Crown of Glory

I have been in Miami, FL for about a week now recharging my batteries. I wouldn’t say that it is a vacation exactly, because I have been consumed with work. What I would say is that it is the first time that I could devote 100% of my time to Ciabranel D.A.T.A. (it probably will be the last though since school is starting mid-August–hopefully by that point, everything will be running like a well oiled machine, and all the legal kinks have been worked out).

Since my expertise in computer programming/database design/web design was all pretty much self taught, I have started some online tutorials to get some official training. I am very proud of myself that I was able to learn many complicated processes on my own! After I finish these series of tutorials, I will seek certification from an educational institution…but I’m not quite there yet. There are other pressing items that I am dealing with right now, namely the move that I’m preparing to make. I should be back in Tampa, FL on 08/01, at which point I have 1 week to pack all of my things. I also have a meeting with a potential client next week as well, so I am preparing documentation for that meeting. All in all, all is well!

I have been working TIRELESSLY to put the final touches on my first product for a researcher at the institution where I’m currently working. This project really started January of this year, so the total development time was ~7 months. My next project should not take nearly as much time as this one did because a) I know exactly what I’m doing now and b) I will sit down with each customer to discuss a “blueprint” of what they need up front (so that I can configure everything from the beginning, rather than having to go back in and change things around to fit something new in). Though this job is a freebie, I’m still grateful for the opportunity to learn more and more each day. Some snapshots of what I’ve recently created and added to the current project are below:

            

        

Pretty nifty, eh? I feel that the information was a MUST to include to protect myself. And YES, everything is designed by yours truly. For those who don’t know, the “About” screen is something that is included in ANY software that you use. For example, on your internet browser right now, click on the help menu and then you will see something like “About Internet Explorer” or “About Mozilla Firefox”. Click on that and you will see a screen similar to the one that I have developed for Ciabranel D.A.T.A. software. On the tech support page, the email address, info@ciabraneldata.com works but the site is still under construction.

I am very excited to get started with the biz, but there are some legal kinks that I would like to work out before I start with customers. I have already identified several websites that I will definitely utilize for locating potential customers:

• Elance
• ScriptLance
• Guru
• Rent A Coder
• GetACoder
• Odesk
• Getafreelancer

Lesson Learned: You Have to Work Hard to Play Hard $$$