From computer hater to mega Mac dealer

After Duane Burghard moved from Chicago in 1983 to attend MU, he quickly realized he belonged in Columbia. In one week, he started college, joined the Navy reserves and met his wife Mara in church.

Burghard eventually founded The MacXprts Network. The business, located in the Village of Cherry Hill, is now one of the nation’s largest Apple dealerships.

The funny thing is, Burghard never intended to build his own computer business in Columbia – or anywhere else, for that matter. In fact, Burghard still despised computers when he got his degree at MU in political science and attended a post-graduate school for Naval officers.

The turning point came with Burghard’s first commissioned assignment, which involved computer work. He taught himself how to write a software program for a Mac, and he never looked back.

Over the years, he started a software programming company, a record-label production company and an Internet Service Provider, always learning the skills he needed by reading books, talking to professionals and attending conferences.

He ran for Congress twice and ended up closing or selling some of the companies. He credits his wife with helping him turn MacXprts around after he was left penniless by his Internet business venture.Today, Mara Burghard is the CEO of MacXprts, the 14th largest independent Apple seller in the country, with nine stores in eight states, and 80 employees – 12 of them in Columbia. MacXprts also received the Apple Care Sales Award of Excellence twice, and was nominated for the 2009 CBT Entrepreneur of the Year.

“Like Rome, this company was not built in a day,” Duane Burghard said.

The Burghards created MacXprts with the goal of simplifying the Mac customer’s purchasing experience. The company’s affiliated computer sales and service companies, which Burghard refers to as consultants, sell and install the products, provide training for their clients and service the equipment. Because these companies are not Apple dealers, their clients can use MacXprts as their supply source for Apple products.

In 2008, MacXprts’ annual revenue was just short of $10 million. Sales shrank with the recession, and Burghard predicts 2009 revenue will be about $8 million. But he believes the information technology industry, especially Apple, is a relatively recession-resistant business.
“We have learned how to be more substantially profitable,” he said. “As the economy does recover, we will be in a much better position going forward.”

The Burghards’ current obstacles are no more difficult than those they’ve had to deal with in the past, Burghard said.

“I think my biggest advantage is that I have never been smart enough to know that I should have failed,” he said.

Hello, computer

During his first assignment as a commissioned Naval officer, Burghard first encountered a Macintosh computer. His task involved dealing with the computer communication problem between St. Louis and Kansas City Naval recruiting districts.

“I had never really used computers and kind of despised them,” Burghard said. “I was dreading the task. I went into this guy’s office and turned the computer on. It went ‘ping’ and a little happy face came on. Of course, it was a Mac. I had never seen a graphical user interface before. I was just entranced.”

You might call it love at first sight.

Burghard bought his first Mac a week later.

In June 1988, Burghard heard one of his instructors from the Naval officers post-graduate school say the Navy’s administrative management software might as well be used as a doorstop because of its limited technological capabilities.

Driving home that night, he started thinking that he could probably write a better software program for the Navy.

Using Hypercard, a program that came along with his Mac, he taught himself how to write his own software. After about a year, he finished his first program and created a software company named Mardun Software Ltd., the combination of his and his wife’s names. Burghard sold the program to the Navy commands individually with the Navy’s permission while he was on active duty.

After leaving the Navy, Burghard decided to run for Congress in 1992 as an independent.

“I call it ‘the no kids, no mortgage, no money, no chance, but a lot of passion and time to kill’ run for Congress,” he said.

Not only did he lose the election, getting less than 3 percent of the vote, but the campaign left him broke.

Burghard picked himself up and went to the Mac World Expo in San Francisco to find another Mac-related job. During the convention, he realized he could become a computer sales and service provider. He had already built relationships with distributors and manufacturers while he was writing his software program. The campaign had given him the resilience he needed to accept rejection from potential clients.

After another conference organized by Micro Net, Burghard came up with the business model for MacXprts.

