In this episode, Javier Velasquez, owner of Max Power Technology, shares essential cybersecurity strategies for small and medium-sized businesses, especially in the construction industry. Learn how to protect your business from cyber threats, manage risks across multiple sites, and ensure quick recovery from incidents.
In this episode, Javier Velasquez, owner of Max Power Technology, shares essential cybersecurity strategies for small and medium-sized businesses, especially in the construction industry. Learn how to protect your business from cyber threats, manage risks across multiple sites, and ensure quick recovery from incidents.
key topics:
Sound Bites:
Chapters:
Introduction to cybersecurity for construction businesses
Difference between fixing and protecting business systems
Common client needs and initial cybersecurity concerns
Hidden threats and background malware in business systems
Managing cybersecurity for multiple construction sites
Monitoring employee activity and internal security
Response time and disaster recovery planning
Industry-specific cybersecurity considerations
Training employees to recognize cyber threats
Regular review of employee access and permissions
Backup vs disaster recovery solutions
Actions to take during a cyber incident
Contact information and how to reach Max Power Technology
Budget considerations for cybersecurity services
Bilingual support and communication in cybersecurity
Building trust with cybersecurity providers
The company's approach to contracts and support
Details of the free cybersecurity assessment
Ideal clients for Max Power Technology
Key takeaway: Protect your business like your most valuable asset
Connect with Jeff Williams:
Contact: (307) 372-9052 O. (630) 973-6481 D.
Website: www.merchantcommodites.co
Email: Theconstructioncowboyshow@gmail.com
Email: Jeff@merchantcommodities.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-williams-merchant-commodities/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559698873942
Alignable: https://www.alignable.com/sheridan-wy/merchant-commodities-llc?user=17404768
Jeff Williams (00:02.51)
Good afternoon, folks. today we're talking about how to protect the business that you work so hard to build. we will look at cybersecurity, managed IT, backup and disaster recovery, and customer support systems that help when pressure is on. welcome to the Construction Cowboys Show, where we talk with people to keep the business moving forward and practical ideas to back up the construction industry.
I am your host, Jeff Williams, and my guest today is Javier Velasquez owner of Max Power Technology. Javier, greet your audience.
Javier Velasquez (00:43.909)
Hey, happy to he be here, Jeff. Thank you very much for the warm welcome. I'm actually a co-owner Max Power Technology. My name is Javier Velasquez. I'm really excited to be here with you and looking forward for this conversation.
Jeff Williams (00:59.266)
Outstanding. I'm glad to have you here. And a lot of owners know technology matters, but they may not know where their real exposure is until something fails. Let's start with the man behind the company, which is you, and and I know you got a partner, but you're probably the face of the company. So let's start there and then we'll just kind of get right down into the nitty gritty and hopefully you can help maybe an owner on this show that's gonna be looking at things on a Monday morning.
so I've got a question for you. How here, tell us a little bit about your background. where and what led you into technology and eventually into owning max power technology.
Javier Velasquez (01:41.862)
Yeah, no, so thank you very much. so really excited about this because you know, first of all, you know, what led me into technology, I'm always being a person excited about technology. I'm a give back nature and always curious about how things work. regarding myself, you know, I've been working on the industry of customer service for about twenty years, and at different capacities and different areas.
but I develop a lot more into the technical side because I always like that part of of the gig, right? and most likely, you know, being able to I've been working on the company for about five years now. And I started as a technician in the company. You know, we grow a lot and we have an amazing relationship with the CEO of business partner and you know things are growing a lot and we're growing together. So it's definitely something that we liked. And part of what
the things that we do on the company is, you know, we really care about, you know, the the companies that we do partnership with. Which we're not looking for clients. We're looking for partners, you know. People that really will like to keep their business protected and their business floating, you know, because sometimes what happens if there's an attack, something on the background, that there's some silent situations happening on everybody's computer that they don't realize about and it could affect
An entire business.
Jeff Williams (03:10.55)
Yeah, well, you know, what did you learn earlier about the difference between fixing a computer and actually protecting the entire business? I mean, there's a big difference between, you know, doing that. So what what would again, what's the difference between that?
Javier Velasquez (03:27.013)
Look, fixing a computer is just putting a a small patch into it, right? So it's not really a fix. You're just, you know, brake fixing something that eventually is gonna come after, right? So let me put it in in a construction, you know, a way to say things, right? If you fix a piece in a machinery, what's gonna happen? Something else is gonna break, right? So obviously.
