Fortune-ranked #27 winner and Surface fan Yen Hoang
What do the Fortune 100 list of fastest- growing inner city companies and Surface have in common? UYL COLOR SUPPLY CEO Yen Hoang.
Yen jokes that she loves her Surface Pro so much that “it’s like my third child!”
“As the CEO of a fast-growing small business, I need to remain flexible and have the ability to make quick decisions to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Surface helps me do just that.”
Yen Hoang, CEO of UYL Color, and full time companion of her Surface
Yen relies on her Surface Pro as her primary tool to stay organized so she can tackle work and life every day. She loves that she can use Surface like a desktop when putting in a long day at the office or as a tablet so she can pull up recipes or how to videos in the kitchen.
Yen co-founded UYL with her father and brother in 2005 to address a critical lack of service in the automotive paint supply industry. Having owned a body shop for years, Yen’s father was disappointed in the level of service he received from paint vendors, so he partnered with his children to actually solve the problem. They decided to build a company that has a strong commitment to creating strategic partnerships in the collision repair industry. UYL seeks to infuse the industry with customer service, value, compassion, and integrity and actually help customers improve operations, rather than simply engaging in price wars to the bottom. A different kind of company required a different kind of device, which is why Yen fell in love with Surface Pro.
Yen’s husband introduced her to Surface, and she’s been a fan ever since. Always on the go, Yen appreciates Surface Pro’s size. “I’m a small person so I don’t want a big hunker. Surface is super easy whether I am traveling or running around the office.” When I first met Yen, she didn’t use Surface Pen with her Pro. She mentioned that she often takes handwritten notes in a notebook so I gave her a new Surface Pen. Now when she’s interviewing candidates, she loves using Surface Pen with OneNote so she can keep all her notes organized on her Surface. “I love that it can search my chicken scratch and that I don’t have to scour through a legal pad to find what I need.”
Running a small business means that you’re pretty much always on call, so Yen uses her Surface at work and at home. “When I have to work at home, I usually start in my bed but the Surface is just so easy to carry and use anywhere.”
And when she’s with her kids, she’s got a case that provides “protection against the infallible strength and coordination of a 2-year-old. My eldest, Sienna, loves using Skype to talk to her aunt, my sister, in New Zealand.” Being able to see each other helps make the distance not feel so far.
And when she’s ready to unwind, you can find Yen curled up on the couch to catch up on the news and shop. When it comes to shopping, she laughs saying that sometimes Surface is “a little too easy to use.”
Being more productive at home and at work has also enabled Yen to diversify UYL’s portfolio. The company launched “UYL Color” a physical retail store in Houston to help their customers take advantage of a premium color matching technology and systematic process.
UYL client Collision Motor Specialists painted this beauty.
The goal of the store is to provide body shop and custom paint shop owners with a range of services and education to help them better serve their own customers. Some of the technology available has been proven to reduce repaint rates within the local industry from 40-50% to 20%. An incredible success, UYL Color now has 4 locations in the Houston area and has plans in place to expand to more locations next year. This kind of expansion helped UYL score the #27 spot on the Fortune 100 list and requires that Yen will be out of the office even more, which makes her Surface all the more invaluable.
With Surface Pro, Yen can easily take her computer from meeting to meeting or slip it into her bag when she’s running out for drinks with a client. We’re proud that entrepreneurs like Yen are running such successful businesses on Surface. We can’t wait to hear from more fans of Surface who are using it to do great things!
Source: Fortune-ranked #27 winner and Surface fan Yen Hoang