“I was sitting with fellow consultants engaging in the consultant’s favorite activity, which is whining, bitching, moaning and complaining. We are very good at it,” he said. “We were talking about how great the products are, but it didn’t make a difference since everything centered around the client’s purchasing experience.”

In less than a minute, the business model for MacXprts “spilled out of my brain and onto the table,” Burghard recalled.

His plan was to open an all-purpose Mac-based company that would take care of customers’ needs, from purchasing a product to installing it, servicing it and upgrading it. From his previous business, he already had all the connections he needed, including vendors, distributors and independent computer sales and services companies.In 1995, Apple accepted Burghard’s application to become an Apple dealer. He focused MacXprts services to be only for Mac customers and companies.

Burghard also opened a record-label production company and started an ISP, Tranquility Internet. He closed the production company, which failed because of the workload and the disagreements between Burghard and the band. The ISP business also didn’t thrive, so he sold it to one of his clients. But Tranquility Internet also burned the profits from the other businesses and left him with a huge debt.

In 1998, he persuaded Mara to quit teaching and join him at MacXprts.

“We were going to have our first child, and I thought I would like to be at home. Theoretically, I thought I could work from home and still take care of our kid,” Mara Burghard said.

She led the consultants division, which deals with computer sales and service providers, and in 18 months their average monthly revenue grew eightfold.

“I always knew if I had someone who was as bright as she was working for the company, the business could do much greater things,” Burghard said. “There was no way I was going to be able to afford someone with a master’s degree,” he added with a laugh.

Mara’s people and organizational skills complemented Burghard’s interest in spreadsheets and sales, they agreed.

By 2000, MacXprts started to expand into other states.

“We were making millions of dollars, and I had no idea what I was doing and how I was going to manage it,” Burghard said.

The pressure of the business expansion was so intense that the Burghards considered selling the business.

Instead, as he did in the past, Burghard confronted the problem of expansion management by reading books and attending a conference on the topic.

In 2006, Burghard decided to run for the 9th District Congressional seat again because he disliked how the federal government was spending the country’s money. He won the Democratic nomination and made Mara the CEO of MacXprts, but he lost to Kenny Hulshof. This time, he garnered 40 percent of the vote.

“It was hard, but I gained a lot of skills,” he said.

“I got tougher,” Mara said.

Mara asked him if he wanted to take over as a CEO again. He refused.

“I love working for my wife; I don’t miss being CEO,” he said. “I think she is a better CEO than I was.”

The Burghards work long days running the business and don’t spend a lot of time at home, but neither do their two daughters.

“When the school bus drops them off, it doesn’t drop them off at our house. It drops them off near here,” Burghard said, pointing out the window at an intersection in the Village of Cherry Hill.

They have a table set up where the girls can do their homework, as well as arts and crafts. Sometimes the children sit in their laps as they work at their computers.

“You can be busy and still have that quality time,” Burghard said. “We have made the commitment to be a family wherever we are, whatever we are doing.”

Meanwhile, their children have two great role models for the benefits of risk-taking and for the old adage that failure is the greatest teacher – the lesson turned into a success story by their parents.

How MacXprts Network works

MacAnswer, an independent business that has worked with MacXprts for six years, provides Apple computer equipment to small medical practices, such as dentists and medical specialists.

“The medical offices want a one-stop solution; they want to work with one person who knows all of the pieces of the puzzle,” MacAnswer owner Scott Hughey said.

For example, when a dentist wants the office to become Mac-based, a MacAnswer representative will interview the client about the computer system the office needs and then make recommendations for hardware and software. Once the decisions are made, MacAnswer will order the equipment from MacXprts.

After MacXprts employees order and receive the computers from the vendors and the equipment arrives at the dentist’s office, MacAnswer representatives install them and train the office staff to use them.

MacXprts is in charge of most of the administrative work behind the scenes when a computer sales and service company needs equipment. Burghards’ company deals with ordering the products, handling any returns and invoicing the clients.