It requires a full maintenance. So it's not fixing a computer. It's making sure that, you know, the services are fully protected and everything is working as expected. That's pretty much what we try to do. You know, the proactive work and not just fixing something because that one is like a pipe, right? It's gonna broke something somewhere else.
Jeff Williams (04:14.808)
Yeah. Yep. Great. your company says its mission is to remove technology risk and the complexity. so like healthcare or legal teams can focus on their people that they serve. What does that mission look like in the real world?
Javier Velasquez (04:33.691)
Look, I mean to getting in into the mission is difficult to to fulfill, right? When you don't have a partner that really, you know, cares about their own security, right? But at the end of the day, what we do is we help save lives, right? Because at the end of the day, you know, the the medic, right, it has to take care of their patients. The the lawyer, it takes care of their clients, right?
And who takes care of their business? Who takes care of their security? Right? They cannot do do two things at the time, right? And that's what we he we're there for, in order to help them, in order to support their business and make sure that they can focus on what they do, saving lives. And we not only provide support into the healthcare area, we provide support with all of the type of businesses that they need support into.
Jeff Williams (05:29.358)
Right. So what do what do clients usually need most when they first call you? I mean, you know, let's say let's say and you can give a couple of different a examples. One's a brand new client and then maybe an existing client. So just give a couple of different points of that. Again, what they most of the time they call you first, what do they need? You know?
Javier Velasquez (05:48.684)
and no it it happens most of the times, you know, the the new clients are always calling about, you know, there's something wrong with my computer, there's something wrong with my system, there's either slow, you know. Usually they just focus on on the the computer itself and the performance, right? So when something is really getting stuck, right, that's what happens. usually with with new clients. With existing clients, you know, it might be something in regards of you know, my my
I I'm getting notifications on my computer, you know, about resetting or some additional patching or or something's going on, right? From our systems that is actually a remind them, right? Hey, it's important for you to restart your computer. It's important for you to do this and that, right? we'd like to be a little bit proactive on them. But sometimes, you know, it gets a little bit annoying on their end sometimes.
Jeff Williams (06:30.883)
Right.
Javier Velasquez (06:42.579)
but and then it's most likely to call and say, you know, I have a couple of projects, I have something that I wanna do, you know, and in that type of discussion because most of the times our systems already have everything covered, right? So they don't really have to call for the day to day.
Jeff Williams (07:00.812)
You know, it's kind of interesting, like ourselves as small business owners, sometimes we you know, we turn on the computer, we do the email thing and and we think we're and we think we're okay, right? And we think we're protected and we tell everybody, yeah, we got good security and and all this stuff. But behind the scenes, when you take a look at most of these companies and you know, small or large, what do you see that's exposed or that
it appears that they're exposed more than than not. In other words, is there is there things that you use in your business that can reveal certain things that are being revealed to that that the customer doesn't see that's going on behind the scenes?
Javier Velasquez (07:47.355)
Yeah, all of the time, you know. the what happens most of the times is that we install a program, right? something that is, you know, important for our work, right? Or sometimes it's from the company spaces itself, right? And s and what happens most of the time is that, you know, on the backdoor, somehow there's some stuff that are actually installed in there, right? So you never know. Maybe something you install on the computer is already spreading across.
And those are some things that doesn't come up immediately, right? It takes time. And the people take time in order to be there and understand what your your computer has and the way to take information out of you. What our system does, right, is make sure that it complete isolate that type of situation, right? So probably the application will not be able to install, right? Or it's just gonna fail. And you're gonna be thinking about what's going on? I mean, this shouldn't happen, right?
But it's something on the back end to tell you, hey, there's something wrong with that, right? And we get notified, right? And we have a 24-7 is security operations center, right? That it's able to give us a call. Hey, somebody's actually Jeff Williams computer is actually installing something that is not good, right? we usually isolate or disconnect completely from the network to make sure your your information is not compromised.
And then we give you a call. Hey Jeff, there's something going on on your computer. And most of the times they don't realize about that. You know, it happened once that I talked to one of our clients and it was like, Hey, I've been working on my computer all the time. I have not done anything. And there was something on the background getting installed, but it was isolated completely. So it never happened. And you can might be using your computer for something else and the virus is already there.
