The Business of Getting Down
My "starting a business" seminar is on Saturday. Rockin'. I haven't heard back from the Small Business Development Center about one-on-one counseling. Not so rockin'.
I think I'm going to talk to an adviser at Northern Virginia Community College to see if I can't get some design training. I'm considering getting some kind of certification like this desktop publishing program. Is there anything else out there that I should be aware of? How about alternatives that aren't in the DC area? Like say, in Iowa? 'Cause I'm not the only person in this situation.
I'm in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to purchasing software as well. It would probably be prudent for me to pick up InDesign (at the very least) both for Facetime Continuum's purposes, and since it looks like it will be the only game in town if Quark goes server-side only. My life as a videographer for One Note Shy will be a hell of a lot easier if I pick up Premier Pro, mostly because it'll simplify the DV-capture to DVD authoring process (Premier comes with Adobe Encore, doncha know). As much as I love the kludge I slapped together using Windows Movie Maker, a free DV type 1 to type 2 converter from Ulead, Quicktime Pro (which, by the way, isn't worth the money whether you use OSX or Windows), ProTools LE for Synchronization, and ending with the awesome DVD Flick 1.3 beta (which I highly recommend), it's rather cumbersome.
The problem is that at $1500 for both pieces of software, I may as well be getting one of the Creative Suite 3 packages. However, Design Standard and Premier Pro together come to $2000, and if I go for Design Premium (which comes with the useful-for-me Dreamweaver) the two software packages are more expensive than the $2500 Master Collection. Which has way more stuff than I'll ever need, and I can't give the applications I won't use to people who will use them. Grumble grumble.
Help and advice, please?
I think I'm going to talk to an adviser at Northern Virginia Community College to see if I can't get some design training. I'm considering getting some kind of certification like this desktop publishing program. Is there anything else out there that I should be aware of? How about alternatives that aren't in the DC area? Like say, in Iowa? 'Cause I'm not the only person in this situation.
I'm in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to purchasing software as well. It would probably be prudent for me to pick up InDesign (at the very least) both for Facetime Continuum's purposes, and since it looks like it will be the only game in town if Quark goes server-side only. My life as a videographer for One Note Shy will be a hell of a lot easier if I pick up Premier Pro, mostly because it'll simplify the DV-capture to DVD authoring process (Premier comes with Adobe Encore, doncha know). As much as I love the kludge I slapped together using Windows Movie Maker, a free DV type 1 to type 2 converter from Ulead, Quicktime Pro (which, by the way, isn't worth the money whether you use OSX or Windows), ProTools LE for Synchronization, and ending with the awesome DVD Flick 1.3 beta (which I highly recommend), it's rather cumbersome.
The problem is that at $1500 for both pieces of software, I may as well be getting one of the Creative Suite 3 packages. However, Design Standard and Premier Pro together come to $2000, and if I go for Design Premium (which comes with the useful-for-me Dreamweaver) the two software packages are more expensive than the $2500 Master Collection. Which has way more stuff than I'll ever need, and I can't give the applications I won't use to people who will use them. Grumble grumble.
Help and advice, please?