by Cliff White, Staff Reporter Philipsburg – Professional Satellite Repair’s success literally cannot be contained. The company’s office in downtown Philipsburg is bursting at the seams with more than 40 employees hard at work fixing and shipping the more than 300 to 500 game systems that the company processes each workday. Downstairs, a radio blasts Metallica while repairmen wielding screwdrivers and soldering guns perform surgery on Playstations and Xboxes. A shipping crew labels and packages the finished repair jobs, scurrying up and down “hallways” created by thousands of boxes piled high against walls. Upstairs, a handful of customer support staff keep up a constant phone chatter, reassuring customers by a gentle “Your order has already been shipped.” In the hub of this controlled chaos stoically stands Brian Hoopsick, president and CEO of Professional Satellite Repair, and as of April 21, owner of a company that has been in business for 20 years. “When I look around, it’s hard to believe my eyes. I’ve got this company that just keeps getting bigger. Even with the economy the way it is today, what we’re struggling with right now is trying to find a larger facility. How bad of a problem is that to have?” Hoopsick asked rhetorically. Hoopsick started out in business making repairs to satellite dishes and “made a decent living doing it.” But his business changed dramatically after the release of the original Nintendo in the 1990s. The steady rise in the popularity of video games, and Hoopsick’s shrewd move to capture the market in their repair, were the two most important chapters in Hoopsick’s story of success. Today, Professional Satellite Repair (PSR) is the only company in the country doing video game repair for extended warranty providers. They hold contracts with the warranty providers for Wal-Mart, Kmart, Toys ‘R Us, QVC and every other major retailer of video game consoles. As video games have gone from a luxury item geared mainly towards kids to a mainstream mega-industry with broad cultural and social reach, sales – and repair work – have skyrocketed. In 2008 alone, over 60 million video game platforms were sold, according to VGChartz.com, an online industry newsletter. Not looking to get boxed into one industry, PSR has expanded its operations so that they currently repair a number of other gaming systems and electronic devices, including the Sony PSP, older Playstations, Nintendo DS, iPods, laptops (both Mac and PC), DVD and Blu-ray players, iPhones and GPS units, among various other items. Intelligent hiring practices have also helped Hoopsick maintain his company’s reputation for quick turnaround and effective repair-work. “We have a relatively small staff, which has enabled me to really get to spend some time in interviewing for every position that becomes available,” Hoopsick said. “I’ve realized over time that I get much better results when I hire for attitude than experience. We can train a worker to do their job in about one or two weeks, but we can’t change their attitude for them.” Hoopsick also gives credit to his head of research, Robert Manners, who comes up with repair instructions for each problem a console may have, and Teresa Thompson, director of human resources and client services, who is guiding the business through its current growth spurt. Adding to the good news, the present recession may be providing a boon to the business. PSR repair costs range from 20 to 45 percent of the value of the gaming unit, according to Hoopsick, a fact that he said is not lost on penny-pinching consumers. “The service industry as a whole always prospers when the economy is at its worst,” he said. “When people can’t afford to buy a newer model, repairing an older one is always their best option.” PSR is rapidly outgrowing its current location and is looking to move to a bigger facility, but Hoopsick wants to stay in Philipsburg if he can help it. “This is my hometown and the hometown for 95 percent of my employees,” he said. “It’s a small town full of people with good morals and a great work ethic, and the local government and associations have been great in making it easy to do business here.” With all the success he has seen, Hoopsick said he has still never gotten around to playing any video games. “I don’t play them at all,” he laughed. “I don’t have the time.”