Tarik Assagai, 19, started Assagai Computer Solutions in March. He offers a variety of services, from Web site design to technical support. He is also taking basic classes at Sacramento City College. Sacramento Bee/Owen Brewer

Young man takes own path to computer business

By Cathleen Ferraro -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 5:30 AM PST Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001

Tarik Assagai never took a computer class in high school and dropped out of all but one college computer course.

But the 19-year-old Sacramentan knows plenty about the subject -- enough, in fact, to start his own jack-of-all-trades computer business called Assagai Computer Solutions.

"I could by the age of 14 disassemble and reassemble any IBM personal computer, and I knew HTML programming at age 16," said Assagai in a quiet, non-boastful tone. "But I couldn't get certified in any computer-related profession at that age."

So he and best friend Thomas Newman just hung out at their parents' houses messing around with computers. They figured out how to build Web sites without the help of any graphic software, using code commands to maneuver pictures and graphics.

Assagai describes himself back then as a "low B- student" and that he was "thinking about manipulating the computer only to run games faster."

It wasn't until he landed a part-time job last year at the Greater Sacramento Urban League as a computer technician that Assagai started to put together the pieces for his current business.

There he occasionally created marketing materials between troubleshooting computer problems. At the Urban League is where Assagai stumbled upon his first client, too -- J&K Risk & Insurance Services in Carmichael -- whose officers happened to be touring the organization.

At this point, Assagai Computer Solutions offers four services that people more established in the business world typically offer as separate, distinct specialties.

Assagai designs Web sites from scratch; he offers the creative development of business cards, company stationery and advertising fliers; he does corporate logo creation and picture editing; and, perhaps the most complicated task of all, he offers computer technical support, which includes fixing problems with network administration.

Assagai launched his business in March with $2,000, using savings from his Urban League job, payments for fixing computer problems of friends and family in his off-hours and a gift of a few hundred dollars from his dad.

In May, the young entrepreneur was caught in a broad layoff at the local Urban League office, prompting him to try making a real go of his business.

Meanwhile, he has continued taking basic undergraduate classes at Sacramento City College.

Assagai said he took home $2,000 in profits during his first month in business. By October, profits had climbed to $5,000.

John Gallen, who knew Assagai as a Kennedy High School track star in the late 1990s, calls the young man's renaissance approach to putting together a business "quintessential Tarik."

"After his (high hurdles and high jump) practice, Tarik would come over to the pole vault area almost on a lark to try it, and he'd blow right past everybody, beating a lot of the others who were strictly pole vaulters," said Gallen, Kennedy's head track and field coach. "He took to events with raw abandon, and I suppose that's how he's running his business."

In 1999 Assagai placed first in the high jump and 110-meter high hurdles during the Metro League Championships, a competition among seven Sacramento high schools.

Assagai's home life has been rich with examples of entrepreneurship and unconventional choices.

For example, his father, well-known Sacramento lobbyist Mel Assagai, wanted to change his name in 1975 from Whitaker to something that better reflected his African heritage. He chose "Assagai," which is a short, slender iron-tipped spear of hard wood typically used by people in southern Africa.

In the early 1970s Mel Assagai created a day-care center in Sacramento for seniors to get regular nutrition and recreation. "It's very common today, but it was almost a concept people couldn't get their arms around at the time," recalled Mel Assagai.

Tarik's mother, Shelley Tillman, has been a consistently strong entrepreneurial model, too.

In the early 1980s she and Mel Assagai, a one-time Bee reporter, developed Mitchell Manor, a care home for developmentally disabled adults, in Oak Park. Tillman did much of the day-to-day managing, and eventually took over as the sole owner after a 1996 divorce from Assagai.

In between, Tillman also started and operated two other businesses -- a mobile retail store called The Clothes Cart that traveled to area senior homes. The other venture, Executive Events, catered to politicians and companies putting on fund-raisers and parties.

Those ventures no doubt spurred household conversations that gave Tarik Assagai his first lessons in cash flow, customer service and other challenges common to small-business owners.

Today, Assagai Computer Solutions is operating from a small space inside The Advocacy Group, a lobbying firm on L Street owned by his father. So far, Assagai has drummed up eight solid customers -- including a law firm and insurance office -- mostly through word of mouth or the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce, where he is the youngest member.

Clients admit that Sacramento has plenty of companies other than Assagai Computer Solutions offering Web site design. Some recognize, too, that many businesses would rather steer clear of hiring a 19-year-old to create their Internet image, a company logo or fixing snags in their network systems.

"But I thought it was a bonus that he was 19," said Sonja Daniels, president of Elk Grove-based Beyond Boundaries, which helps companies get special certifications to compete for government contracts. "We always talk about investing in our youth, our future or we complain that our youth don't want to do this or that, but here was a chance to invest in a very competent, professional and talented young person."

Assagai is designing a Web site for Beyond Boundaries.

At this point, the young business owner is not at all intimidated that more seasoned professionals with greater business connections could have an important edge over him.

"Customers know that computer skills have nothing to do with age and degrees, like most fields did in the past," said Assagai. "There are 13-year-olds who can create software that I can't, and many people who are older can't either."