Small business needs database design help

[Van]

My company is a small but growing retailer who needs to create a database
that will track the potential retail sites we are evaluating. There are
anumber of fields of data in each record that we want to be able to input and
track as well as a log in reverse chronological order that will track what
has been done and what needs to be done with this site. We use Acess 2007 and
we would like to icoporate various outlook contacts in each record. Please
respond to me and I will give you much more information.

 

[Pat Hartman \(MVP\)]

I would suggest posting your requirement to guru.com. The site offers
escrow features that protect the buyer and the seller. You will find a
great many people bidding on this project. Many of them will be offshore
and willing to work for pennies on the dollar. make sure that the person
you select has a good command of English (if they aren't American) and an
understanding of basic business or you will have to be very specific as to
what you want. They will not be able to interpolate to fill in the gaps.
Expect to pay $40 - $75 dollars an hour. Usually the higher the hourly
rate, the fewer the hours necessary to complete the project. If I were
going to bid on your project, I would estimate 8 hours. The more detail you
can provide, such as field lists, rough form and report layouts, the fewer
hours the developer will need. Remember that when asking for a fixed price
bid, you are asking the bidder to take a risk that he can actually perform
the work within the allotted time frame. Estimating the actual cost of a
project is difficult at best when all the details are spelled out. It is
more difficult on projects of this nature because they have a nebulous
quality that can cause the actual work to expand beyond expectations.

 

[Van]

I appreciate your thoughts...I have a fairly detailed writeup that spells out
the specifics of what I am looking for. I'm sure that I will have to
elaborate but the project is fairly well thought out at this point. Any more
specific reccomendations that you can think of would be welcome.

 

[Pat Hartman \(MVP\)]

No, just make sure you interview the person by phone and make sure he
understands the requirements and has the technical skill to produce a
reasonable application. For example, ask him if he will use macros. No is
the correct answer. Ask him if he understands normalization and ask for an
explanation. You should be able to understand the explanation. Evaluate
the bids as they come in and see if you can identify a consensus as to the
amount of hours required then choose someone you feel comfortable with whose
estimate was close to the concesus. Ask for references and check them if
you are worried.

 

[Van]

Excellent sugestions...thank you for your help!!!