About Me
I am a freelancer, a one-man band. I have over 10 years experience doing all sorts of website programming, and I love every minute of it. And I'm good at it. I'm one of those computer guys that "takes a break" by reading up on a new way to do programming, or rebuilding web servers (as opposed to those computer guys that go home after their work day and don't touch a keyboard again until they're back at work the next day).
I started freelancing because I saw a niche; website development is a grossly congested industry, but my experiences have demonstrated that only a handful actually know what they're doing! Over the last 10 or so years, I have worked under someone else's roof, most-recently at a website hosting establishment. While there, I was witness to more website owners that did not get results from their website developers after months and months of work. So now I offer myself to the market so that more of these projects and websites and ideas can see and be seen by the world.
There are several good reasons why NOT to hire a freelancer, and I will not try to hide them:
- If I get hit by a bus one day, you'll have to search for a new developer.
- I might be unavailable. I generally work 10-14 hour days, but since there's just one of me, I might not be able to answer your call right away. Leave a message; I'll call you back.
- I might be busy with other projects. I unfortunately have to triage my time, so even if you talked to me first, my priority is to keep websites up and running, so I may postpone a redesign project to take care of a broken or vandalized website.
Why would you pick a freelancer over a development company?
- Cost. Everyone's favorite reason. I don't have a sales team to pay commission to, or any employees for that matter.
- The "hit-by-a-bus" issue is overused. For example, it's been 10 days since my last bus incident.
- I speak fluent English. Some may say programming languages are actual languages, and if that's true, that's the only way I can say I'm multi-lingual. What does this mean? Better communication, clearer goals, and all the code I write is in English (trust me ... if you're not the one looking at the code, whomever does will appreciate it).
- Pride. Simply stated, I am proud of the work that I do. I am more than happy to explain all the changes I did, or to document the changes for the next programmer (just in case there is a bus incident). It takes a little bit extra time to do so, but the benefits outweigh the cost. And those notes are for me, too! When I need to re-visit a project 10 months later, those notes will help me remember tricky points that would otherwise take much more time remembering.
- You're talking to the expert. Rather than talking to a non-technical person who's primary goal is a signature on the dotted line, when you convey your ideas to me, you'll actually hear if it's possible, what could be done differently, and perhaps even ideas on how to take it to the next level.
- No deception. You won't hear me use the royal "we" like a lot of development companies out there. As I said, I'm a one-man band, and I'm very up-front about that.