Tech expert honored for his work keeping Staten Island’s small businesses running
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Patrick Buono is a guiding-the-scenes neighborhood leader, quietly and efficiently trying to keep Staten Island’s little enterprises operating by means of his know-how community.
Buono was born in Brooklyn, but moved to Staten Island at an early age, starting to be entrenched in the local community extensive right before he commenced his possess business enterprise. He attended New Dorp High University, in which he uncovered his appreciate for numbers, and afterwards acquired a bachelor of science degree in community accounting from Baruch University. Nearly right away just after graduating, Buono begun doing work as a senior accountant for DeSantis, Kiefer, Shall, & Sarcone, LLP (DKSS), one particular of the borough’s oldest accounting companies, and a prolonged-time member of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce.
“I loved accounting, but the business knew that I also had an fascination in desktops, and they were quite progressive at the time,” recalled Buono. “DKSS wanted to start computerizing their bookkeeping and accounting procedures, so they established a new placement named computer system manager and asked if I would be interested in it.”
Buono worked as DKSS’s laptop supervisor for many a long time, right until Richard Prinzi, one of the firm’s senior associates, approached him with the proposition of producing a personal computer consulting branch for the operation.
The computer consulting division would be run below a independent corporation, and Buono would be a companion in that organization. DKSS would provide as its first client. Buono approved the give and co-launched Aurora Laptop Technological innovation Inc. along with DKSS.
Aurora Personal computer Technological innovation before long received the believe in of DKSS’s purchasers, according to Buono, and phrase about the tech company swiftly spread. After Buono was prepared to be solely impartial, he procured the rights to Aurora Computer Technology and started to operate the corporation on his have.
“In 1987, personal computers weren’t mainstay the way they are now I was breaking into an entirely new marketplace,” recalled Buono. “The first point that corporations required to do on the laptop was bookkeeping, and who superior to computerize your accounting process than an accountant who specializes in desktops? I was special, and it worked in my favor.”
Buono mentioned he continued to develop Aurora Laptop or computer Know-how as he grew as a businessman, having each and every interaction with a customer as a learning expertise and continuously altering to most effective suit their wants. For over 20 decades, Buono ran Aurora Computer system Know-how fully by himself, getting calls from shoppers at all hours of the day and even interrupting his personal vacations to enable with crisis tech troubles.
Buono employed his initial full-time personnel in 2013, when Aurora Computer Technologies turned also large for him to take care of by himself. Shortly following, he employed quite a few much more workers and began education them on how to mimic his have do the job, allowing the company to choose on extra consumers.
Despite the fact that Buono started off functioning completely with CPA corporations, he has considering the fact that expanded, and now he consults for enterprises in extra provider industries. Buono stated he likes to retain it neighborhood and predominantly serves businesses on Staten Island.
“I feel an obligation to my shoppers. They are reliant on us, and I don’t acquire that flippantly,” explained Buono. “I developed this business on company, and support is crucial. If somebody needs anything suitable away, we’re there. We’re almost nothing devoid of our purchasers if they expand, then we grow.”
In the last decade, Buono has viewed a building need to have for the installation of modern day cell phone units, a services that Aurora Laptop Engineering did not deliver. Upon recognizing this need to have, Buono started Aurora Communications in 2018, a sister organization to Aurora Pc Technologies that focuses only on IP cellphone communications. Aurora Communications authorized Buono to company clients totally in-property, offering compact corporations a spectrum of each technological and communications solutions.
The important to Buono’s success is his willingness to make himself accessible to consumers and non-clients alike, offering his qualified services to everyone who could require them. He goes above and beyond to make certain that his purchasers have the most effective tech knowledge feasible, even performing with organizations through the top of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to maintain their operations up and operating.
“I’m extremely open up to assisting modest organizations that are just starting I feel they need to have a minor bit of direction in learning the ropes to IT, and I’m joyful to help them even if they do not have a big price range,” reported Buono. “We’ll choose on shoppers from a single proprietor to a 100-gentleman office environment, and each shopper is as crucial as the subsequent.”
As available as Buono is to his clientele, he said he makes confident to usually reserve enough time for his beloved types. He married his spouse, Lori, shortly just after starting off Aurora Pc Technological innovation, and they have two children, Karalyn and Kevin.
For his achievements, Buono is getting honored with a Louis R. Miller Small business Management Award, which he will acquire in the Founded Businessperson group. The awards, which are introduced by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce and the Staten Island Progress, honor the memory of Louis R. Miller, a businessman and West Brighton resident who was also a community chief.
In addition to all the perform Buono does for the Staten Island group by means of his two corporations, he is also a member of the Italian Club of Staten Island Foundation and the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. He is also an lively member of the Chamber’s Small business Guild 3, constantly sponsoring events and brainstorming methods to uplift the group.
Above the decades, Buono has also led seminars on several matters in technological know-how, ranging from cybersecurity to emergency preparedness, and he has mentored for companies these kinds of as Score Staten Island and the Boy Scouts of America. He is at the moment scheduling an Island-huge information destruction party to educate the community on the great importance of risk-free facts destruction.
“Some of my employees associates simply call me manager, and I loathe that time period,” explained Buono. “We perform as a group, and I’m not in some ivory tower over all people else. I’m sitting down proper future to my staff, performing with them during the day, making certain we all have anything we need to be profitable.”
Current profession: President and CEO of Aurora Personal computer Technologies Inc.and Aurora Communications Inc.
Hometown: Rosebank
Past profession/s and titles: Senior accountant, community accountant
Community involvement: Staten Island Chamber Young Entrepreneur Academy mentor Rating a mentoring companion of the U.S. Tiny Small business Administration Seminar host NYS Modern society of CPA’s speaker Boy Scouts of America mentor
Some of my everyday living targets include: To live a healthy and clean up daily life and to present the ideal company to my purchasers.
The greatest element of my career: Operating with my fantastic group in the business and interacting with clientele.
The most hard portion of my task: Juggling my time among trying to keep staff and purchasers joyful and owning plenty of time for family and personal time.
My everyday living philosophy: Be nice to everybody and low-cost charges much too a great deal.
I am most very pleased of: My two little ones, Karalyn and Kevin, and their wonderful perform ethic, and the fact that I have a business enterprise that has survived for in excess of 35 decades.
Some thing that no one particular is aware of about me: I am an animal lover, and I am at present getting care of a bunny that my wife and I rescued.
The high quality I like most effective about myself: My honesty and that I am constantly discovering and increasing and setting up my small business.
Individual pursuits and hobbies: Doing the job on my two vintage Ford Mustangs.
I laugh at: “Seinfeld” reruns
I am actually good at: Issue-fixing
I admire: Honesty in persons