business

LiteAccounting

11 Mar 2013
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal   |  Comments Off

A few months ago, my friend Jayme Davis hit me up via email about my interest in buying LiteAccounting.com from him. He’s been working on it off and on for the past few years, but finally decided he’d had enough. He’s been focusing on other things and couldn’t dedicate the time he wanted to LiteAccounting.

I used LA a few years ago, but moved on to another product when it was obvious that LA wasn’t going to have the features I needed going forward. When Jayme approached me about buying it, my first thought was, “ugh, I’d love to, but no way can I afford it.” After some discussion, we came to an amount that was workable for me, so a deal was struck. Knowing I didn’t really want to take on a product by myself, I brought on a partner – my friend and fellow developer, Matt Davis.

We’re slowly, but surely coming up to speed on LA and actually have a really solid road map in place for where we want to take LiteAccounting over the coming months and years. On Saturday, March 9, 2013, we made the final DNS changes, so we really do “own it” now. :-)

If you need a simple online invoicing system, please check us out!

Social networking for…

14 Nov 2012
by mjeaton, posted in business   |  Comments Off

My consulting company, Validus Solutions, is now on Facebook and twitter.

My plan to take over the tri state area is just starting. :-)

Codemash 2013 – Going Indie at the Precompiler

19 Oct 2012
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal   |  Comments Off

For the third consecutive year, I’ll be delivering my “Going Independent” session during the Codemash Precompiler. This year, the session will be a full day instead of half, AND I’ll be bringing in at least one attorney to help answer legal (and other) questions. My goal is to bring in a couple other resources to answer questions I’ve been unable to deal with in previous deliveries of this talk.

The abstract for my session is:

Breaking free from the confines of the cubicle farm and going out on your own can be one of the most satisfying things you do for your career. It can also be one of the most terrifying. Being on your own can seem like it’s nothing but ponies, unicorns and rainbows, but it’s a lot of work, and success is not guaranteed.


Mike, an independent developer since 2001, will discuss the lessons he’s learned over the years along with the ups and downs he’s experienced. In this updated and expanded session, he will be joined by two legal professionals to help answer the most common questions he’s been asked over the years. “How do I get started?”, “Where do I find clients?”, “How much do I charge?”, “Do I need a contract?” and many others. Bring your questions and find out if the grass really is greener on the other side.

I know Codemash tickets can be tough to come by, but if you get a chance to get one, DO IT! Codemash is amazing conference. I’ve been lucky enough to attend every single year, and I’ll continue attending as long as I can get a ticket.

indieconf 2012 – slides for my talk

23 Nov 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal   |  Comments Off

Here are the slides from IndieConf for my “(Best) Practices of a Solo Developer” session.

Thanks to everyone who attended! I had a great time and am already looking forward to going next year!

Upcoming events

24 Oct 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal, programming   |  Comments Off

I’ll be speaking at the following events over the next few weeks:

Saturday, October 29 – Ann Arbor Day of .NET – I’ll be giving two talks: “Top 10 Tips for Moving from Winforms to WPF” and “Going Independent”. This is a single-day, multi-track conference for the low cost of $10! Register!

Saturday, November 5 – GRDevDay – I’ll be delivering a XAML-focused talk. The planners in Grand Rapids renamed the West Michigan Day of .NET to GRDevDay. It’s a single-day, multi-track conference. The cost is $10 for professionals, but it’s free for students! Register!

Saturday, November 19 – indieconf – I’ll be giving a new talk titled, “Best Practices for the Solo Developer”.

indieconf is the premier conference for independent web professionals; designers, developers, part time, full time and everyone in between. Are you working on your own as a PHP hacker, CSS guru, JavaScript deity, Rails goddess or Photoshop geek?

Buy a ticket OR learn how to win a free pass!

January 9-10, 2012 – XAML: In Depth – This is a 2-day training course I’m doing on the two days prior to Codemash. Here’s the description of the course:

In this two day hands on course attendees will learn how to build great applications leveraging XAML. The XAML technology is used on a wide variety of technologies including Windows 7, Windows 8 Metro Style applications, Silverlight and even Windows Phone 7 mobile devices. Students attending this course will gain the basic essentials to start leveraging XAML in a variety of ways to develop eye popping applications. Attendees will leave understanding how to properly design and architect their applications and acquire an understanding of the MVVM pattern. This course will set attendees on the right path to not only building applications leveraging XAML but also put them on the right path to an easy to maintain application built on solid principles.

