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Jarrod Headshot

About Jarrod Goddard

I’ve been a freelance web designer, developer, and Internet Marketer since September 2002. 6 months after I graduated from University I jumped right into owning my own business, and learning about the management, sales, accounting, and other tasks that are totally unrelated to the web design work I was used to.

It was a huge undertaking to start my own business, and not having any experience operating a business, finding work, networking, or even knowing what to do when I got work was totally new to me. Luckily I had a lot of help, and had some amazing mentors who helped me along while I was first starting out. As well, because of my lack of traditional business experience, I really just did things the way I thought was best, and that helped me grow my business and learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others, which has made me very successful.

My Background

My background is in web development and programming. Everything to do with design and visual aspect of my work is 100% self-taught, as well as the Internet marketing, SEO, and management and running of my own business. I went to University and learned about computer programming, computer hardware, databases, e-commerce, web applications, and system analysis and design. We used Visual Basic, C++, (COBOL!), Access, and Oracle for the most part, and was entirely based on Windows computers. Now that I’ve graduated I’ve converted to using a Mac as my primary workstation, but also use Linux (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian, and Fedora), MySQL, PHP, Java, and a number of other technologies that weren’t covered while I was in University.

My design experience comes from back in high school and early days of University when I used to surf the Internet looking at all these web sites and think that everything I made looked really, really bad. So from there I got a copy of Photoshop and Flash and started doing tutorials online learning about how to design web sites as well as build them. I had a strong foundation in the system administration and development of web sites, but my design skills were really lacking. After working with Photoshop, Flash, for a year or two I actually got a job as a web designer rather than a programmer.

Having these skills was essential when I started my business. In order to sell my services I had to prove that I could make web sites that looked great but also worked and functioned properly. As well, the timing really couldn’t have been better, the effects of the dot-com crash were starting to rebound and the tech industry was starting to improve, but there was really very little competition in my local area.

My Purpose

This blog is about me spreading my advice and experience from starting a freelance design business when I was young and totally inexperienced, and expanding that business into web application development, Internet marketing, and web hosting. - I’ve incorporated, changed my business name, and become a full-service Internet development company. I’ve learned a lot since I started my business, and this is a way for me to share what I’ve learned and help other young entrepreneurs along the way. If you are thinking of starting a business, take a look through my site and read about some of the things I’ve gone through. Making the decision to start my business rather than going to work for someone else was a huge life-decision, but it’s one that I wouldn’t have changed for the world.

What I’ll Write About

Everything to do with running and managing my business. This includes managing clients, prospects, and projects - I’ll explain my mistakes and how I’ve learned from them as well as my successes. The technologies that I work with are primarily Linux and Mac but I’ve done some work with Windows technologies like C# ASP.net and SQL Server.

Some of the technologies I use: