Inspiring Conversations with Dakota Murphy of Cactus Computers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dakota Murphy.

Hi Dakota, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been in the computer retail and repair industry for nine years now. Prior to Cactus Computers, I worked for a big box retail location where I rose the ranks from a computer sales associate to a repair department key-holding manager. During this time I attended Arizona State University and received my bachelor’s in Business Administration.

Growing up, I experienced my father, Lon Murphy, starting and growing his own custom home framing construction business. Watching his day-to-day was a huge motivating factor to become my own boss and start a company of my own. While I loved my time at the retailer I had been working for, I knew I wanted to take on something more.

While others thought I was crazy to open a retail location during the unfortunate downfall of a lot of local businesses due to the pandemic, and the rise of such high-volume online traffic, I risked everything I had to try and open my doors and change the way people experience computer repair.

I had a small collection of vehicles that I had collected and built over the years and made the decision to sell them all to build the capital, I needed to start. It was the best decision I have ever made, and I constantly wish I had done it five years prior to when I did.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wasn’t completely sure what I would be getting myself into when opening my first full-blown business. At times, I felt like I may have bitten off more than I could chew. Initially, we were making killer progress and were actually ready to open our doors about twelve days after moving in and renovating our retail space.

I worked days and nights knowing that the sooner I open the sooner I could try and regain some of my initial investment back. What I was not prepared for though, was the approximate 2-3 month wait time I experienced going through the process of receiving my certificate of occupancy, fire safety inspections, and final approvals to open up.

The only way to truly overcome those delays was to keep my head down, work on as many other loose ends as possible in the meantime and prepare myself for what was to come. Once I was able to get over these hurdles we didn’t really experience any major setbacks.

The business has been great, and I cannot thank the community for this enough. We’ve managed to grow into the go-to place for custom desktop troubleshooting, building, and upgrades across the valley. I’ve had folks reach out from different states across the country and we’ve been able to build and ship rigs all over.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We’re a store-front retail computer repair shop space in the heart of Queen Creek, Arizona. Our ultimate goal for this business is to be able to do what we love with computers and share our expertise with our neighboring community.

This store allows us to take our passion and directly help others in order to better understand technology, repair one of their most important assets, give them full access to one of the most important tools we have in this modern age, to build what some could only dream and turn it into reality, and finally grow with our community by utilizing electronics to better our everyday lives.

Our services include but are not limited to, laptop, desktop, all-in-one, and Apple Mac repair, clean-up, upgrades, and customizations. We’re able to complete diagnostics, operating system installations, and upgrades, malware scans, and removals, hardware and software installations, data transfer and recovery, and new device setup and configuration. We specialize in custom gaming desktops.

Anything from entry-level towers to completely custom and one-off liquid-cooled workhorses packed with performance. A client can come to us with an idea, a concept, a dream of their next gaming desktop, we can make recommendations based on the games they intend to play, programs they’ll utilize, budgets they may be limited to, or simply just a look that they want to achieve.

Within 5-7 days we can source the specialized components required, fully assemble, cable manage, set up, update and optimize their perfect setup. Not only do we repair and build, but we also offer a vast in-store selection of different products for those DIYs looking to take on building or upgrading themselves.

Our experienced staff can answer questions, make recommendations and assist along the way.

We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
While computers are our bread and butter, we also have a unique selection of Hot Wheels, yes – those small collectible diecast cars, in-store and available for purchase.

While they were initially more of a space filler when we opened, it’s now expanded to an awesome part of our store that customers are not expecting when they visit us, making a pleasant surprise and a fun conversation starter for us.

Contact Info:

• Email: cactuspcaz@gmail.com
• Website: www.cactuspcaz.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cactuspcaz
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cactuspcaz
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/cactuscomputers
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/cactus-computers-queen-creek

Image Credits:
Colton Blackmore