www.SouthernMinn.com | Wednesday, March 30, 2022 | PAGE B4
Despite having yet to graduate high school, Nolan Baker says his age has yet to hold him back as a downtown business owner. His business, Baker Tech Services, is currently located at 209 W. Bridge Street. (Tom Nelson/southernminn.com)
Nolan Baker leaving his mark as Owatonna’s youngest downtown business owner
By TOM NELSON Guest Writer
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passion for technology and a keen business sense developed at an early age have been the basis for Nolan Baker’s remarkable story of success as a downtown business owner in Owatonna. Baker, who is a senior at Owatonna High
School this year and just turned 18 years old in November, has already established Baker Tech Services, a thriving IT services company located at 209 W. Bridge Street in downtown Owatonna. The company provides a wide range of technology services and it is already providing IT assistance and
solutions to over 30 area businesses, along with a full line of residential technology services.
Discovering his passion
Baker was introduced to the world of computers and technology at an early age, and later grew that interest into a popular light display at his family home on the
south side of Owatonna during the holiday season.
He continued, “My first venture into the tech IT thing was a light display on my house, “My father has done IT at with the lights dancing Federated [Insurance] along to the music … for over 35 years, so I’ve That was the first time always been around that I messed around with crowd, and I’ve always programming.” enjoyed watching whatever they were One of his father’s friends working on,” Baker said. and co-worker, Steve “Just watching them got Frank, had built a similar me into it. light display at his house, and that inspired Baker
to create a control box for the light display in fourth grade. “I remember watching [the light show] and thought it was really cool, so I scrounged up the money and bought the parts to build the box. It sat in my basement for three years while we tried to figured out how to use it, and then in my seventh
