Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello and happy 2007 to all of you great folks here under the SUN!

Your advice, help and "reality checks" have all been quite valuable.

In response to Pokerman, yes, I do agree that the overall number is not far fetched, but when you are talking about an intial phase that entails primarily just a member log-in and registration area, I felt that to be a bit steep.  Moving forward into the further development of project such as this, of course the workload warrants a reciprocal number.

In addtion, I can certainly see how a backlog of work might hinder the ability to particpate fully, as there is one extremely talented and clever designer here on SUN, TonerDesign who for me was quite a coveted asset, but is unfortunately truly backlogged (although that did not stop her from helping me each step of the way, so many many thanks to Pat)

Currently, I have received proposals from two outstanding SUN members:

SUN member: smoots, representing Totus Company and SUN member: musebay

Both have proved to be terrifc and talented, and quite ept at translating my "layman`s" terms into real, tangible website functions. Both have provided comprehensive proposals, and the team of Shaun Smoots and Nneka O`Reilly of Totus have provided an in-depth POC.

In response to those folks who feel that I might be "taking for granted" the hard work that goes into the preliminary aspect of developing a site, and the talent required to do so, please understand that I am in basically IN AWE of the complex understanding and abilities posessed by those who specialize in this arena.  HOWEVER, I am of the school of show and tell.  In my ten years (short? yes) of experience in the business world, I have been in many circumstances which required me to work day and night, simply to provide a presentation to a prospective client. Most importantly, I show and tell about ANY and All examples of my work in that related field to futher ensure my prospective client that I can, and have, done this, or something like it before.

So to propose that one might be so talented as to be "above" the standard of Proof of Concept, is to me, a sign of arrogance, and, unfortunaltey, as I have learned through my experience, generally represents a lack of "hunger" for innovation. And innovation is exactly what I need.

See how important "requirements documentation" is!  Now that I know your initial requirement, one has something tangible with which to work and yes... $8,000 to $15,000 does seem a bit steep (you`d have to scrape me off the ceiling too).  I`m glad you have found people to help you in your project.  I will be interested in seeing how things turn out for you.

Hello folks!

I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to see what has come of my search for a developer on this project.

After working on the intial SOW with Totus Company, it seems that due to necesary integration with third party platforms, which in turn has altered the requirements by greater than 70%, the agreement was rescinded, mutually.

So now, back to sqaure one. So far, I have built my own site and registration, and I have the pieces and moving parts for the kit-n-kaboodle, now how to put them together?

Any takers? Please PM me if you are interested in the details.

In the meantime, I have posted the website I created for your unabashed critque, so please feel free to let me know what you think!

Ouch, harsh there twilightpics, but you do have a point.

I prefer to use the term frugal, however, it is difficult to swallow a daunting price tag when your not truy confident that they can do it.

The first company I was using was not expecially cheap, rather, they went the extra mile to show they could do what needed to be done, and even then, it did not prove successful.

So, therein lies the dilemma: you hear the horror stories of folks that laid out thousands of bucks and then end up with nothing, or worse, something terrible that looks like something they did themselves (just curious twilight, but had you seen the original site that was put up by the webdesign co?)

In the end, it`s not so much about money as it is about faith, confidence and a proven track record.

So twilightpics, what can you do for me?