Humble Beginnings

This is an archived post from the previous version of website. I migrated it over here for historical and archival purposes.

How it Started

A long time ago I had the dream of being a famous rapper and musician. I sold a few beats and I really thought that I could make it big. Being a self proclaimed musician, I wanted my own website to get the word out, but as a broke college student I didn’t have much money to hire anyone so I wanted to build it myself and do it as cheap as possible. I had learned a bit of programming in high school so I figured I could do it. The first iteration of the site was a bootstrap template I had found online and I just changed the images and text. I was very proud of my website. A website to represent me and my music.

Later on, I graduated college with a bachelors in chemistry and started my career in food manufacturing and quality assurance. I started as an entry level technician and later became a senior quality manager. It was a great experience and I enjoyed leading teams and creating quality systems for multimillion dollar companies, but something inside me just didn’t feel right. I wanted to own my work 100%. I wanted to start my own business.

In early 2020, I created Tim Jedrek LLC initially as a way to propagate my music. I had let the whole become a rap star dream kinda fade as I worked in the manufacturing industry, but it was the dream I held on to because it was all I had. By spring of 2020, COVID-19 was in full force and the world around me was going crazy. We had to put plexiglass everywhere and social distance ourselves from each other. My workplace required us to wear masks all day, no exceptions. One day, a production manager was talking to me about how much he thought that the masks sucked. He had said that the masks stank after a few hours and he wish it could smell like bacon.

An idea popped in my head instantly: An alcohol based scented spray for masks that would remove germs and smell great. I concocted a few formulas and launched a website. This time using WordPress and Square. I was able to sell a bunch and even had customers from out of state purchase my product through my online store.

This is the product I created and sold: Mask Refresher

Another idea came to my head and that was to help other people with their websites. I had learned along the way how to design and deploy websites so why not help others do the same. The process of designing a site, finding a host/domain, and deploying the site can be technical and tedious, but it was something that I found natural and I wanted to help others get it done.

I did this part-time on the side and helped get Jayrone’s website published and also Belleville Pancake House’s website onto the internet.

How it’s going

As I continued my career in food manufacturing, I noticed that different softwares were being used to make jobs easier and more efficient like SafetyChain, FoodLogiq, and FreshDesk. Larger companies with bigger budgets could afford the luxury of these tools, but smaller companies simply didn’t have the budget. I was working at a smaller company and I remember struggling with supplier approval processes. The task required getting documentation from suppliers, tracking and scoring suppliers, and having them fill out questionnaires. Something that my team was doing manually through Excel and through folders on a shared drive, but it was very hard to maintain and got out of hand quick. I got in contact with some of the software companies to implement their software, but their asking price was tens of thousands of dollars a year and the company I worked for didn’t have the budget for it. It became my goal to learn programming in a deeper level and create similar software that smaller companies could use that wouldn’t break the bank.

I continued to learn programming on the side while I worked a full time job. I started off by reading tutorials and the getting started documentation for Python and Django I later stumbled on The Odin Project and it has helped tremendously. I learned more CSS skills, learned Ruby and rehashed my knowledge of object oriented programming, and then started creating web applications using Ruby on Rails. I’m now focusing on strengthening my javascript skills and mastering node.js and react.

I’m set out to help small businesses grow. I want the work I do help bring in more customers, increase sales, and improve operations. My vision for Tim Jedrek LLC is to grow the company to be the #1 resource for IT solutions for small businesses. I’ve tried the no-code platforms like WordPress and Wix and I know how frustrating it can be. Tim Jedrek LLC is here to close the gap for small businesses and bring those businesses to the internet where they can reach those potential customers and streamline their operations.

Right now, Tim Jedrek LLC is just starting out and I’m super excited about growing this company. To start off, I’m offering significant discounts in order to grow my portfolio. If you or anyone you know is needing help launching a website or developing software, let’s get in touch and work together!