Welcome to TechLaurels!
TechLaurels is the online home of "Laurel Nevans' Computer Services."
About TechLaurels
TechLaurels is the online home of Laurel Nevans' Computer Services. Laurel has been serving folks in the SRQ Area for over a decade. Previously, she serviced users in the DC Metropolitan area. To read Laurel's full Story, please scroll to the bottom of the page, or use this link.Laurel is physically located on the Florida Suncoast, in Holmes Beach, Florida. Holmes Beach is on Anna Maria Island, just North of Sarasota and South of St. Pete. Laurel serves local residents, as well as vacationers whose equipment decides to mess up on them while they are out of town.
Our Services:
Small Business:
If you read Laurel's story, you'll know that Laurel did not necessarily set out to become an IT business consultant. Rather, she was drawn into it, particularly because she was tired of seeing folks getting ripped off. Laurel continues to give small businesses good service at reasonable rates. She understands that running a business is her client's priority and expertise; Laurel's expertise is the online presence. Laurel's counseling background is especially helpful in getting the client to figure out what exactly it is s/he needs, how many resources are available, and how much the client wants to (eventually) handle internally. Then together, we develop a plan for establishing, growing and maintaining all aspects of an electronic presence. This may include some or all of the services listed below.
Services Include:
Consulting
Website Design and Maintenance
Social Media Management
Blog Set Up and Content Development
Software and Equipment Recommendations
Computer Set Up, Maintenance and Troubleshooting
Training
Individual Services
Again, Laurel is sick of seeing folks overcharge for something they don't really know how to do in the first place. These days, too many folks hang up a "Tech Repair" shingle, but really don't know what to do outside of running a diagnostic program or wiping a PC. Laurel learned from the ground up. She insists that no "stupid machine" can out stubborn her, and is tenacious when it comes to trying to save your precious files. Laurel has revived many machines pronounced "dead" by that big box place.
Laurel provides in-home services to folks in the Greater SRQ area, including Bradenton, Palmetto, Sarasota, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, and Lakewood Ranch. Being an Islander herself, special rates are available to customers on Anna Maria Island, (Anna Maria City, Holmes Beach, Bradenton Beach, and Perico Island.) If you have a system that is particularly borked, Laurel may take it home in order to save you money. On site services are provided at an hourly rate, while off-site services are provided for a flat fee. (Often, repairing a system involves running several software packages, each requiring a large chunk of unattended time. In those cases, Laurel will recommend an off-site repair at a fair rate, rather than charging you an hourly fee to watch a program run.)
Services include:
PC Set-Up, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance
Wireless Network Set-up
Software Recommendations and Training
Printer Set-up and Installation
Router set up and troubleshooting
PC Clean Up and Virus Removal
Home Office Consulting
Old Equipment Recycling*
* Laurel has always tried to redistribute equipment to those who can not afford to purchase it. She does this by refurbishing unwanted equipment, much of it donated by her clients. If you hire Laurel to do a migration, and do not have a home for the old, Laurel will take it, wipe it to Government standards so that no data is recoverable, refurbish it, and distribute it to a needy person. Currently, pre-Win7 machines are being converted to Chrome Books before distribution. I will likewise recycle any peripherals, including mice, routers, printers, etc. by refurbishing and donating. Equipment Recycling is done as a Community Service, at no charge to the client. It keeps your equipment safe and out of a landfill, and you get to feel good about helping an individual in need.
Senior Services
In addition to the individual and business services listed above, Laurel also provides:
"Basic Technology" Orientation
"I just don't understand what it's all about, or any of the language," is a common cry. Does this resemble you? If so, Laurel can help you. Her training can involve the most basic of terms so a learner feels more comfortable tackling what is ahead.
Cell Phone, Tablet, and TV Training
Many folks raised in the days of rabbit ears and 6 channels are overwhelmed by the basic cable package that comes with their condo, let alone the remote(s) they need to master to actually watch anything. They know they have access to a whole lot of features they're paying for and not using. Those used to rotary phones can be baffled by even a dumb-phone, and totally perplexed by a smartphone. They've heard about Siri and Okay Google, but have no idea how to use them. How does one get a CD collection on to an Ipod anyway? Laurel can help ANY user feel comfortable with ANY gadget, from your TV to your thermostat to your smart-lights to your cell phones.
All services are provided at an hourly rate,
with "charitable discounts" for individuals on limited, fixed incomes.
with "charitable discounts" for individuals on limited, fixed incomes.
About Laurel
When Laurel was in undergraduate, PCs were not yet a thing. During the last semester of her senior year, DEC donated some Rainbows, the predecessors to the modern PC, to the campus library. Laurel's Student Teaching Supervisor forced her to interact with these computers, and Laurel learned to word process. Prior to this, Laurel's computer experience was limited to the dumb terminals in the PC Lab, playing computer games, and accessing early BBS systems on a Commodore 64.
