2017 was a crazy year, with a ton of changes, and new things. Here’s what’s up…
I know, I know – I should have made this post a month ago, in mid-December 2017, when everyone else was looking back… Well, I’m not everyone else, okay?! 😉 I’ve been pretty busy, and here’s why… 2017 marks the end and beginning of many new changes for myself personally, and for Roger Able Dog, as a company. I’ll do my best to sum up what’s been going on, as best I can…
Pursuing Personal & Professional Development: One year, four cities
The start of 2017 begins in Minnesota, where I’ve spent the majority of my life, and where I founded Roger Able Dog. As I am getting older, I am interested in seeking new experiences personally and professorially. I’m my adult life, I have always known that I have wanted to try living away from my home state; just to see what the world has in store for myself, and my business.
Starting in May 2017: As my lease came to an end on my place in Minnesota (June 1st, 2017), I started looking at other places to live, and an old co-worker of mine had an extra room for rent outside of Atlanta, GA. This had been an idea I had been toying with for about a year prior, but as my lease was coming to an end soon I had to make a decision quick: whether I wanted to stay in Minnesota and renew my lease, or look for another place to live. My life choices have left me to be a fairly free man; as I had not been a home-owner at the time, never married, with no kids – I was free to wander about as I choose. So, I decided it was time for some new life-experiences, and took up my old co-worker on his offer to rent a room temporarily.
Marietta, GA – 6/2017 through Halloween 2017: With a short 3-day stop in Jeffersonville, IN, at my Uncle’s place and a stop in Nashville, TN, on the way down – I had arrived. A sixteen hour drive, or so, in total. A state I’ve never been to before. Oh boy, here we go! New sights to see. New people to meet. New things to do. My eyes lit up with excitement. I was ready for the change! Moving here was a real eye-opener, personally. Atlanta, and the surrounding area, has a massive population – compared to Minneapolis, and it’s suburbs. Minneapolis is around 3.5 million people, and Atlanta is somewhere around 6.2 million – nearly double that of my home city. The size difference was immediately apparent, but not daunting. Atlanta is a huge city, with very few locals – it’s a major hub for people coming & going in-and-out of the country, so no one was impressed or interested that I was an “out-of-towner”. Coming from a less-large city like Minneapolis, this was weird to get used to. Business was slow going during the time I was in Georgia, only picking up one new client (who is quite awesome, I might add): Ecraft Custom Homes – whom I did a website for. They are on the North side of town, and make really killer custom homes – if you’re in the area, and looking for a new home, check them out and ask for Michele or Lindsay. They know what they are doing. Other than that – moving here was more personal, than business-related. I spent most of my time going out, and meeting new people, rather than developing & growing my business. This was a problem. I wasn’t making the progress I knew I needed to. So, something had to change, fast.
Jeffersonville, IN – 11/2017: Enter: my Uncle Ed. He’s always been very close with me, and was kind enough to let me have a roof over my head, while I got things sorted out. After deciding to move out of Atlanta, I was looking for a place to plug in my laptop for a week or two, while I looked for a more permanent location. I liked the idea of staying south, to stay out of the snow & cold – so I started looking at places that would fit for my business, rather than personal reasons. I started looking doing web searches for “Top 10 tech cities”, and things of that nature… and Austin Texas kept showing up in the top 5. I knew San Francisco was too expensive, and Seattle was too cold – so Austin was starting to sound like a great fit. After poking around a bit online, and emailing a few people about places to live – everyone I talked to wanted to meet me first, or have me show up to take a tour. This was a problem. I was in Jeffersonville, and I needed to be Austin to meet people and look at places before anyone would commit to anything. So, without a place to live yet, and only being self-employed, I left Jeffersonville and drove 16 hours to Austin, on a whim. Heck, I’ve moved 24-ish times at this point in my life, “I can do this” I thought to myself. And, so I did.
Austin, TX – 12/2017 – Current: Showing up, I didn’t know fully what to expect, other than from what I had read from others online. It sounded great, from what I had read. Thankfully, most of my research, was accurate. Austin immediately felt more like home. Similar population size to Minneapolis (actually a little less), but with a faster growth rate, and higher focus in the technology field. Perfect. I think I may have found a new place to hang my hat – at least for a little while – while focusing on my business and professional development. Now, if I can just manage to stay away from the brisket… 😉 Who says life isn’t full of challenges?
Growing The Business: Roger Able Dog
With all the personal stuff out of the way now, here’s what’s been happening on the business-side of things… 2017 marks a big year for changes with Roger Able Dog, in many aspects. Here is whats been happening…
New Service: Website Hosting
Roger Able Dog now supports in-house website hosting for our clients, rather than using different 3rd party hosting for each client – which allows for many benefits, including but not limited to: more control over servers, site loading speed, server resources, centralizing data, and much more… Not only are my clients easily accessible now, but, I don’t have to worry about maintaining multiple different hosting platforms, like: AWS, DigitalOcean, GoDaddy, SiteGround, WiX, Yahoo, and more… Not only does Roger Able Dog offer in-house hosting, but we also do…
New Service: Domain Name Registrar
Roger Able Dog is also now a Domain Name Registrar – meaning you can buy and transfer domains in-house with us. This also helps centralize the workflow for clients & myself, reducing the amount of time I have to work with different registrar services, allowing me more time to provide final products.
New Projects: Portfolio Pages (Soon)
Between all the moving around (personally), and the work I’ve been doing for clients, on top of streamlining my business, I’ve had very little time to post the projects I have been working on to my portfolio – more on that very soon. It’s been my intention to get this post made, then I’ll be able to post the projects I’ve completed in the past six months.
Conclusion & 2018: Personal & Professional
Wow – that’s a lot. If you’ve made it this far down the post – I commend you. Thanks for sticking with it. 2018 Is starting off strong, and will have a ton of new posts being made in the Portfolio section on the site. (I have some catching up to do from 2017.) So, stay tuned for more on that very soon.
Please, follow us on social media (Facebook or Twitter), to keep in touch with the latest news and updates, or feel free to contact me using the form on our website here, or by using the little chat box in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
I can’t wait to show you what I’ve completed in 2017, and what 2018 has in store!
Thanks again for reading, and feel free to leave any comments below, or contact us with any questions you might have. I’m happy to chat any time!