Jeff Williams (09:40.887)
Yeah, that's a that's a great point to all that. I'm gonna kind of go left a little bit on you, just I'll bring you back here in a minute, but it's gonna be more of a specific question around the construction industry. So I'll give you an example. my question's gonna be kind of long and drawn out, but I'll be more specific. Is that let's say that they've got an office
They've got staff. That's one element of their business. And then they've got these project managers on a job site with their laptops and whatever else devices they're doing. And they've got scanners for inventory and and they've got their cell phones and and then they may have two or three jobs going on at one time at two or three different locations with, you know, four or five different crews. And you know my my question is is that
Is that something that can be protected and managed if the owners are cooperative in wanting to manage that and minimize that risk in those multiple sites and locations? And do you guys have the wherewithal to be able to do that kind of scale for a lot of clients? And I'm talking small mom and pop construction companies to Fortune 500 companies. So I know I get that throwed a lot at you there.
But I think you kind of understand what I'm saying, because technologies all over the board were wide open to threats and and you know, hacking and everything else that goes on, and you never can control the project manager out in the field if he's looking at the right stuff or not, right? So that's my question is can you manage that? Can you give a solution to a problem that a contractor would have in that general sense of it?
Javier Velasquez (11:33.8)
Thank you. Thank you for the question, Jeff. to be honest with you, it's it's not as complicated as it as he as he can hear, right? Because basically what happens is, you know, they have access any device, any person, you know, the the where the problem and the leakages go, it's in the human, you know, there's always the human factor that affects businesses, right? And you mentioned there are contractors, there's no way to handle them because most of the time they handle their own equipment.
So it is important for companies to build, you know, rules within their contractors stating that we need to include some systems into your computers, right? So it doesn't matter if it's a cell phone, it doesn't matter if, you know, they have access to your company information. So it's important to keep the same layer of protection goes across everybody in the company. Not only the executives, you know, people on the field, you know, contractors that are able to do work.
And most likely it could compromise their data, but the company data as well. So our systems are actually added and we call it bring your own device, you know, that type of you know, ruling. that we can also do that and we can protect them. Our system is there to protect our business, right? Not to be intrusive on any matter. We just need to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Jeff Williams (12:56.322)
So it's gonna get kind of personal and pointed to the company, but I'm assuming you have the capability and the software and the technology to help monitor and manage that for the clients, even as a remote, you know, security, you know, cybersecurity company. And so this is kind of a reverse question. So clients are and customers are always wanting to know do you when you hire somebody to work on your team and your company?
Were you doing pretty extensive background checks? And you know, again, you don't want information being, you know, let out that you're monitoring and maintaining for those customers. Because a lot of it's financial, it's contracts, it's things that are legal, and all those personal and private information to these companies. But so it was a twofold question. One, can you can you monitor that? And then do you monitor your employees coming into the company? And which I'm sure you do, but I just thought I'd ask.
Javier Velasquez (13:51.674)
Yeah.
Jeff Williams (13:51.726)
'Cause you know, coming from you is better than coming from me.
Javier Velasquez (13:54.152)
No, it's good. now to be honest with you, it's definitely something that we can monitor, right? Because our systems are in order to catch any type of situation going on, right? and regardless on who in the company you know, it's is using the services or having access to systems, right? So it is important to keep that pretty much protected, right? In regards of our own employees, I use my own system on my employees, right? I use my system on my own.
'Cause you know, it it it's imperative that we need to keep their information protected, right? So everything it's you know, there's a lot of information that is personal, professional, PII. And you know, in if we're talking about, you know, in the medical sector, you know, we have, you know, information that cannot be disclosed is information from from patients and clients, right? So a hundred percent across all of my employees I do have measurements.
Jeff Williams (14:46.894)
Mm-hmm.
Javier Velasquez (14:51.569)
to make sure everything is fully protected and there's no leakages from our end. It might mu may make no sense, you know, you haven't as a cybersecurity company and the leaks leakage comes from from from within, right? So we make sure that that is very well established and everything is you know, automatically isolation if something happens.
Jeff Williams (15:12.856)
Outstanding. So I'm gonna come back to the point here. in discussing downtimes and let's say that somebody's system goes down, and what is your response time to that and how do you handle those kind of things? And again, if it's physical damage due to weather storms or just hacking or whatever it may be, 'cause I know it's across the board everywhere. But again, it's more about the response time to the customers and
And how do you handle that?
Javier Velasquez (15:43.772)
Yeah, the the advantage with this is, you know, it has to be a plan in motion, first of all, right? So we need to have already a disaster recovery plan, right? what we do is, you know, we install applications on prem, right, on their servers just to make sure everything is protected. And usually, you know, a recovery plan it might be taking between twenty four to forty eight hours, right? In
Jeff Williams (15:51.35)
Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Williams (16:00.854)
Mm-hmm.
