I never thought my first post on LinkedIn would be about a talent service. But, here I go. I have been a freelance software developer and project manager for almost 3 years. Yay?! My biggest challenge on this journey has been finding clients that can afford to keep me interested. People love to work with me, not because I am a yes person, but because I am patient, friendly and a realist. Unfortunately, this often results in clients that don't live up to my expectations. Often, these clients do not make essential decisions and/or do not provide essential information in order for me to provide the level of quality I have promised. So, I found myself transitioning from Independent Software Developer to Project Manager. Sufficient requirements gathering is hard. But, it also absolutely necessary for success. This is where I hope toptal will fill in the gaps. I myself have thought about starting my own talent agency and/or creating a project management tool the freelancer/small bu...

I never thought my first post on LinkedIn Pulse would be about a talent service. But, here I go. I have been a freelance software developer and project manager for almost 3 years. Yay?! My biggest challenge on this journey has been finding clients that can afford to keep me interested. People love to work with me, not because I am a yes person, but because I am patient, friendly and a realist. Unfortunately, this often results in clients that don't live up to my expectations. Often, these clients do not make essential decisions and/or do not provide essential information in order for me to provide the level of quality I have promised. So, I found myself transitioning from Independent Software Developer to Project Manager. Sufficient requirements gathering is hard. But, it also absolutely necessary for success. This is where I hope toptal will fill in the gaps. I myself have thought about starting my own talent agency and/or creating a project management tool the freelance...

Primary and Secondary market research are the two basic types of market research.   Secondary market research  is available, often at little to no cost through Trade Associations, Public and Government resources.  This type of research is often performed first because it gives you a general sense of viability and feasibility within a particular market sector or geographic location.  Detailed census data, for instance, can tell you about the consumer's attitude and tendencies. Primary market research's purpose is to provide specific feedback on consumer interest in an offering.  It is important to be careful to use a method that is appropriate for your target market. As mentioned by Karen Plesner in Part II of  her video , using online surveys are only useful if people are willing or able to fill out a survey. It is often difficult to determine how valuable a particular research activity will be to your bottom line.  However, it is often the assumption ...

Norah commented on  5 Reasons Why Receiving Is Harder Than Giving : Thank you for this soothing camaraderie.  Coming from an abusive childhood, I  have developed a deep disdain for narcissistic behavior.  So much, that at times, I have to fight hard against the association of guilt when receiving a gift.  Last year, I quit my Corporate job to restart my Freelance IT Firm, tekAura, and went back to school for a Master of Arts in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Full Sail University.  These choices have forced me to face this amongst other fears and anxieties.   The biggest single lesson I have had to learn in this life is how to allow myself to love myself.  It's antagonist is the fear that I will have reached the climax of my life once I have mastered it.

Since leaving the corporate grind last year (haha! I can say that now!) and restarting my Software Development firm, tekAura , I have come across many articles in the start-up community that keep on selling our secrets upstream.  The only saving grace is that I don't believe the corporate goons are capable of comprehending the underlying message. Anyone that has been a part of a corporate innovation initiative or two, or three hundred... you know what I mean!  It takes a unique kind of person to recognize the fallacy in these efforts.  After all the paper prizes and shiny internal disposable marketing packages, some of start wonder.... where is the change they keep talking about?  And one day, you stop, take a moment to look around and find yourself in a sea of drones, a sea of vacant button pushers.  Then you realize why everyone thinks you are nuts!  You make them look bad, you make them work harder.  Those people don't want to help, they don't beli...

Every year, about this time, most humans on this earth participate in some form of the  New Years Resolution . This peculiar ritual was practiced the ancient Babylonians, Romans and continues to be deeply entrenched in tradition for Christians, Jews and Catholics. Being born and raised, but, ironically, never baptised, by a strange mix of Christian denominations, I was free to extend my religious studies into many others.  And have since developed my personal belief system, which includes a form of this practice. As a natural Engineer and Project Manager , I tend to contemplate a sort of casual  postmortem .  Instead of simple list of things that I wish I would have done better, I tend to perform a more detailed analysis with several areas of incremental improvement.  Ironically, seldom do I write it down this internalization.  However, this year has been especially tumultuous and I find it helpful, if not necessary to post it here. The year began half...

I am finding myself disappointed by our supposed innovation star, Google.  Maybe I just haven't been paying close enough attention or maybe it is because I am starting to see the world through a small business owner's perspective.  But with the recent hoopla about their YouTube Content ID service changes , I am should be surprised to find out that Google+ does not actually offer Custom URLs.  They are just Suggested URLs.  Their community Help page states that there is no review system or option to choose an alternate URL.  Meantime, posts on the page by users indicate that the option was available at one point, but everyone is getting rejection emails. Google!  Ewe dun fuk'ed it up again! Although these options do match my name on my profile, I don't want to use my name, I want to use my USERNAME. Whatever happened to anonymity.  Does google not value it?  Another idea for a blog post, maybe..... hmmm.... Please leave your comments below. FYI -...