Register!

January 11, 2012 – Codemash – I’ll be delivering a 4-hour workshop on “Going Independent”
Codemash sold out all of its tickets in 20 minutes this year, but you can probably get on the waitlist. :-)

indieconf – want to go?

21 Oct 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal, programming   |  2 Comments

indieconf is the premier conference for independent web professionals; designers, developers, part time, full time and everyone in between. Are you working on your own as a PHP hacker, CSS guru, JavaScript deity, Rails goddess or Photoshop geek? indieconf is for you.

Want to go? Until November 4, 2011, the cost of a ticket is $129. After that, it jumps to $149. If you’d like to have dinner with the speakers on Friday (a great time, BTW), the ticket is $199.

You can use the discount code ‘eaton30′ to receive $30 off the cost of your ticket (making your cost $99 if you register by November 4th!)

OR

You can enter to win one of two (2) free passes* I have for the event. All you have to do is tweet the following (multiple tweets will NOT be counted):

Want to win a pass to indieconf from @mjeaton? Here’s how – http://bit.ly/indieconfpass #indieconf

On Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:00pm (eastern daylight time), I will randomly select the two winners and notify them via twitter.

* To be absolutely clear, this is a pass to the conference only. It does NOT cover travel or hotel.

***** UPDATE: The winners were selected on Friday, October 28, 2012. They were selected randomly using random.org. The winners were: @davidjeet and @mhthomas42. Thanks to everyone that participated! *****

What is indieconf?

17 Oct 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal, programming   |  Comments Off

Michael Kimsal, organizer of indieconf, put together a short video describing the event.

IndieConf is November 19th in Raleigh NC

Haven’t registered for the event yet? Do it now! It’s a great event!

Presenting at indieconf 2011

03 Oct 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal, programming   |  Comments Off

In 2010, I had the opportunity to participate in the first ever indieconf.

indieconf is the premier conference for independent web professionals; designers, developers, part time, full time and everyone in between. Are you working on your own as a PHP hacker, CSS guru, JavaScript deity, Rails goddess or Photoshop geek? indieconf is for you.

indieconf is a fantastic conference run by friend and fellow indie, Michael Kimsal. This year, I’ll be giving a talk on “(Best) Practices of a Solo Developer”. Most of the projects I’ve worked on over the past 10 years as an independent have been projects where I’ve been the only developer. This talk will give me a chance to share some of what I’ve learned.

The great thing about this conference is that it’s not just geeks! There will be indie accountants, attorneys, marketers and designers along with other developers. If you’re near Raleigh, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Register for the event!

My plan is to arrive in Raleigh a day or two early so I can co-work and meet with friends.

Ann Arbor Give Camp 2011

09 Sep 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, personal, programming   |  Comments Off

The 4th Ann Arbor Give Camp is coming up next week – September 16-18, 2011.

A total of 40 non-profit organizations submitted proposals to us this year. I’m pretty sure that’s a record for us.

We have selected 9 non-profit organizations to help this year. Why so few? To be honest, the number of volunteers has been declining each year and we’re currently at our lowest point yet. With a week remaining before the camp, we have just over 50 volunteers.

If you’d like to volunteer to help out next weekend, please sign up at http://annarborgivecamp.org/Volunteer

The Give Camp will once again be held at Washtenaw Community College. They are an amazing host for this event and this event wouldn’t be possible without their generosity and support. We also have a number of great sponsors this year.

Visit our site for more details.

WPF Training in Chattanooga

18 Jul 2011
by mjeaton, posted in business, programming   |  Comments Off

I’m very proud to announce my two day WPF Workshop on August 15th and 16th in Chattanooga, TN at the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel. This course is one of 3 other Sharp Axe Training courses that will be going on at the same time. The training is the 2 days immediately before the awesome DevLink conference starts.

In this hands-on workshop, you will learn everything you need to know to write solid, maintainable line of business applications in WPF. Topics will include XAML, data binding, commands, styling, templating, MVVM and more. No previous knowledge of WPF is required.

More details about the training, as well as a link to register for the course can be found at the Sharp Axe Training website.