Javier Velasquez (16:10.829)
in regards of you know recovering the information and be able to get you up and running, right? usually we have automatic systems that they create virtual servers that will be able to get your business up and running and it doesn't have to be, you know, a long downtime, right? It is important because you know within that time window you can lose a lot of business. So sometimes, you know, if something goes down and you don't have a a disaster recovery plan in place.
It could take you weeks or months to be back into general operations. So it is important to get everything backed up before time.
Jeff Williams (16:48.408)
So thank you so much for that. Appreciate that. great detail. The word cybersecurity, it can sound technical and expensive, you know. especially for somebody that's a lay person like I myself. if you strip away the jargon and the basic protections, should every small business have something in place?
Javier Velasquez (17:11.564)
look, I mean they they could have some things into their end, right? you know, either they can
their their antivirus service right and and things that sign on their side right so definitely is something that most companies might have yes but you know it's it's just right on the surface right it doesn't really cover the information really inside in order to keep them fully protected so it's just a small layer that is actually covered.
Jeff Williams (17:39.661)
Okay.
Jeff Williams (17:50.264)
Sure.
Jeff Williams (17:54.191)
So I'm assuming this is around the clock monitoring and all the stuff that we just talked about and that you covered. really, with multiple divisions in a company, and I'll cover one of them just as it's kind of an intriguing thing for me, is finance is different than legal, and legal is is different than operations. And do you do you approach each one about the same level of security or is
their particular part of the plan that is more sensitive to information that is financial and legal versus the others. And again that may depend also, Javier, on the type of client it is. I'm sure a healthcare is much different than legal and legal is much different than construction. I'm sure of that. so
Javier Velasquez (18:48.419)
Yeah. So just for you to know, we have tailored solutions, right? So obviously we're not gonna go the same way with you know, healthcare client that we're gonna go into a different area on the construction area, for example, right? There's different situations, different things that we cover, but across the board all companies need pretty much the same type of c cybersecurity services in place, right?
Jeff Williams (18:52.737)
Okay.
Javier Velasquez (19:14.676)
regardless if it's, you know, on a an a different sector, right? The cybersecurity it must be the same for everybody.
Jeff Williams (19:15.19)
Okay.
Jeff Williams (19:20.451)
Right.
Jeff Williams (19:24.014)
Yeah.
Jeff Williams (19:27.946)
Many attacks don't begin with a sophisticated break in. They begin getting a business person to click, reply, and send information. How do you train people without making them afraid, without making them afraid to use the tools and to need the work? You know how it is, right? I'm I'm afraid to click on anything anymore, to be honest with you. Yeah.
Javier Velasquez (19:50.339)
Yeah. It is. Now it's it's it's a scary times, Jeff. the you know, the the advantage of what we do, we try to do a protection in different layers, right? So we protect the infrastructure layer, which is the, you know, all of the systems, the connections, everything that is across the the the companies, right? Then we protect the employees, right? We protect our own, making sure all the information coming in and out is not gonna be compromised, right?
Jeff Williams (20:01.016)
Yeah.
Jeff Williams (20:11.15)
Yeah.
Javier Velasquez (20:19.353)
But the important factor is that we also have to protect and we have to teach employees and how to do things. So we also have, you know, services available at companies' disposal in order to have cybersecurity awareness trainings, right? So it's, you know, layers and and and and lists of of programs or or training, small video trainings, right? That will show you how important it is to keep the information protected.
and your business protected a hundred percent. So it's something that it's also comes on the education for your own employees. Cause most of the times, you know, is there what the problem is and having them not scared, just conscious of the security of the business, right? It just leads a different factor in it.
Jeff Williams (21:07.896)
So how often should a company revisit with the employees' awareness of access and permissions and in other words, do you have something that is kind of scheduled with and I know you've got standard employees that have been working at places a long time and then you've got new employees that you know are in the in the process of coming in, but how often do you set something up to revisit with the employees at these companies to make sure that they're educated?
on you know, your services, I guess I might say.
Javier Velasquez (21:41.327)
Services have to be done at least once a year, right? but there are ways to do you know, trainings quarterly based, right? making sure, you know, everything is fresh and and and people get, you know, understanding on how important that the cybersecurity is. there's also ways for systems, for example, that we do small fishing campaigns, right? So basically what we do is we graph
Jeff Williams (21:51.106)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Williams (22:06.414)
Yeah.
