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521 Dimensions: My latest business venture

January 3rd, 2012 | Posted in Blog, Featured | No Comments

So since the last time I posted, a lot of things have developed since I worked at SC Johnson. Since my rotation ended, I was offered a position to work for SC Johnson but I respectfully turned it down to start a new business, 521 Dimensions. I have co-founded 521 Dimensions with my business partner, Dan Pastori.

What does 521 Dimensions do?

At 521 Dimensions, we create websites and web applications for businesses of all sizes. Most of you know what a website is, but I often get asked, “What the heck is a web application?”. A web application is computer software that you can use through your web browser (instead of installing it on your computer), like Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. All of these applications are very popular web applications. When I tell someone that, I usually get asked, “Are you going to make the next Facebook?” The answer is no. Facebook is already created and we are focusing are applications for businesses right now. Hopefully we will make just as much money as them though!

What is Server Side Up and Project Community Computers?

Server Side Up and Project Community Computers is 521 Dimensions‘ way of giving back. We want to give better opportunity to people who may not even know that they have an opportunity. We decided to incorporate Dan’s organization called, Project Community Computers, which was founded in 2008. Project Community Computers is a (soon to be) non-profit organization that takes in donated computers, cleans them up, and builds schools around the world. The last trip was out to Kenya, which was really cool to see what they did (I was not apart of the organization at the time when they went). The pictures are neat to look at because these people have never seen a computer before, so just imagine the excitement they experienced! Here is a picture from Kenya in 2010:

At Server Side Up, we blog about technology and business as we grow and expand our business. All of our posts are geared for technology entrepreneurs or technical administrators/developers that are looking for free online resources for learning new technologies. Every once in a while, we share a story or two about what we learned in a certain project or personal experience and how we handled it. It’s not going to be easy to start our own business, so we figured that we should document and share what we learn with others who are starting to do the same. Server Side Up also puts on free learning events that people can attend and learn about Information Technology. This is extremely exciting for me because I love sharing my passion with others. In most of the classes that I teach, I end up learning something from someone else anyways. It is great to see how motivated people are to learn and how “hungry” they can be to gain experience and knowledge about Information Technology. Here is a picture from one of the events:

Bottom line, we have a lot of work to do and we have to keep a positive hat on for moving forward. Thanks for your interest! If you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them!

A new experience: SC Johnson Summer Internship

June 25th, 2011 | Posted in Blog, Featured, My Work | No Comments

Recently, I just started working for SC Johnson in Racine, WI. I am very excited to be apart of the team at SCJ. After the years of hearing nothing but great things about the business, I finally have the opportunity to join the team and experience the world of SCJ first hand.

It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to get into SCJ. It took a few attempts to secure an interview, but the patience definitely paid off. I can give most of credit my school, UW-Whitewater, for helping me get in touch with the SCJ representatives. Fortunately, SCJ has UW-Whitewater defined as a recruiting school and I was able to meet with them a few times throughout the year.

A lot of people ask me, “If you had your own business, then why would you go work for someone?”. It’s simple. I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to learn what it is like for a large corporation. The demands for IT in small businesses and large businesses are vastly different. Both types of businesses have different perspectives and needs with computer systems.

Luckily, I was placed on the exact project that I wanted, working with VMware and other cloud technologies. The company is wonderful to their employees and provides many excellent benefits to their employees and the employee’s families. Almost everyone is really laid back and welcoming. I always find people being open to sit down and have a short discussion how things are going or they make themselves available to make sure questions can get answered.

SC Johnson is a wonderful experience for me. I am very thankful that I am fortunate enough to have an opportunity to work for SC Johnson and I look forward to what the rest of the summer will bring.

Rework Review

February 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Blog | No Comments

Meetings are toxic. Drug dealers get it right.Your estimates suck. Shocked? These are the kind of phrases that you will hear from the authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson with their book Rework.This New York Times Bestseller is an entrepreneurial book based on the story of 37signals.com, a provider of popular online collaboration software. The things that you read will be against the “norm”, but most of their points make sense. The main focus of the book is to keep things simple and maintain a focus. It is a compilation of great advice that every business owner or employee should read.

When I first heard about Rework, I was immediately interested and ordered it right away. Two days later, I received my box from Amazon, opened the book, and nearly finished the entire book in one night. The entire book is compiled of short essays, which are very straight forward and easy to understand. I am not even a fast reader and I finished up most of the book in about 4-5 hours.

Even though the book is fairly short, it is definitely worth the money. Reading it once will not do you justice either. There is an abundance of quality advice and suggestions that most business people will face throughout their career. Fried and Hansson do an excellent job at providing examples that prove their point. Some situations may be difficult to apply, since it is the story of 37signals.com, but most of their examples can be adapted to any real life business situation.

If you are looking into a book that gives you words from experience on building a successful product, you will enjoy this book. The authors are extremely smart and cut the fat when it comes to proving their point. It will initiate/continue your motivation and will also serve as a great cheat sheet when making major business decisions.

Check out the book’s website here. I would highly recommend it!

Lake Country Market: CMS Implementation

September 24th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, My Work | No Comments

Lake Country Market was a great experience for me. I was approached by them to help with the IT and the website. When they were telling me their goals of what they would like to do with the website, I knew exactly what to give them. By implementing a WordPress installation, it gave them the power for a great looking website but it also allowed them to edit the content on their own. The reason on why it was such a great experience for me was because they were my first actual client that I used WordPress to solve their IT needs. The website installation went very smooth and it met the demands of what the business needed. I checked their search engine rankings the other day and they seem to be working really well on some of the keywords that I was typing into Google. I am glad that it worked out for them!

Check out their website here: http://www.lakecountrymarket.com

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I am a creative, motivated IT Professional and Entrepreneur! My passion is in business and technology. Check out some of the things that I have accomplished!