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Dallas DBAs

2020 Year In Review

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TL;DR – It was great and not great

I think we can all pretty much agree that in some regards 2020 was horrible, globally.

So lets move on…

Good stuff:

COVID-19 Vaccines are hitting the market and being distributed!

Boeing 737 MAX is cleared to fly again (Boeing is a Dow 30 component and LOTS of people are employed there or by Boeing suppliers)

US Presidential election appears to be settled (if you want to go all political on this, see you on Twitter!)

We moved the Dallas DBAs Global HQ in Q3 2020. (I moved…we all WFH, there is no physical presence)

Dallas DBAs specific stuff:

  • New customers added in 2020: 29 (+52%)
  • Sales: +28% over 2019
    • Analysis – COVID forced us to take smaller projects, but more of them
  • Pocket DBA customers: +100%
  • Website clicks (blog posts and other pages): +83%
    • Some of this from more advertising/marketing
    • MUCH of it from Jeff (b|t) and Liz (t) adding to the blogs
  • Website clicks over to Tim Mitchell’s (b|t) page: 618 (+38%, number 1 overall site visited from ours)
  • Blog posts: 42 ( down 30%…writing is hard, lol)
  • YouTube:
    • Views + 78%
    • Hours watched: +82%
    • Subscribers: +124%
    • 4 new videos – videos are hard
      • Feel free to suggest a video topic in the comments (something I can cover in 10-20 minutes, beginner DBA stuff)
  • Kevin started the Data Bits podcast and needs to get back on it!
  • Number of employees: 3 – no new hires and NO LAYOFFS!
  • Kevin released a followup Pluralsight video
    • Look for a new one in 2021 as well. Maybe 2 if I get energetic and time permits

Summary

It was a good year for the company. We were able to pivot quickly and offer services that matched the newly shrunken/frozen budgets of our clients and market. We only had one that had to stop a project and I anticipate them picking it back up in 2021.

Personally – we are all healthy here, and that’s a good thing. 2 folks in my extended family contracted COVID but recovered (mostly). I was able to pick up the cycling miles and have a home gym installed in the new home’s garage for throwing some weights around from time to time…gotta keep healthy!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

T-SQL Tuesday 121: The Gift of the Dream Job I Didn’t Know I Wanted

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T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party for the SQL Server community. It is the brainchild of Adam Machanic (b|t) and this month’s edition is hosted by Mala (b|t) who has asked us to write about “Gifts received this year.” One idea given to write about was “landing a job you never thought you would,” which is perfect for me.

If you’ve followed my story, you know that I’m pretty new to the DBA world. I’m a retired worship leader who’s lost his voice and went home to work side-by-side with his wife in a graphic/web design biz. As I watched that business go through an extended downturn, I attempted to add photography services and grossly underestimated how saturated the local market was. In desperation for meaningful employment I reached out to my friends for help and referrals.

Kevin stepped in and offered a trial period as a DBA apprentice at Dallas DBAs and I’ve never looked back.

Why has becoming a DBA been such an amazing gift? Here are a few of my top reasons.

  • I get the opportunity to learn new things daily.
  • I get challenged by this role a great deal. That makes jobs enjoyable for me.
  • I get a steady income that brings stability and is allowing my family to build a new house in order to foster/adopt more kids.
  • I get to work from home and share an office with my wife—my favorite person in the world.
  • I get to work with my best friend, Kevin.
  • I get to ride my bike way more often than if I worked out of the house.
  • I got a new bike for Christmas as a direct result of this job.
  • I get to ride bikes with Kevin.
  • I get to continue working and serving at our church, which I love.

I could probably go on and on, and I fully expect being a DBA to continue to offer challenges and rewards in the year ahead!

Announcement: Pocket DBA™ service

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Several months ago, we posted a blog about keeping a Database Administrator on retainer for emergencies, called “Put a DBA in Your Pocket”

We cross-posted a version over to LinkedIn at the same time.

The response to both was overwhelmingly positive!

So much so that we are bringing this idea on as a new service offering, effective today!

This service comes with different levels for different needs and budgets.  It is primarily intended for you to be able to get a quick response from someone you trust (that’s us…) when bad things happen to your database server, which they eventually will.  Its the nature of tech.

In addition to being there for emergencies, you also get some periodic proactive benefits as well.

All of the pricing, benefits and terms are on the Pocket DBA™ page, separate from our current Services page.

Launch Special:  All new customers that sign up in February qualify for special rates and additional benefits… This is a limited-time offer, please message me directly for more details.

Contact us today with any questions, or to grab one of those 3 early-adopter spots!

This service is only available to US businesses at this time.

2018 Highlights and 2019 Goals

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Happy New Year!

They say focus on the positive and make your goals public, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do here!

Dallas DBAs had a great 2018, by every measurable category.  No formal goals were laid out, other than “don’t close the doors” and “help people”.

The stats:

  • 7 new clients added – mix of short-term and long-term
  • 1 customer carried from 2017 into the year and 3 extensions signed for 2019
  • 21K views/115K minutes watched on our YouTube channel
  • 26,415 page views on DallasDBAs.com
  • 1 new employee added (part-time Junior DBA)
  • 2 new contractors working on skills not in house (Power BI and SQL Dev)
    • 3 other sub-contractor agreements signed
  • 1 SQL Saturday sponsored (Dallas, May) with a booth (many others at the “personal” level)
  • 2 Pre-conference sessions and 2 regular session presentations given at SQL Saturdays (Cincy and Dallas)
  • 3 scripts updated or added to the Microsoft Technet Gallery
  • 2 Databases rescued from corruption issues (Thanks Red-Gate!)
  • 6 free HealthChecks
  • At least $12 in net profit

The goals for 2019:

  • 6 new long-term part time DBA support clients
  • Add one Senior SQL Server DBA to staff
    • Add one apprentice to this DBA
  • Add one new Oracle DBA to the team
  • Sponsor 2 SQL Saturdays with a booth (Dallas and Cincy)
  • Deliver “DBA Fundamentals” training for free once per quarter (Cincy, Dallas(?), Q3/Q4 TBA)
  • 30K views/180K minutes on YouTube channel
    • 6 new videos – Accidental DBA target audience
  • 40K Hits on DallasDBAs.com
  • At least $13 net profit
  • 12 Free HealthChecks, bare minimum once a month

The things we put in place this year have worked well, so I may be fudging the number too conservatively for 2019.  Check back next year…we may actually hit $14 net profit!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

SQL Saturday Dallas, 2018

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Quacky rides bikes!

 

SQL Saturday Dallas #734 is a wrap!

I’m still tired, 2 weeks later!

This is my 7th or 8th SQL Saturday as an attendee.  3rd as a pre-con presenter.  5th delivering a Saturday session, 1st as a sponsor and 1st as a co-organizer.

And it was a blast.

Months of prep work went into getting things ready…venue change, sponsor chasing, speakers, goodies for speakers and attendees, pre-con stuff, after-part, speaker dinner…you name it, I at least read an email about it.  This was my first time around so I was following the lead of veterans on the NTSSUG board.  We had over 1000 people register…I don’t recall the final tally of actual attendees but the place was packed all day!

My pre-con (DBA Fundamentals) went really well, with a record number of attendees. By design this class is usually small and intimate.   The BI session next door had 65 or so!  I’ve done this pre-con 3 times now, and this was the first time I actually had a technical issue (fonts went wacky) and a brain cramp in the middle.  But, I recovered and people (hopefully) learned something they can take back with them to the office.

I also did my Disaster recovery session on Saturday, which I think went really well, and got a bonus of meeting someone I knew through a previous client and only by phone.  I always think you’ve done your session well when people line up to chat with you afterwards:

Either something was really funny, or my backpack has way too much stuff in it…

 

Our Dallas DBAs sponsor table went really well…except everyone seemed to think I was raffling off my personal racing bike.  Lots of folks came by for the raffle and the free t-shirts (100 only…gone in 90 minutes).  Some even stopped to ask what we do, giving me the chance to promote our Apprentice program.  Thanks to everyone that came by!  And also to Richardson Bike Mart for providing the $150 gift card for our raffle.

Not the raffle item….just clickbait apparently:

The entire staff of Dallas DBAs, in official uniform

 

A very special shout out to my good friend and graphics/web guy, Jeff Miller of Igniss Images for shooting this event as a free service to the SQL Server Community.  See the pics!

Thanks to all the attendees for coming, and to the Sponsors that make it possible!

Kevin3NF