Javier Velasquez (22:08.301)
the emails from the company and we create a a campaign. It is pretty much emails that it might be harmful, right? asking you to something's going on with your password or something like that. And you know, people is able to click them. And our system is able to send the company owners a report. Hey, we have a report, 20% was able to open them, 10% was able to enter information, right? And at the end of it it says, hey, this was a test, right?
So it's just a way to prove and make sure that you are protecting the business.
Jeff Williams (22:43.0)
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. So what's the difference between having a backup or having a recovery plan that you know will work? In other words, you know, some people say let's, you know, just get it all backed up, but sometimes I know you and I kind of talked before last week even about recovery and it's expensive, I know, to recover data that's lost. So, what's the difference between that and
How do you manage that with clients and and again, assessing the risk and and what they're doing?
Javier Velasquez (23:18.724)
Yeah, look, in regards to backup, it's the regular backup, you can do that, you know. Services for emos, you know, Google, Microsoft, they provide that service as a as a standard, right? But the only situation is that you know you're able to recover information back for 90 days, right? If something happened before the fact, you're unable to recover that information, right? if there's any situation that you need to do a deeper investigation, you cannot go that far or that back far, basically. So
having a disaster recovery and a full backup system on top of, you know, the standards is always good because you're able to recover information from the time that we deploy the systems, right? until the day that we have it active, right? that the only the other thing as well is the the situation having that backup is good, right? But it means that you have to get another device, right? In order to bring the backup and in order to continue with your business, right?
Jeff Williams (24:15.662)
Yeah.
Javier Velasquez (24:18.425)
Having that disaster recovery gives you the capability to have your information restored into a virtual server that will be accessible by all your employees, right? Like Nathan happens between twenty four and forty eight hours. How long do you think it's gonna take in order for you to purchase a new server or have everything, all the information you have on the backup up and running and having a server online? That's the difference between a backup and a disaster recovery.
Jeff Williams (24:44.012)
Yeah. So is is that backup service and I'm assuming that's something you could do for the client if they chose to have you do that as a as an ancillary service to what you do? Or is that something you prefer them to do in-house? And so I'll just let you answer that one.
Javier Velasquez (25:04.078)
No, it's it's definitely possible that we can do that, right? W sh we you what we usually do is we deploy a device, right, on prem. So it can be installed on their on their server. And pretty much we can start doing that backup. It's a disaster recovery hardware that we that we can actually install on their on their servers, right? I mean they can do it if they want, right? But the advantage of having us as a business partner is that we're able to cover every single layer and every single
situation that they might need, that they don't have to look for different vendors for something that it can be resolved with one one single one.
Jeff Williams (25:41.399)
Okay. So let's let's ask the question if if the customers say it's a construction company again and and they identify a cyber incident, right? the question really is is what should the owner and employees do and then what they what should they not what's what's what should they avoid doing? What should they do and then what should they avoid doing if they get a cyber attack?
Javier Velasquez (26:11.083)
It's it's just going back into the the reactive versus proactive you know situation, right? as a business owner, right, you need to have a disaster option in place, right? You need to have a backup just in case something happens. You need to have systems to protect your business. That's pretty much like the the best option, right? And is the recommended to make sure that they don't get compromised on any level, right? what
obviously having that, right? There's not really about the what can and cannot do, right? Because if you're asking yourself that question, what can I do if this happens, it means you have not in place so far, right? So you should be working on that on that approach. Why is the reason, right? Are you willing to invest millions of dollars in order for you to recover your data, which is actually your data, that your information to be ransomware, you know?
You can go bankrupt if you don't have that measurement available, right? So it is important. If you're making the question, it's because there's something that you don't have in place and it's important for you to have it. Because at the end of the day, you know, you don't want to lose your business. You've been, as you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, Jeff, you've been building your business and you've been creating your business, right? So it's not something that you just want to give it out, right? It's been years that that people been building their businesses.
So that's precisely what we want to do, right? and as long as that happens, right, you have you don't have to do anything, right? You don't have to agree on any ransomware, you don't have to agree on the information that's being leaked, right? Because you know, it shouldn't happen. And and if not, you have a disaster plan and disaster recovery ready in place.
