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THE STAR-TELEGRAM
-- August 22, 2005
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Filling needs of students, small firms
By J.G. DOMKE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM
J.J. DiGeronimo was teaching computer classes at night at a community college in Cleveland when she figured out a way to give her corporate clients from her day job some help and her night students some experience.
The students in her class were under pressure to show that they could do the work. They needed to show that they had experience in the marketplace to get that first full-time job. They wanted to have the references, to have work samples and to be able to show potential employers that they could do the jobs they would be applying for.
Her business clients needed technical help but often didn't have room in their home offices or shared office space to have a tech worker show up and give them instruction.
Wouldn't it be simpler, she thought, to take advantage of the technology to automate some of the work and link those needing help with those who would work for relatively low salaries to get some experience on their résumés?
"They're whiz-bangers who could set it up at night for a company," she says.
So she created techstudents.net and had a group of students help design and develop the Web site.
Since going online in April, they have gotten more than 12,000 hits a month.
It is free for students to register, but businesses pay $29 to post a project, like helping build a Web site, design a logo, install a network or modify a database.
At the eWoman's Conference in Arlington in July, she said businesswomen were complaining to her that what with having to to do everything in running their businesses, they didn't have time to look for anyone to help get things done.
The Web site, she hopes, will cut down save them time.
Brad Kleinman in Cleveland has been in business consulting for entrepreneurs for only a few years, and although BK Consulting had a Web site, he felt that it could be better. He also knew that the logo a friend had designed wasn't that good. He'd been putting off doing anything about it. So, he posted the project on techstudents.net.
"I'm not creative enough to take it all the way from coming up with the idea to implementing and publishing it," says Kleinman, who has been working with a student at the Institute of Art in Cleveland. He discovered how it freed him up to help his clients and do what he is good at.
DiGeronimo says there is only a minimal risk when clients pay $10 to $20 per hour for a student.
Taking advantage of the Web, it doesn't matter where the business or student are: A student in Maryland linked up with a business in Illinois to design its logo.
In Arlington, Brandon Schave had been searching for a full-time job since graduating from the Dallas Art Institute in 2003, and he had his résumé posted on more than 100 Web sites. But he says posting his résumé on techstudents.net led to his full-time job at Cure Media Group in Dallas.
DiGeronimo sees more ways the Web site can help students and small businesses. On the site are tips for hiring students, building a small business Web site and other ways to use technology.
In September, the company will give out 10 $100 scholarships to students who write the best essays about providing small business technology advice. So far, she's gotten several entries from North Texas.
ONLINE: www.techstudents.net
J.G. Domke is an Arlington-based free-lance writer
PHOTO LLUS: J.G. DOMKE; SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM |
