Hey folks,

I'm considering offering database services, but I haven't worked with them, just studied them in school some years ago. I think I can handle the conceptual side of things, normalization and many-to-many relationships and various joins etc. But I'd rather not deal with anything where there's too much complexity to juggle at once, that makes my performance drop off precipitously. I don't know what average clients might need; if they're looking to a VA for help, the job might be fairly prosaic, but I don't know.

Compared to the examples from class, are real working databases much more complex, with large numbers of tables and overly complex relationships, using advanced features, etc? Is there a lot of knowledge needed for the side issues of using the software, server environments, implementations and APIs, or whatever? What kind of documentation are you supplied, or should provide yourself? Where do you find people who need help with a database, and what are the prospects for repeat business? I'm not sure what I should be asking really. But any insight you can share from your own experiences would be much appreciated!

Who would your 'average clients' be and what services would you be providing (I guess I'm wondering what you mean by 'database services' exactly?) But in order to find those potential clients you first have to look at what types of industries, businesses, and organizations would use the services you're qualified to provide?

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Like Tess said it would depend on exactly what you would be doing. You could be setting up a database and entering the data on a regular basis - that's what I think of when someone says "database services". There could be also generating reports and doing analysis of the data. It just depends on the specifics of the project.

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Stephanie Cogeos
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I'm sorry that my original post was so vague. It's been a long time since I learned databases, and I don't have any work experience with them. At this point I'd have to relearn it all, and I'm not sure I can, or how I would. I didn't really know what to ask about, I was hoping that a general answer might give me some idea whether this is something I can do, or whether it's over my head.

Anyway I've been looking at databases and there's far too much information to absorb and coordinate for me to just jump in and relearn it without experience. I'd like to get familiar with Access again, and if a client wanted me to do something with it I'd give it a shot if it's not too far out, but I don't see myself pursuing database work actively for now.

Having decided against focusing on database or WordPress stuff for now, Excel is what I'm most interested in. I think I will download a free trial of Office 2010 and get up to speed on that. Focusing on a single application might not be viable long term, but for now I just need to get something moving.