Allan Appel Photo
“Fitim” means “victory” in Albanian. That turns out to be a more than fit name for Fitim Cena, a 22-year-old from Kosovo who has just opened up his first business in New Haven.
With the ravages of the Kosovo War of 1999 still swirling about them, Cena’s parents named him “Fitim.” They later enrolled him in a technical high school in Prizen, Kosovo’s second-largest city.
There, Cena developed both soccer and computer technology skills. He a took a computer business dream on the wings of a soccer scholarship to Webber International University in Florida.
He’s close to finishing up there with a degree in marketing and international business. But, on an investor’s visa, Cena has already fulfilled his business dream in America: Last week, with Mayor Harp attending, Cena and his business partner Gregory Foster launched Phone N Computer Repair Center at 55 Whitney Ave.
He spoke his journey on WNHH radio’s “Open for Business” program.
“I remember the first time traveling to Florida, U.S,” he said. “I was on the plane. I was thinking, ‘Who am I going to meet when the plane lands?’
“Also my English was very bad. I had difficulties finding the places I wanted to go.”
Since then, Cena said, he has met a remarkable number of Kosovars in Connecticut. Nutmeggers, in this young man’s estimation, are open to new arrivals.
After hooking up as a technician with a large phone and computer repair company in New Jersey, he learned the trade and immediately saw opportunities to go out on his own in Connecticut.
Foster repairs a shattered phone screen, while the customer waits.
He’s also not lonely for Kosovar company. He plays outdoor and indoor soccer with Kosovar friends in Waterbury.
Cena partnered with Gregory Foster to open the business. Foster has expertise in repair of computers while he works mainly on phones, the market for the latter having grown rapidly in the last several years, Cena said.
The niche business — repairing phones and other devices — has already taken off, according to Cena. That’s because customers at manufacturers’ stores or outlets who come for repairs often find the know-how, waiting time, or customer service there wanting. The focus of Phone N Repair Computer Center is to repair what you have rather than replace it with something newer.
Plus, for the device-anxious customer, the store features repairing while you wait.
The other day, when Foster was in the store, someone came in with an iPhone 6 with a shattered screen. The customer (who preferred not to be identified) had been in New York walking while wearing headphones, not paying attention, when he was hit by a scooter. When he came to his senses, the customer said, the iPhone was on the sidewalk five feet away, with its screen scratched and broken.
Cena, whose investor visa, runs through 2019, is busy expanding his dream. He’s establishing a similar Phone N Computer Repair Center in Manchester and offering his and Foster’s mobile services to existing computer repair businesses in Essex and Cromwell.
Cena’s advice to other Kosovars thinking of pursuing their dream in America is to go right ahead but keep this in mind: Their country remains a fledgling republic still not fully recognized by all the nations of the world. Effects linger from the years of war. “We still in Kosovo have a ways to go to catch up with globalization,” Cena said.
He’d urge other young entrepreneurial compatriots to pursue the idea of dreaming big, an American dream of the kind he had from his early years. But perhaps for now, he advised, do it first in Kosovo, where the need is greater.
This episode of “Open for Business” was made possible in part by Frontier Communications. Frontier is proud to be Connecticut’s hometown provider of TV, Internet and Phone for your home and business. Their number is 1.888.Frontier and their website is frontier.com. To listen to the full episode, click on or download the audio above.
