Over the last few years, the world has changed, the market has changed, and I have changed.
Over the past 20 years or so, my focus on this web site has been on Filemaker database services. I first started using FileMaker back in the mid 1980s, shortly after it was introduced. I was a member of the Boston Computer Society, so I started offering free advice to other members of the Society by listing my phone number in the "Active Window," the group's monthly magazine for Macintosh users. With 10,000 subscribers to the magazine, I answered a lot of questions!
One day, someone asked me if I knew of a consultant because they found themselves managing the details of their database more and more while at the same time neglecting their core mission. I jumped in. By mid 1993, I was up and running with a full income just from serving as a FileMaker database consultant.
In 2014, I began writing a book called "a man wearing a dress" (see my Message Rain web site), which took me three years to complete and publish. During that time, the market for FileMaker shifted from sole proprietors and small non-profits (my customer base) to more medium sized and larger businesses. FileMaker, Inc. raised the price on their product (effectively) to over $500 per copy, unless you purchased a license for multiple "seats" (i.e. employees using it simultaneously).
At the same time, I had not been actively recruiting new clients, so the number of consulting assignments I was left with had dwindled to just a few. I started to see my life mission shift from that of a database consultant to someone promoting the themes introduced in my book.
There was only one problem. Writing a book is very unlikely to make much money! Just as very few garage bands ever get famous or inner city basketball players become big stars, most authors labor in obscurity. Don't get me wrong, I wrote a good book, and everyone who has read it seems to like it (all the reviews are 5 stars, so far). But it's clear that I need a "day job" to sustain me.
So, what do I do? As I was pondering that, I kept hearing more and more stories of people who had lost all their data because their computer had died, or they lost their phone somehow. Others approached me with questions about full hard drives, voicemail boxed that wouldn't accept any new messages, and so on. it seems as if our technology, as wonderful as it might be, has left most people in the dust when it comes to managing their data!
At the same time, I seem to have been born with the knack of explaining technical terms to non-technical people in ways that they understand and can make use of. And after years of practice, I've developed into being a good listener.
So, why not make myself available, at a reasonable rate (we negotiate) to help anyone with such problems?
So today, I'm re-organizing my web pages to shift the emphasis from "FileMaker Only" to add "Computer Organizer." I may not be the cheapest computer organizer out there, but I think my skills are better than average, so I hope you consider me for this kind of thing. There is one caveat: I'm much more experienced in Macintosh and products from Apple than I am with the Windows & Droid side. But don't give up! I have associates that cover those other products, so if you contact me, I can help connect you with someone.
Over the past 20 years or so, my focus on this web site has been on Filemaker database services. I first started using FileMaker back in the mid 1980s, shortly after it was introduced. I was a member of the Boston Computer Society, so I started offering free advice to other members of the Society by listing my phone number in the "Active Window," the group's monthly magazine for Macintosh users. With 10,000 subscribers to the magazine, I answered a lot of questions!
One day, someone asked me if I knew of a consultant because they found themselves managing the details of their database more and more while at the same time neglecting their core mission. I jumped in. By mid 1993, I was up and running with a full income just from serving as a FileMaker database consultant.
In 2014, I began writing a book called "a man wearing a dress" (see my Message Rain web site), which took me three years to complete and publish. During that time, the market for FileMaker shifted from sole proprietors and small non-profits (my customer base) to more medium sized and larger businesses. FileMaker, Inc. raised the price on their product (effectively) to over $500 per copy, unless you purchased a license for multiple "seats" (i.e. employees using it simultaneously).
At the same time, I had not been actively recruiting new clients, so the number of consulting assignments I was left with had dwindled to just a few. I started to see my life mission shift from that of a database consultant to someone promoting the themes introduced in my book.
There was only one problem. Writing a book is very unlikely to make much money! Just as very few garage bands ever get famous or inner city basketball players become big stars, most authors labor in obscurity. Don't get me wrong, I wrote a good book, and everyone who has read it seems to like it (all the reviews are 5 stars, so far). But it's clear that I need a "day job" to sustain me.
So, what do I do? As I was pondering that, I kept hearing more and more stories of people who had lost all their data because their computer had died, or they lost their phone somehow. Others approached me with questions about full hard drives, voicemail boxed that wouldn't accept any new messages, and so on. it seems as if our technology, as wonderful as it might be, has left most people in the dust when it comes to managing their data!
At the same time, I seem to have been born with the knack of explaining technical terms to non-technical people in ways that they understand and can make use of. And after years of practice, I've developed into being a good listener.
So, why not make myself available, at a reasonable rate (we negotiate) to help anyone with such problems?
So today, I'm re-organizing my web pages to shift the emphasis from "FileMaker Only" to add "Computer Organizer." I may not be the cheapest computer organizer out there, but I think my skills are better than average, so I hope you consider me for this kind of thing. There is one caveat: I'm much more experienced in Macintosh and products from Apple than I am with the Windows & Droid side. But don't give up! I have associates that cover those other products, so if you contact me, I can help connect you with someone.
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