Jeff Williams (28:00.415)
it's fantastic. Hey you know what? just we're back with again, I wanna just kinda make a quick promotion for you. Javier Vasquez, owner of Max Power Technology. We're talking about protecting daily operations. Javier's technology is one side of continuing and the other side is keeping the customer informed and supported. And so right here, Javier, if you take a second and just give out shout out your phone number that they can contact you by.
And your email or however you want to be contacted, that'd be great for just a second. And then we'll give that at the end of the show also.
Javier Velasquez (28:37.189)
Thank you. No, I really appreciate it. we you can definitely reach out to us into our direct phone line and the company, right? And you can definitely ask for me with no problem, right? if I go if I give my own personal number, I'm gonna be, you know, bombarded with it. So our main number is eight hundred five zero six eighty one zero seven. and you know, they can look for me into LinkedIn, you know, I will definitely able to share.
you know, the my calendar link and then the ways to connect, you know. So definitely something that need nobody anybody being interested on being protected to make sure their business it k remains up and running and remain being a business, w we would love to have a conversation with you. We like to understand what you do and we care about your business, you know. So that's that's something that differentiate us because we make sure you you get yourself the the customer service that you deserve.
Jeff Williams (29:38.007)
I know you out you provide out customer service, outsourcing, call center services, inbound support, administrative help, and s staff aggregation. So again, just great services and support all the way around. so let me get back into a couple more questions and then we can maybe begin to wrap this up here. see.
Jeff Williams (30:07.636)
Is there particular budget that you know, let's just say small to medium companies need to have to I don't want to say engage you, but just gauge in you know technology, cybersecurity. Is there a budget or a round figure that you're brave enough to shoot out there? Or if it's just an assessment of each company, depending on what that is and who that is?
Javier Velasquez (30:32.409)
Yeah. So just for you to know, most of the times, you know, having somebody in-house for for technical support, usually you have to have, you know, an specific amount allocated for it. If you get on service with us, you know, the the percentage is less than a half of what you have to pay somebody in-house and you have the full stack and my whole team at your disposal for support, right? So and that gives you pretty much, you know, as part of our being our customer, right?
It means if there's an emergency, we can actually go ahead and reach out immediately to make sure things are taken care of, depending on what the situation is. Right. So budget, usually what we like to do, Jeff, is we'll like to connect with the the companies, right? Understand, you know, what are their needs and their services and everything, and we try to allocate, you know, a tailor solution for them. We definitely will give our recommendations, but we know sometimes, you know, the the there are different budgets available.
So there are ways for us to work together because at the end of the day, our main and main focus is, you know, protecting businesses.
Jeff Williams (31:37.347)
Good. So you also offer bilingual, which is English and Spanish and and for many of the companies and especially in the construction world, right? a lot of Hispanic crews and a lot of, you know, English speaking owners. And I know from my own experience just being in executive management that a lot of times the communication from the project managers that are out of the office into the field of the crews, it's complicated and difficult communication and
I know with technology it's even more how do I say sensitive to be able to do that and I'm pretty sure that you guys provide that. Am I correct in that? Bilingual communication? Yeah.
Javier Velasquez (32:19.906)
yes. Yes. So the advantage on, you know, in in in besides the our technical services, right? We also provide services for a call center, right? or a staff augmentation, right? So you need somebody with skills. And as you mentioned, Jeff, I think we we we talked about it last time that that we were discussing things, right? Most of the times, you know, there's always the language barrier, right? So
All our teams are I and members are actually bilingual, English and Spanish, right? And if there's any need for a company that, for example, you need an account manager or somebody that is actually able to help you out with that situation, we definitely offer that service. It's definitely something that is available. and it's, you know, somehow it's a way to open into a different market, right? Be able to explore some other situations or a different area that might you might not feel comfortable with, right?
But having the right people helping you to grow your business is definitely something that we have available as well.
Jeff Williams (33:20.302)
Okay, outstanding. So let's see I'm gonna kind of get moving.
Jeff Williams (33:32.623)
Well you know, a lot of times the challenge in most companies, even beginning to start or whatever, is all about trust, right? And so I know it's gonna be kind of a sensitive question to you, but how do you establish your trust right off the bat and and what do you do for the customer that makes them feel comfortable and drops down their guard as they say and and feels comfortable with allowing you to come into the I I call it the intimate parts of their business, right?
Javier Velasquez (34:03.577)
Yeah, and I mean, I like to build, you know, a strong personal slash professional relationship with my clients and with my possible clients as well, you know. I like to let them know that, you know, we're there to support, we're there to help, and we're business partners, right? so if for me it's you know, I'm always available, you know, if there's anything going on and I need to be shout out, you can actually give me a call, let me know what's going on.
