[AccessD] OT: A survey from somebody not as well-connected as JC

Steven:

The short answer to your questions for me is that I'm trying to move away
from fee-for-service to product. With fee-for-service it's just as many
hours as you can stand to be at the computer running the billing clock.  I
find that it's hard to bill more than 1000-1200 honest hours a year without
breaking your head.  So you can make a living but that's about all.  You can
never really build up any real wealth.

With a product, the upside is unlimited.  You can make $10k in one day just
by being next to the phone.  But the risks are high as well.  It's not a
course of action I could recommend to anybody.

Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
http://www.e-z-mrp.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steven W. Erbach" <serbach at new.rr.com>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving"
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 8:16 AM
Subject: [AccessD] OT: A survey from somebody not as well-connected as JC


> Dear Group,
>
> This is for the independent developers only. If you work for a company and
you'd like to take the survey, just let me know that you're not an
independent developer when you reply.
>
> I'm curious about what you independent developers have had to learn to
keep up with the changing marketplace.
>
> 1) If you've managed to maintain a significant clientele by developing
Access applications, what have you done to sharpen your skills to make you
more attractive as the developer of choice in a competitive field? That is,
have you developed a framework like JC, or have you gone more towards
developing front ends for SQL back ends like Arthur?
>
> 2) If you've moved away from Access development as your primary source of
income, what other platforms have you learned to make a living? Do you now
do mostly .NET development, ASP, SQL Server, PHP, what?
>
> 3) If you're doing .NET development, what kind of things are you doing?
Has it lived up to the hype? Last year about this time I was searching the
want ads for positions before I decided to stick with my own business. I was
amused by the ads that profiled the "ideal" candidate as one who had deep
.NET experience. The stinking product had only officially been on the market
for one whole year with another year in beta before that. Sheesh! Have you
seen any real live .NET implementations that are worth bragging about...or
have you created any?
>
> In short, what have you had to do to make yourself useful as an
independent developer? I know that William works quite a bit with SBS and
LANs. Have any of you developed proficiency with cabling and routers and
such to increase your marketability?
>
> Do you do any security consulting, say? Do you build custom-order PCs? Do
you do LAN management, e-mail server management and setup, web site
development?
>
> One final thing: Years ago when I started I took advantage of the swing of
the pendulum that put PC power in users' hands. That is, the PC was a great
analysis tool for mainframe data. Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE III, Paradox, etc.,
were the tools that enabled users and departments to fiddle with the data
without having to wait for the IT department to get around to their little
pissant application requests.
>
> Now the pendulum has swung the other way. Security concerns and
scalability and distributed networks / VPNs and web-based database
applications have all made the pendulum swing back towards centralized
control...and the IT guys are loving it. Or am I reading it wrong? What do
you think?
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve Erbach
> Scientific Marketing
> Neenah, WI
> 920-969-0504
>
> Security and Virus information:
> http://www.swerbach.com/security
>
> -- 
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