About

Comp-U-Talk, Inc.

Comp-U-Talk was born in 1984.  It was an unplanned birth.  I never set out to be a business owner but over the years I have come to realize that God has perfectly designed me for this business.  Here is my story:

The Education

When I was little, girls dreamed of growing up to be a teacher or a nurse.  That was frustrating to me because I didn’t want to be either.  Somewhere around junior high, a well meaning relative suggested that I should consider becoming an accountant because I was good at math.  A dream was born.

After High School I headed off to college with the hopes of becoming a CPA, but even as I drove off to campus that first day, I knew in my heart I would go crazy if I had to sit at a desk and add numbers all day.

Fortunately for me, Oregon State University required that every business major have a minor.  Minors were plentiful and way more fun than my major, so I choose two:  Social Science and Computer Science .

Social Science deals with human behavior.  What makes people tick and ticked – and trust me, they are two very different things.

Computer Science taught me to program computers using punch cards and computer languages like Fortran, Cobol & Pascal.  It perfected my typing skills.

Career Hunting

My accounting grades reflected the fact that I didn’t really want to become an accountant.  My career opportunities were limited.

Fortunately for me, the business computer had just been introduced.  The problem:  the only available software was an operating system and a database program named dBaseIII.

I took a temporary position with Aims Software in Corvallis.  I used my programming skills to write accounting programs.  Now this I could do!  This was fun!

When Aims Software went out of business, one of the abandoned clients contacted me with the request that I continue to work on their project until finished.

I needed a job, Oregon Hydrangea needed a programmer, it looked like a win-win situation to both of us. So I headed to Brookings to finish up the project.

If You Don’t

Norman Yock was president of Oregon Hydrangea.  Norman had MS.  I was his entertainment.  Because of limited mobility, he was unable to work in the fields.  Instead he would sit with me during the day and I would explain to him what I was doing. He would try to point out why it wouldn’t work.  We made a great team.

As time progressed, Norman suggested that I should start a business.  I wasn’t real wild about the idea.  I was more concerned with making enough money to purchase a new car and get health insurance.  (Funny – here we are almost 30 years later and the goal is the same.)  Then one day Norm said:  “If you don’t, you will always wonder if you could have made it!”

The Business

The self-employed like to joke that the best part of being self-employed is that you only have to work half days – and it doesn’t matter which 12 hours you work!  To some extent that is true.

I gave up trying to keep track of the hours I work long ago.  After all, if you love what you are doing, it really isn’t work.

Comp-U-Talk is my first born.  It has morphed from  programming, to computer sales & repair, to computer training, to networking, to web design, to marketing, to whatever computer related niche might come next.

This isn’t a job for everyone.  To be successful here you have to love learning and love a challenge.  And it sort of helps if you like people too!

So poke around on the web site and see what we can do.  If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please send me an email.  And thanks for taking the time to read my story,

 Janet