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Kalektronics Inc
Kalektronics Inc. in Sunrise receives a Miami Herald Small Business Makeover. Creating a business plan and getting accounting in order are among the first steps.
In 2010, when he was a high school junior, Chad Kalecky wanted to make a little extra money. The 16-year-old, always a tinkerer, started repairing his friends’ smartphones. But the teen saw a bigger business opportunity. While still a student at American Heritage School in Plantation, he started buying used smartphones online, repairing them and reselling them. When Chad went off to the University of Miami, he talked his dad, Dan Kalecky, into opening a 3,000-square-foot smartphone store in Fort Lauderdale. They opened in 2011, with Dan handling daily operations and Chad doing the purchasing. It aligned well with Dan’s main venture, buying and reselling high-end Sennheiser headphones. After about a year, competition loomed and business declined. The Kalecky duo expanded to other refurbished goods: tablets, cameras and laptops, trying to see what worked. They sold retail online through third-party vendors like Amazon. Chad, still a fulltime student, drove up on weekends to inspect inventory. At the end of 2013, Kalektronics Inc. moved to an 8,000- square-foot space in Sunrise. In 2014, the Kaleckys decided to try refurbishing goods themselves. The company bought as-is goods, returns and broken goods, and did repairs, testing and repackaging. In the business, Dan, also a general contractor, was very handy. Chad, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 2015, was skilled at systems. “Together we made a good team,” Chad said. Kalektronics expanded to other consumer goods: housewares, kitchen appliances, consumer electronics and tools. “We tried absolutely everything to find the best fit,” Chad said. The company got into wholesaling about six months ago.
