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School

And it starts…

Sep 8th, 2005
by Amish_Geek.
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Ahh yes, the week after labor day! School starts once again. I just need to keep reminding myself “I’m $30,000 in debt with student loans, I need to finish my degree”. I guess I now know how Bill Gates kinda felt when he was in college. With the pressures of my business demanding more and more of my time, I honestly have no idea how I’m going to find time for class this year.

I have 18 credits left to get my Bachelors degree (that is unless I need to retake some of the classes I got D’s in). These are going to be the longest 18 credits of my entire college career. This fall semester, I’m taking ‘Archeology of Cities’, ‘History of the Holocaust’, and ‘Strategic Management’. Why in the world I’m taking the first two classes, I don’t know. But in order to graduate from UMD’s School of Business and Economics, you need to have so many upper division electives from other colleges. And those 2 classes were some of the only ones that didn’t require lower division pre-requisites.

The temptation to just quit school and continue my business full time is a big one. But then I’d be $30,000 in debt for nothing. At least when I get my degree, I’ll have a $30,000 paper that I’ll probably never use, but I’ll at least have something.

Work, Work, and more Work…

May 24th, 2005
by Amish_Geek.
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Right now, I’m taking a May class, Human Resource Management. It is 8am to 11am, Monday thru Friday for 3 weeks. It’s a pretty intense class, but I’m doing well (I got an A on the last exam). I really like the course because we are covering the different aspects of Human Resource Management, things like legal regulation on hiring practices, job descriptions, recruitment etc. Basically, a lot of things to do with employment. This is good because right now, I’m looking to hire a new employee or two.

Work has picked up a little for my business. I have several projects on the table that I am working on, and am at the point where for me to grow anymore, I need to hire. I’m excited, yet at the same time, terrified. My big fear is that I’ll hire someone, and have to pay them, but they won’t be a benefit to my business.

Being a small business, I need to examine the cost/benefit for each hire. Ideally, I want to find someone with a similar skillset to myself, who understands some business, and who is willing to help grow the business and make it succeed. Basically, any employee I hire needs to help make the business more profitable, otherwise the employee becomes a liability. So I’ve been putting together a fairly detailed job description, as well as job requirements. But the more I look and focus on that, the harder it is going to be to find someone to fit that job.

So as I persue this new opportunity/need for my business, I’m really prayerfully considering God’ plan in all of this, where He wants me to be, as well as where He wants my business to progress.

Done with class!

May 12th, 2005
by Amish_Geek.
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Well, I took my last final last night. And it feels good to be done with class for the semester. Too bad I’m taking a May class, and start class again on Monday! (

Work is picking up, I’m getting a few more web design projects lined up. I need to get on the ball more and finish the ones in progress so I can get paid for them. I’m really excited about getting ARCO’s site up and running, I just need to get in touch with them and get the finalized contract signed.

Gerdus did a good job on the latest version of MXR, I like the new admin interface, as it is more intuitive. So it will be easier for me to use and teach others how to use it. For those who are unaware, MXR is the content management system that I use for most of my web development projects. It was coded by Gerdus van Zyl, a hosting customer of mine. It works great, and is a good CMS for designers/developers as it is quite customizable. I hope to be giving Gerdus a lot of work this summer as more projects come in.

I’m looking forward to the next few months. I’m going to focus on re-vamping my YouResell.com site, and doing a big push for resellers. My plans include updated reseller plans, value-added services, and a detailed internet marketing campaign. More details to come!