Tom Pease earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Tennessee. He served two years in the Navy and then worked for IBM for six years. In 1981 he began the company he owns and runs. He hosted the radio show "The Technology Hour with Tom Pease," wrote a business column for two years for the Memphis Daily News, and published his first book Going Out Of Business By Design: Why 70% of Small Businesses Fail. He is sometimes a guest instructor at the University of Memphis.