I like to have that conversation and make sure that you feel taken care of, right? So part of my my motto is, you know, I do provide the type of customer service and support that probably I will never get with the big companies, right? I like to really and I I'm interested and I'm really you know, interested on what your business is, what you want to do, right? And what do you what's your goal, right? Basically,
I have the opportunity and the blessings that most of my clients, they are, you know, trustworthy of me and they are just like fully hands off and they trust on what we do as a company. So I think that's that's something that is gained, you know, in in in in a process. But you know, you have to give us a chance, right? We love what we do. We're really interested to make sure that your business grows and your business, you know, keeps being a business because as far as your business grows.
our business grow and our relationship gets strong.
Jeff Williams (35:32.185)
So in regards to contracts, you know, I've I've heard you say you don't have contracts, but if you would kind of expound on that a little bit and your proactive support, in relation to assessments and things of that nature, but also to add to that is what is your actual role? I know you've got a couple of responsibilities for yourself inside the company that you that you're kind of proud of and do, but just elaborate on again contracts, the proactive support and and your roles.
And at the company.
Javier Velasquez (36:04.269)
Yes. So in regards of we we don't like to do contracts, right? Because we don't like to get people tied into something that they don't really like, you know. Most of our clients, they are with us because they like us and they like the services that we provide. And I think that's the most valuable you know, from from our partnership on businesses, you know, number one. Number two, my title in the company, I'm a director of technology and customer service. So I oversee pretty much both ends, right?
in regards of all of the IT support services, projects and situations going on and all of the customer service, you know, staff augmentation or whatever situation is needed. so I actually covered those those two sides. and you know, a part of our services, you know, we also provide a free cybersecurity assessment for your company. So we can actually go and check all your business information.
infrastructure, but it's not only the assessment. It's really knowing your business and knowing what is what you have and the amount of employees and all of that information, right? In order for us to really tailor and protect you a hundred percent.
Jeff Williams (37:19.2)
Appreciate that. So I I'm gonna thank you so much for the clarity. the clarification. So you know, no owners are listening right now and listeners all over the country and the world and so in review of cyber security and the continuation long term, give the first three actions to take this week. So this week, just give three things. Keep it simple enough that the owner
will actually do it, but give three things that they can actually do in house for their own cybersecurity. Can you do that for us?
Javier Velasquez (37:58.147)
Yeah, for sure. You know, the most important part is just understand what what is your business standing, right? if you have monitoring system, if you have, you know, systems that are able to protect your business as a whole, right? If you have you that that would be number one, right? Number two is making sure that you have the proper training and guidance for your employees, to avoid any kind of leakage or any situation going on on their end, right? and
Number th number three, you know, just train them, right? You have to train your your your team. I think that's the more the most important part. Getting your people aware of what's going on, that any situation happening, anything coming, it's not that, you know, you have to be paranoid about things, right? You know, when you have systems that are able to protect, for example, our system, it's able to analyze incoming and outgoing emails if there's a link, you know, you click on the link.
The link is actually analyzed and it lets you know, hey, this might be something that is not really good, right? That sometimes you just see it's it looks very good, you know. And it might be just a small single print on that entire email that it could be a little fishy, but not everybody's able to do that. So, you know, that's that's those are the three important things, right? And the most important, just to to close it out, Jeff, is you have to invest.
on your security, you know, I think it's an important part for your business. Because if you don't protect yourself, if you don't protect your business, you know, it's easily be able to go into a band rope C. And we definitely don't want that, you know. We want to make sure we expand and not, you know, that that's pretty much my recommendation.
Jeff Williams (39:42.543)
Outstanding. So I'm gonna put you in a different role in a different hot seat here. if a owner was to ask an IT provider before trusting them with their company systems, what what kind of question would you would you recommend that an owner ask IT companies? In other words, let's say there's three or four companies they're vetting, you know, for that service, what kind of questions would that owner be wanting to be asked to be asking that?
You know, you can give them some insight too. But lo t what to look for at IT companies.
Javier Velasquez (40:16.227)
Yeah, I mean you you you mentioned one important one, Jeff. It's just just trust, right? But you know, understanding and knowing the person who is actually running things, right? I think it's important and the way that they do things. Because you you want to make sure that you're talking to the person running the operations. You don't want to talk to somebody in sales, right? Because anybody on the sales area or somebody that will be able to, you know, know sales or understanding want to sell a product, right? I mean
You really have to understand the person who's running operations and understanding the ins and outs and what's going on, right? and and be able to understand what is the plan that they have in place, right? Is there a plan, a disaster recovery plan? We already have something that, you know, for backup. is our email filter in place, you know, that type of situations and making sure, you know, there's a lot of proactiveness in it, right? For me, it's it's it's just, you know.
