Building an IT company wasn’t part of Chad Harpley’s original career plans.
“My family worked with Bell South and AT&T. I was supposed to go that way. When I went to apply at AT&T, they had a hiring freeze,” said Harpley, who created Premier Networx, which offers managed IT services for businesses, about a decade ago and was named the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur of the Year for 2023.
The communications’ industry has vastly changed since Harpley’s family first started with telephones, and Harpley has adapted.
When he couldn’t find a job at AT&T, he landed a position with an Atlanta-based business telephone company and began learning facets of a rapidly-changing industry.
“It was about the time Voice over IP hit the scene,” he said.
While in Atlanta, he learned about networking systems and received Cisco training, and he branched out into Microsoft training, receiving engineering certification.
From there, he worked with another company for 11 years. After the owners retired, Harpley launched Premier Networx from his garage.
Harpley said he wasn’t trying to mimic any other famous company that started out of its founder’s garage; it just worked out that way. While his company may have begun in a garage, it quickly outgrew it. Within about a month, he had hired his first employee.
And the growth has been steady ever since.
“In 2014, I purchased another company that helped propel us. I did the same thing in 2015. That helped propel us as well. Fast forward to 2023, we’ve built a $3.5 million building — state-of-the-art cyber center — and have 32 employees,” he said, adding that they are regularly expanding their staff.
Premier Networx opened its new facilities off River Watch Parkway in 2022.
The Chamber award isn’t the only accolade Harpley and Premier have received. Premier Networx was named Columbia County’s small business of the year in 2017 and to Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 for four years in a row.
Being named the Entrepreneur of the Year came as a complete surprise, he said.
“I’m over-the-moon ecstatic,” he said. “I’ve joined an elite group of folks who’ve received this. I’m truly honored to be part of that group.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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