for something. Well, I did it in Microsoft Word. I did it in Excel. Well, that’s not really where the files are stored at.

So, explaining that and giving an understanding, trying to educate the employees on how important it is to know. I mean, your, your computer is your filing cabinet. If you don’t know where your files are, You’re a big trouble. Right, right. And so much stuff is in the cloud now. There’s so many passwords and, you know, we all have that problem.

Keeping up with those. That’s a, that’s a big challenge that I see.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right. Yeah. Well, I know, I mean, you introduced, I mean, when I got with you, the cloud was, was sort of new and, and, and I’d never heard of Google drive. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, you got me set up with that and man. That’s been great, uh, over the years as my business has grown, because I’m not going to outgrow

Jonathan 2 11-30-2023 141342: Google

Woody Bailey: Drive ever.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You know, the famous last words of someone a long time ago was, I’m going to outgrow Google. This ain’t going to happen. Right? OK. So we got Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive. There’s many clouds, [00:07:00] and they all have their pluses and minuses, but it’s important that you have a backup system in place.

You just can’t be on the local drive anymore. It’s, it’s

not wise.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, and it also with so many people working from home and stuff like that, I have employees all over the place to for everybody to be able to access those files from wherever they are.

Woody Bailey: Yeah. Well, it’s

like the, the, the cloud phones that we had, the ring central phones that we offer when COVID happened, people could take them home.

They could work remotely with Google drive and the systems we set up. You could be here. You could be in Chicago. You can be down in Mexico. And you can work independently as part of that business. And so that is very important in

today’s environment.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and I still owe you a debt of gratitude when, you know, when COVID happened, all I needed to transfer my entire law office from in person to virtual.

With one week’s notice was a single laptop. That’s right. You got me one more laptop and we went virtual and didn’t miss a beat. We had the VoIP phones from [00:08:00] RingCentral. We were using Google drive to back up the documents. Uh, everybody was able to have a laptop. We’re able to have our meetings via zoom, help me set up a zoom account.

I’d never heard of zoom. And so, you know, and we’re still able to largely work remote. We have employees, um, you know, that are, that are all remote and, and, and that’s, and it, and it, and it’s fairly seamless, um, through these products that, that Woody’s Computing sells.

Woody Bailey: Yeah. Well, you know, and that’s, that’s another big challenge right now is finding employees.

I mean, I hear that I talked to this week that are asking me, Woody, you heard of somebody for the front desk or somebody for here or there. And I know you’ve had to form out some of your, uh, operations down in Mexico, but these technologies make that possible. And they allow us to find workers that are not just 25 miles from the business, but it can be 250 miles from the business.

So we can gain the skillset that that business needs.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So, um, yeah, no, you’re, you’re absolutely right.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate [00:09:00] legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: Um, and let’s talk a little bit about your, um, your time. You’ve been a huge supporter of the Johnson community college or you’ve been on the JCC foundation board. Tell, tell the listeners about. The JCCC Foundation Board, what it does, what its goals are, how you’ve been involved with that.

Because I think a lot of people don’t even realize that there is a foundation to provide scholarships to Johnson Community

College students.

Woody Bailey: You know, there’s a lot of people that they only associate the foundation with scholarships. And there’s so much more that it’s doing for facilities. You know, naming rights when you name a room or a conference room, and you [00:10:00] donate that to the college, you’re supporting scholarship.

You’re supporting the education of the staff. I mean, the staff has to do continuing ed people don’t think about. Is that going to come out of their pocket? Is the college paying for that? A lot of times? No, the foundation supported that. So the more of those. Non-scholarship funds we can raise to help with buildings and success.

Those things really add up to the FTE, which is where the college gets the money from the state. So that is a big piece of it.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And so the, the FTE is what you call a full-time equivalent. Correct. Which is how the Johnson Community College is funded. That’s right. I, I was on the board of Johns Community College from 2015 to 2019.

You were on the foundation board even then? Sure. Um, and, uh, I know we’ve worked together a lot. Um, while we were doing that. And, um, you know, so, I mean, how much money does the foundation raise and give out every year? Do you know?

Approximately?

Woody Bailey: I know approximately there’s about $16,000,000 in there right now, but it’s stock based.

[00:11:00] So a lot of that fluctuates.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Woody Bailey:Stocks go up, it goes up and down. I think, you know, If I had to be conservative. I would say probably $700,000

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Woody Bailey: A year.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s, that’s.

Woody Bailey: But, you know, it’s got to be, Self perpetuating, right? You want to put that money in and let it grow and let it, let it make money for the foundation.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Right. Well, that’s awesome.

Woody Bailey: You donate money to that. Your money is, is helping people in perpetuity is, is the goal.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Well, and, and I know they, um, the foundation, they, they, for a long time, they had the, uh, The Neil Lancaster golf tournament and they did that for 20 or 25 years. I know that’s gone away now and they sort of replaced it with this casino night.

And I know you’re the title sponsor of that. Tell people about

Woody Bailey: Casino Night. Well, Casino Night has took the raffle that was part of the, uh, The, the old golf tournament and we’ve added a casino function where we have a dinner, you buy your tickets for the raffle. And then we have some, some games of sort, and we auction off prizes based on your winnings from those [00:12:00] games.

So you could win a, cause you would win a trip to my condo. You could, uh, win some jewelry from Evans Jewelers, you know, the places like that around town that, that support.

