SW: Cable Guyz doing well in tough economy

By Lori McGinnis / For the Lincoln Journal Star
Sunday, Mar 01, 2009 - 12:06:00 am CST

Frank Fast pulls cable for Cable Guyz in the future office space for the state Vocational Rehabilitation offices. (William Lauer)

Rob Krueger loves seeing new businesses open in Lincoln. It gives him a chance to get new customers.

In this day and age, all businesses need cabling to get their telephones and computers to work, and that’s Krueger’s specialty. He owns Cable Guyz Communications, 1901 S.W. Fifth St., and installs commercial cabling.

Krueger competes with larger companies in bidding for commercial jobs and Cable Guyz holds up well. With five employees, his business is debt free and has grown every year since starting in January 2006.

“We’ve tripled sales every year since we started, and 2008 was the best year we’ve had,” Krueger said.

He got his start in the cabling business in the mid-1990s while working for a small computer company. He later worked with three or four different companies.

“I’ve always been a physical, hands-on person,” said Krueger, who is self-taught.

He decided he could make a go of it on his own and started the business in his garage with his mother, Mary Johnson, as co-owner. Frank Fast is an employee-owner, and Krueger’s wife, Shannon, handles the business paperwork.

Rob Krueger moved the business to a southwest Lincoln industrial park about nine months later. Now, he plans to move down the street and double his space to 2,500 square feet.

Cable Guyz needs the extra space because it plans to add more employees and to make room for rolls of copper and fiber optic cable, which transfer data much faster than standard cable.

Krueger is most proud of the fact that he has a strong business that has not been affected by a down economy. He said his customers have been loyal and widespread, including some outside the United States.

©2009, CableGuyz Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.