Jeff Williams (41:10.446)
Yeah, absolutely.
Javier Velasquez (41:13.466)
be be able to be there to support our clients and our business partners, right? And make sure their business remains protected a hundred percent.
Jeff Williams (41:22.914)
Fantastic. So Max Power Technology offers a free cybersecurity assessment. Can you kind of just highlight a little bit about the assessment and what kind of goes into that? I know that we got owners listening and and developers and builders and you know again, if it's a i if it's a free service then you know, kind of describe that what it might look like and try to keep it as brief as possible.
Javier Velasquez (41:47.289)
Yeah, for sure. So what we do is, you know, we we we will like to have you know, access to your your system and infrastructure, right? So we we apply a system that we'll be able to do a small random all of your all of your devices, everything that is connected to your network, right? And make sure that, you know, it how the protection is, if everything is in place, right? so we we also do some reviews under your your tenant, if it is a Google or Microsoft, right?
a small verification just to make sure the the the the the proper standards are in place. But the the security assessment it just it's part of like in in in parallel with that compliance, right? Understanding if the proper security measures and configurations are placed into all of the equipment, right? because compliance and cybersecurity go hand in hand.
Jeff Williams (42:39.086)
Yep. Good, good, good. So who's the best fit to reach out to you right now? And, you know, if they're again, you may have a certain market segment that you're trying to reach and so you know, you're welcome to put that out there, but who's the best fit for them to reach out to you? What level of company?
Javier Velasquez (42:58.394)
Yeah. We're definitely looking for companies that wanna they get their the the get themselves protected, right? as you mentioned at the beginning, we focus a lot more into the medical field because of the complexity of their compliance. and that's the the most important area that we actually cover. But we're interested in order to protect any any kind of business, you know, we're needing to get themselves protected, making sure that their business remain in a good standing, right?
and disaster recovery services available at their disposal. So, you know, it could be medium, small, big business. We're definitely able to cover that service for them. So, you know, we specialize in medical, but we can definitely protect any kind of business.
Jeff Williams (43:44.431)
Great, I always try to close the episode by asking for one straight answer our listeners can carry with them. what is the one thing every business owner should remember about protecting their company's technology, data, and customer relationships?
Javier Velasquez (44:03.631)
They have to
Javier Velasquez (44:08.345)
Huh. That's a very good question, Jeff. Thank you. Thank you for that. No, it definitely put me on the spot. But but that's that's a good thing, you know, because you know what what is important is, you know, you mentioned it at the beginning of our conversation, you know, you've been working hard in order to build your business and you've been actually started from the from the beginning and it's been hard for you to build something. It's like most of the times businesses are like the small babies of ours, right?
Jeff Williams (44:12.142)
Kinda put you on the spot, didn't I?
Javier Velasquez (44:37.903)
So we cherish them, we protect them, and we're, you know, there to make sure nothing happened to them. That's what it is, you know. Are you willing to risk all of that time that you invest if you are not protected? That's what the people need to remember, you know. You need to protect your business and make sure that instead of, you know, being on risk, you have a peace of mind that everything is covered for you and you can focus on exactly what you're good at.
growing your business and be the owner where you know the growing your business and at the way that you want it. You know. You can leave the technology to us, we will be able to take care of you and we'll be able to partner because at the end of the day that's what we love to do.
Jeff Williams (45:22.262)
Outstanding. So great advice. a business is built on one promise, one customer, and one day of work at a time. protecting it means knowing where the weak spots are before trouble finds them. Having a plan that keeps people working and customers informed. So my guest has been Javier Velasquez owner of Max Power Technology.
And to learn more, schedule a free cyber assessment and visit maxpowertechnology.com. And again, the phone number is 800-506-8107, and the email is info@maxpowertechnology.com. Javier, thank you for joining us and sharing your practical ways owners can reduce risks and keep their operations moving forward. And to everyone riding
With us today. Thank you for listening to the Construction Cowboys Show Take care and of your people. Stand behind your word. Keep building something worth protecting. And until next time, keep your boots on the ground and your business moving forward.
Happy trails until we meet again!