Jonathan 2 11-30-2023 141342: Well,

Jonathan Breeden: I think this year I did really well. I won a facial. I won some, uh, air filters, uh, a pillow, uh, a fall wreath. Uh, so I, I did pretty well with the raffle there.

Uh, unfortunately I didn’t win the money. I just won some of the prizes. I can’t wait even to call my name for the, for the, for the $5,000but, but that didn’t, um, that, that didn’t happen. So I guess, you know, you, you being, um, From here and being a business owner here. Um, what do you love most about Johnston County

Woody Bailey: You

know, I, I still like the small town atmosphere, which is certainly changing, you know, traffic’s increasing. We’re seeing a lot of people. From north and south and all over coming here for job opportunities, but it’s still to me. It has that hometown feel. It’s [00:13:00] just a very positive place to raise kids. I think school systems are great overall.

Uh, you know, we’ve got a lot of opportunity

here.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And so, um, what, um, I guess what has you excited about the future, whether it be your business, Johnson County in general, both. Well, you know, I, I

Woody Bailey: think probably the thing that I look at when I’m. Looking at growth is where’s the restaurants at right?

I’m always looking for the food. I’m a big foodie. Uh, Have a nice meal. So, uh, you know, it’s i’m looking for where’s the restaurant and I think we’re getting some more and there’s more More stuff coming certainly here at 40 42 down at flowers We’re seeing a lot of growth right and with 540 of the new bypass coming A lot more things coming to this area.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, somebody told me yesterday That there’s a mellow mushroom coming to flowers next to Percy flowers store. It is right.

Woody Bailey: Kind of maybe a block or two down from that, across from Bailey’s Academy.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And, uh, I read that there’s going to be an Outback Steakhouse in Clayton [00:14:00] next to the Wells Fargo bank on 70 business.

And right next to the Outback Steakhouse is going to be a Popeye’s chicken. Although that’s a foodie thing, but people do like Popeye’s. Uh, and of course they’re going to, if part of that same development, they’re going to build. I think a home to suites hotel right there. This will all be between what is the fit for life gym there and Wells Fargo, uh, going West into Raleigh on 70 business, uh, across from, uh, I guess that’s the church.

Uh, the church is there and the McDonald’s, you know, just down from the high school. So for people that know, and that development is just getting started, I’ve heard. Lots of rumors is what might be coming to the waterfront district at flowers plantation that that Becky flowers and them are doing. Um, I haven’t heard anything confirmed.

I don’t want to use a rumor on a, on a podcast, but if, if any of the rumors are true, it’s going to be. These are big name Raleigh Triangle area [00:15:00] restaurant owners coming to Flowers Plantation. We already have Crawford’s Cook Shop in downtown Clayton. Um, Scott Crawford and Manning’s and Clayton Steakhouse in downtown Clayton are excellent.

One of my favorites. The um, out here at 4042 there’s La Piazza and there’s Simple Twists. Uh, and I don’t know of any new ones that we’re getting per se. I think we’re getting a Uh, uh, out here, there’s a peach cobbler factory. Yeah, I’ve heard that. Coming to, coming to the food line on Cleveland School Road, I believe.

So, so anyway, what are some of your other favorite restaurants? I’m excited about the Mellow Mushroom.

Woody Bailey: Mellow Mushroom is going to be big biscuit meals coming. Oh, okay. Right beside my house almost. Oh man. I smell the biscuits when I wake up in the morning. You know where I’m stopping

Jonathan Breeden: at man. Well, that’s excellent.

I know Biscuitville a couple of years ago during COVID came out here to 4042 and they’re right there on highway 42 and they do a booming business. Uh, and, and thinking about Biscuitville, I remember coming [00:16:00] to Raleigh as a As a middle schooler in the mid eighties to go to NC State football game in 1986.

And my friend’s grandfather lived in Raleigh and he took us to a biscuit mill. And I thought it was one of the original, one of the first ones. And I thought this is the greatest thing ever made it. We didn’t have Bojangles back then. I was like, biscuit mill was awesome. And so I was excited. For 40, 42 to get one.

I’m excited for Clayton to get one, the Southern staple. No doubt. No doubt. Well, that’s great. So if any of the listeners want to get in touch with you about what you can provide for their service or any computer services you can provide or help them with, how do they do that? Well,

Woody Bailey: check us out on our website, woodyscomputing.

com or my phone number 919 795 9106. All right,

Jonathan Breeden: we’ll do that and we’ll make sure we try to have that in the show notes for everybody that’s listening to this. If you want to reach out to Woody, uh, feel free to give us a five star review and some comments, uh, thanking Woody for coming on and giving us some good advice about [00:17:00] how your business can be more virtual and, and, and.

And more productive, uh, with some basic tips that that he gave us here today. If you enjoyed this podcast, uh, make sure you like follow or subscribe to it. Wherever you see this podcast, whether it be on YouTube, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or you come into it through any of our social media postings, uh, so that you’ll be, uh, made aware.

future podcasts. They come out every week. Uh, we have a lot of interesting guests and community leaders and elected officials, uh, that’ll be coming on to come on in the weeks before and be coming on the weeks after. You don’t want to miss that. If you love Johnson County as much as Woody and I love Johnson County, this is the podcast for you.

Thanks for listening.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the [00:18:00] rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.