Small Dog Electronics takes a byte out of state’s Mac market Small Dog is the third-largest Apple specialist in New England, and is among the top five across the country

Small Dog Electronics, located on Route 100 in Waitsfield with a second location on Dorset Street in South Burlington, is the third-largest Apple specialist in New England, and is among the top five across the country, said Geoff Blank, Small Dog's chief marketing and sales officer.

Founded on a shoestring in 1994 by Don Mayer, who originally worked out of his home in Warren, the company now has two retail and service locations and is planning expansion, realizing approximately $20 million in revenue annually as resellers and servicers of Apple Macintosh computers, iPods, peripherals, and software.

Blanck said the company is not ready to identify a site for the next store, but he said adding more locations is part of the long-term plan. "I can tell you that we are actively looking at expansion both inside and outside of Vermont," he said.

When Small Dog first opened for business, commerce was conducted primarily through contacts made online - selling through online auctions on AOL and elsewhere - with added sales locally in the Warren area, Blanck said.

An online presence remains important, and this spring, the company revamped and updated its Web site to be more interactive and user friendly, a move that gained notice in the Mac community, Blanck said. Internet sales continue to generate as much as half the company's annual revenue, he noted.

The company includes the retail division, including phone and Web access, while onsite service departments offer repairs and consultations in-store, on the phone, via Web and email, or at the customer's location or business site. Classes and system set-up services are also available, Blanck said.

When Mayer started Small Dog nearly 15 years ago, he purchased used computers at public auction all across the country, warehousing them in his garage on Prickly Mountain in Warren, bringing Mayer's son Hapy into the firm as it grew. The name Small Dog refers to the little Pomeranian dogs the family owned, and the dog motif has contributed to company culture over the years. The company's blog is called Barkings, and the newsletter is Kibbles & Bytes, for instance. And visitors to the stores know that a friendly company pooch is likely to be resting in a corner or may come over to greet them at the door.

"We didn't want to name the company 'Mac This' or 'Data That' or 'Tech Something,'" Mayer wrote in his company history. "We wanted a different kind of name. I mean, Apple Computer? Who ever heard of a technology company named after a fruit?"

Small Dog it was.

While still located in Warren, Apple granted Small Dog a "value added reseller" designation that allowed the company to offer warranty parts and service for Apple and Mac products, which provided the impetus for the company to grow and expand even further.

The company Web site was launched in 1996, as was the newsletter. By 1999, Small Dog bought property on the edge of town in Waitsfield and moved into its own building, carrying the designation of Apple Specialist, which allowed for even more Apple services to be offered. Small Dog was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine in 2000, coming in at No. 218, Mayer reported.

With continued growth, the Waitsfield location eventually became the company's first showroom, adding in-person retail sales and service to the previously Web only model in 2002.

"During 2002 we purchased nearly $10 million of Apple refurbished products," Mayer wrote in his company history. Apple also launched its own retail store initiative that year, however, as well as the Apple online store, Mayer said. "The availability of refurbished products steadily decreased from that high point," he wrote, "and Small Dog Electronics was once again faced with a changing business model. We responded by expanding our mix and promotion of new and discontinued Apple products and with the new products, such as iPods, coming from Apple, we were able to replace the lost revenue from the drying up of the refurbished products."

By 1998, Mayer reported a workforce of eight people, a crew that grew to twenty-five with the Route 100 store, and has now hit forty employees with the addition of the South Burlington store in 2006, Blanck said.

Starting out business literally among his neighbors, Mayer's firm continues to strive to be a good neighbor and steward of the environment, Blanck said. Along those lines, in April, Small Dog staged one of the largest e-waste collection events anywhere, he said, collecting 125 tons of recycled electronic items. The small mountain of items could be seen in the parking lot alongside the Small Dog store on Dorset Street, dwarfing nearby cars on the day of collection. The event was completely free of charge to the public.

"It was one of the largest events in the country," Blanck said.

"We now have taken more waste out of the waste stream than we put in over the past year," he said. Blanck said items that could be deposited for the collection included "anything with a plug."

"Our ongoing goal is to accept more e-waste from our community than we sell," he said. "And we intend to sell a lot."

In addition the company provides opportunities for charitable giving when visiting the Web site, where a specific donation to a favorite charity can be added to the shopping cart before checkout. Small Dog contributes a matching share to those contributions, up to an annual maximum, Mayer said.

Blanck said the company will soon offer trade-in options and rentals, continuing to grow the business and add new products and services to the mix.