Laurel graduated from the University of Richmond with a degree in Secondary Education, English, Speech, and Drama. After being disillusioned by expectations for Public School Educators, Laurel returned to the world of Disability Services. During her stint at various non-profit organizations, Laurel started developing an interest in a burgeoning specialty: assistive technology. At the beginning, this consisted mainly of non-electronic equipment. The closest thing to what we now think of as technology was the adaptive switches Laurel with which Laurel modified devices to make them more "user friendly." Over the years, assistive devices gradually started becoming more high tech.
When Laurel returned to school for Graduate Studies, she was offered a Research Assistantship to help pay for her studies. (Laurel earned an M.A.Ed in Counseling and Human Development from The George Washington University.) This particular position was as the Work Adjustment and Career Advising portion of a model demonstration project to teach inner city youth computer skills. A co-worker was to develop and teach the PC portion, while a third person was to do Job Development. Laurel sat down at the PC and taught herself how to use it. She taught herself basic DOS commands and basic troubleshooting. Soon, the third person was eliminated from the project, and Laurel and her co-worker co-developed and co-taught all aspects of the project. When that research project was finished, Laurel was transferred to a position overseeing the Department's Curriculum Lab, which included maintaining a bank of PC Jrs., training folks how to use them, and organizing and computerizing the lab's library. The library's security system had a habit of demagnetizing a lot of the floppy disks carried through it, and it was during this stint that Laurel became an expert in diskette recovery and command line troubleshooting.
When it came time for Laurel to do her Graduate Practicum, she was recruited to do a paid internship in the field of Assistive Technology/. She joined the staff of one of the original NIDRR Assistive Technology Labs in the country, located in the National Rehabilitation Hospital. There, they taught the world about things like voice input and voice output technology, scanning and magnification, speech technology like that used by Stephen Hawking, captioning, and other electronic solutions that were "brand new" and "revolutionary" at the time. (In fact, Barbara Bush, who was 1st Lady at the time, had a habit of bringing all types of folks through the Lab to show off all of the wondrous gadgets.) Integration and troubleshooting technology became a large component of the job. Laurel also worked with Consumer Reports on learning to do product evaluations from the perspective of people with various disabilities. And it was at this lab that she learned ARTIC, the very first, DOS-based screen reading/voice output technology.
Laurel supplemented these activities by working on another Model Demonstration project, this time in cooperation with SSA. This project aimed to help physically disabled individuals learn computer skills. They'd perform tech evaluations, integrate the solutions, and train folks how to use them, as well as place trainees into paid internships where they could apply these skills.
Laurel continued working in non-profits after obtaining her Masters. She was hired away from NRH, coaxed to work on yet another Model Demonstration Project, this time focusing on individuals with Learning Disabilities. Windows was just coming out, and Laurel continued to grow and develop her computer expertise. Few small businesses had "IT Departments" back then, and Laurel began being a go-to person for computer training. As she continued working in social services and education, she became the go-to person in the field for technology help, both in terms of assisting clients to achieve goals and in terms of modernizing office equipment and procedures. People began asking her to present during networking meetings.
By the time Windows 3.1 came out, Laurel was already freelancing as a Computer Guru. She also freelanced as a Computer Trainer and a Computer Teacher for Individuals with Disabilities.
Just as the internet was becoming a thing, Laurel decided to transition out of the world of non-profits, into Corporate America. Laurel took a job as an Assistive Technology Specialist for a small IT Company. She was hired as a Trainer on a contract for the SSA. This contract involved transitioning visually impaired, blind, hearing impaired, deaf, and physically impaired folks from DOS based systems to a windows environment. She was responsible for developing curricula, sensitivity training, user training, and for troubleshooting the new systems. This IT company offered training and integration, primarily in government or healthcare environments. They recognized Laurel's unique areas of specialized expertise, and Laurel received 3 promotions during her first three months with the company. Eventually, she was moved to Headquarters, tasked again with developing training solutions and demonstrations of assistive devices. She was moved to a project for the USDA, developing Assistive Technology Labs to enable all government employees to see and try out various possible solutions for their own issues.
The internet was still in its infancy, and web design was some mystical thing. USDA wanted to develop a "model" website demonstrating what an accessible web site should look like. My boss challenged me to learn HTML and assigned me to this project. That was Laurel's first interaction with HTML. There were few books on the subject in those days, so Laurel basically learned from early W3C spec sheets. Within a month or so, she had her first website all ready to go.
