It Starts as a Fish Tale
In accordance with good Feng Shui, and just because I like to have it around, there is a small aquarium in the corner of my office. I set it up when I started Salty Dog Solutions in 2008 and its first tenant was a beautiful red and blue Betta Fish. My kids named him Ray for a reason I can’t remember. Perhaps his coloring looked like a ray of a sunbeam? Perhaps they were honoring my fraternal grandfather?
Sadly Ray passed away over Spring Break (though he’d been looking a bit peaked for the last year or so, and we thought he was gone more than once but with Bettas it’s kinda hard to tell sometimes).
After the proper period of mourning, I was ready to move on to a new tenant. I had at first thought I would just get another Betta but when I got to the fish store I decided I’d get something more lively. I looked around for something that would fit in the environment, looked nice, and of course was cheap (I mean, c’mon, they’re only fish. There were some that costs dozens of dollars each!).
I settled on something called a “White Cloud” fish.
They’re small and very active, constantly on the move. On the other hand, they’re not as colorful as Ray was. They seem to play well together but I did wonder, “Wouldn’t it be funny if the three fish that I got out of the big tank actually hated each other?”
So I went from a Betta to Cloud Fish.
Sometimes the metaphor is just too good to be true.
Salty Dog Solutions as a business also feels like it’s coming out of Beta. Since its inception I’ve been sort of feeling my way around trying to make it work and all of the sudden over the last few months it’s really been gaining traction. I think this is due to a lot of great guidance and advice I’ve been given (and trying hard to follow).
For example, one of my best clients said, “Eric, your problem is that you want to know how to do everything and you can’t say ‘No’. You’ve got to stick with what you’re best at, database application development.” That for sure is my wheelhouse, and I’m going to try to heed that.
The core competency of Salty Dog Solutions will be Database Application Development for businesses, whether in Visual FoxPro for the desktop, .Net, PHP, MySQL, and SQL Server for the web, or to the future with “the Cloud!” My emphasis will continue to be excellent customer service and good value for your budget.
If you have any more advice, please post it in the comments! Thanks for your support.
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