About
Posted on June 17th, 2007
Who Is Jim Hutchinson?
Hello, I am Jim Hutchinson, Project Manager for Website Managers, where this site resides. I have been involved in electronics and computers since 1980, manufacturing, sales, marketing and management in various industries.
I am someone who goes into an environment to learn everything I can as fast as possible, with the intention of training others so they can do their best to succeed; someone who searches for ways of motivating others to reach for their dreams; an extrovert turned introvert, who is learning to once again reverse the process.
Most of all, I am thankful for being given the opportunity to change the quality of my life and help others do the same through Internet Marketing.
Dateline: December, 1979. Computers caught my interest and I took a course in Computer Technology, graduating the following June. Moving to Florida I found a job repairing pin ball machines, juke boxes and video games. When that ended, the remainder of my 2 years there was spent doing odd jobs and working at a commercial cleaning company as the Janitorial Division Operations Manager. There were 76 commercial accounts and 73 employees requiring my attention.
Moving back to Minnesota I went into manufacturing and was promoted each of the first 4 years. Six months into the job I was handed the packaging department to manage. That involved interviewing, scheduling, purchasing, and yes, even discipline. During that time I bought my first computer at an auction. The operating system was CP/M (pre-DOS). It was used for writing programs for scheduling and Just In Time (JIT) purchases. Along the way I was designated as the Safety Coordinator, to organize, schedule and hold weekly safety training classes for the entire company.
Leaving the manufacturing environment in 1990 due to allergies I developed from the chemicals, I took an interest in marketing my part time computer repair business on the Internet. I began to learn how to design an develop web sites by reading some books and looking at the source of the other web sites I visited. Most of the WYSIWYG programs I tried (and there have been MANY) did not do what I wanted, so I learned how to hard-code with Windows Notepad.
In 1997 I chose a few people I had met on the Internet and formed several businesses. One of them was what is now known as Website Managers, after a few name changes. I have learned a lot about the behind-the-scenes workings of the Internet. It is also where I met Jeff Segal, President / CEO of Freedom foreclosure Prevention Services. Instead of going elsewhere to get higher-level programming done, he pushed me to learn more until I reached a point where the programming would be better done by someone else.
Being mostly into the technical end of things, marketing and sales were previously not very good to me. Technically-oriented people are generally introverted and Jeff Segal tried hard to overcome that in me. Of course, joining his team taught me a whole new world in marketing, sales, goal setting and the tremendous potential that lies within us all.
So here I am, stepping out of my comfort zone (behind the monitor) into the public, sharing myself with you, with hopes that by sharing what I have learned along the many trails, you will benefit.
Jim Hutchinson