And the Head of SSA wanted Laurel back on her projects. Laurel was named key personnel on a contract to develop an Assistive Technology Lab at SSA Headquarters. Laurel was looking forward to splitting her time between the USDA and SSA contracts.
Then, on her way to the meeting to finalize the website with the client, Laurel was felled by an individual who did not think red lights applied to her. She missed the celebration of publishing one of the FIRST websites that demonstrated accessible design, as she was confined to a hospital bed, facing the probability of never walking again. When told she faced a minimum two-year recovery period before even thinking about being able to work again, she resigned from her job. Being the primary income-earner in her family at the time, she knew she couldn't just "do nothing" for two years. And the head of SSA still wanted Laurel on her project. Laurel decided that she did NOT want to become one of those people who were content to go out on disability. She was determined to remain productive in some way throughout her recovery.
When Laurel finally healed enough to sit up in bed, she had someone fetch her her laptop. Then, she had another friend set her up with a super long phone cord so she could plug in her modem from her hospital bed. She found online classes in web development, and completed the equivalent of a community college degree in CEUs from her sick bed. She joined the Admin Team of what once was the #1 listserv for freelance webmasters, where she could grow and share her knowledge. She joined as many freelance webmastering communities as she could find. And she set up her first webmastering business: WebLaurels. (The name of this site, TechLaurels, pays homage to that original company name.) She also picked up jobs writing content for other websites, as well as working with an online company to develop certification tests in various areas of internet and software expertise.
Laurel spent the next couple of years recovering from her injuries, progressing from being the Chick in the Chair to The Chick with the Stick, (a nickname she proudly flaunts today,) while also growing WebLaurels into a full service consulting company. Once Laurel was literally mobile enough to do so, she resumed her freelance Computer Repair services, as well. She helped many companies to set up their first e-mail accounts and connect to the Internet. She helped numerous Mom 'n Pops transition to Windows NT 4.0. She helped many non-profits get online for the first time as well.
Just about the time that wi-fi was born, Laurel had another health scare. It was then she decided that if she only had 5 years to live, DC was not the place she wanted to spend them. Newly divorced, and back on her feet, Laurel decided to indulge her life-long fantasy of picking up and moving to Florida. Having spent childhood Summers on Longboat Key, Laurel was very familiar with her preferred West Coast of Florida. She bought a condo unit on Anna Maria Island and left the DC area behind, moving her business with her.
Laurel now provides in-home services to individuals in the Greater SRQ Area, as well as business services in a customer's location(s). Our services are summarized elsewhere on this page.
Laurel is fond of saying that she did not choose this business, but rather, it chose her. HTML was based on SGML, a language Laurel already had to learn to convert electronic documents to Braille. Web Design was not so difficult that Laurel could not learn it remotely, from a sick bed, while her body was all broken and she was medicated out the yin-yang. Yet small business were being charged thousands of dollars for what amounted to a couple of hours of work. People were being charged exorbitant amounts for someone to come in and run a copy of Norton Utilities. Laurel saw people, small businesses, and especially strapped non-profits being taken advantage of, basically being ripped off because this was all too new to really understand yet.
Laurel's business has always been pretty much by referral. It grew because Laurel would hear horror stories from her friends about being overcharged for a simple fix. E-mail viruses were a real issue back then, and virus programs were not very robust. Still, patches and fixes were released quickly, if one knew where and how to look. Laurel would hear stories about someone being charged 3x the price of their equipment to come in and run a program to disinfect, something that usually took about half an hour to run back in those simpler days, and it angered her. She started being the one people called FIRST, as they trusted her to do a good job for a fair, non-inflated price.
And seniors still praise Laurel's expertise, fairness, and demeanor. They appreciate that she will NEVER take advantage or make them feel stupid, even if they call her for something as simple as changing an ink cartridge on a printer. They know that when they call her, she'll try to troubleshoot over the phone, sparing them the expense of a visit.
"Hmmm...last time you had this issue, I remember it being [yada yada yada]. We solved it by doing [yada yada yada]. Let's try doing that right now over the phone. If you still need me to come out after trying [a,b,c,] we can schedule an appointment," is Laurel's typical response to someone she's developed a relationship with.
Laurel loves to make herself obsolete. She has always focused on empowering her customers, training them as she works with them. Laurel loves setting things up for folks, training them how to take those things over, then sitting back and watching them succeed.
If you think you'd like to work with Laurel, reach out to her. She will chat with you to see if you can develop a good working relationship. At this point, we are not publishing telephone contact information on this blog. The best way to reach out is through the resources on this blog, or through Facebook Messenger (https://www.facebook.com/techlaurels). Laurel also invites you to join her on Facebook and to subscribe to this blog using the links in the Sidebar.
