Community Highlights: Meet Jay Harris of Sourware

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Harris.

Hi Jay, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hi, I’m Jay Harris, a software engineer, videography, photographer, graphic designer, and branding specialist. I help entrepreneurs create strategic business growth by becoming a technical business partner! What that essentially means, is I have the technical expertise and creative vision to deliver the things your business needs to succeed including photography, videography, logo development, branding, website development, and social media marketing. And as a business partner, I am as invested in the success of your business as you are and will work just as hard to bring your vision to life.

How I got started? Since childhood, I’ve always been a creative person – and everything I’ve pursued since has been to explore my creative side. There were a couple instances early in my childhood that let me know that I had a bright future as an artist/creator. The first was in elementary school, I would create comic books inspired by famous comics like Yu Gi Oh, Dragon Ball Z, etc. In addition to comics, I would also draw relatives and one time I received $55 in total donations/payments from my family and relatives for a drawing I did of my brother. Apparently, it was a really good drawing. Then we move to high school when I enrolled in graphic designing in photoshop and a web design class. I immediately excelled in these classes and instantly became the best in my class at the time. One of my classmates was quoted to saying, “Jay Harris is going to be a CEO of a tech company one day”. I guess that is a little foreshadowing into my story.

Once I got to college, I continued perfecting my craft as a web developer and graphic designer. I was so advanced as a software engineer in college, that in my first major class, ‘Intro to Java’, my professor failed me on my first test because I used “advanced techniques that weren’t taught yet”. Essentially, he assumed I cheated or Googled the answers because the code I wrote was too advanced for a Senior level Java class much less an intro to Java class. After that incident my professor excused me from the class for the semester under the condition that I recreate the game Tetris using the Java programming language. I went on to do several projects in college like Pacman, Tetris, Minesweeper, Google Play Store apps, deploying network servers, and more all while being excused from regularly attending the classes in my major. While balancing being a college football athlete and student, I also started using my talents to start my own business, Sourware.

After college, I took a job as a frontend engineer building websites for several multimillion-dollar clients. Naturally, my advanced skills as a frontend engineer led me to being quickly promoted to team lead less than a year on the job. While working as a team lead on these massive projects, I learned how to communicate effectively, and deal with clients in a professional manner. This is something that I always get complimented on when I’m working with clients in my own business ventures. In addition to professionalism, I was also able to pick up more complicated techniques and skillsets that the average web developer wouldn’t have. These skills are the ones you need to build the more intricate websites with more professional class requirements.

I eventually picked up photography and videography as another means to explore my creative talent. My new talents led to two business opportunities. The first opportunity was starting a content creation business, Jay Jr. Photography, for those that need more than just a person with a camera, but for those that need a creative specialist that can bring their vision to life. The second business venture was adding a branding package to Sourware. This included a branding photoshoot or promo video in addition to a logo and website for startups.

I know that’s a lot, but I’m Jay Harris, an Atlanta, Georgia, based entrepreneur that helps other entrepreneurs create strategic business growth via photography, videography, social media marketing, web development, and more. As of today, I have soft launched two revenue generating businesses, Jay Jr. Photography and Sourware, and plan to fully launch both in 2022 in addition to a real estate business.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
With everything you do in life, there is going to be some obstacles and challenges you have to overcome. And with entrepreneurship, there is going to be some serious, real deal sacrifices you have to make in order to be successfully. For me, there are three major challenges I’ve faced along the way, outside of your typical late nights working as an entrepreneur. These are Internal pressure I placed on myself to be great at everything, struggling to get a job out of college, balancing a day job and running several businesses while maintaining somewhat of a decent social life.

As a former athlete, I am a very self motivated person and will find ANY means to add more fuel to my fire. Some of that fuel comes from criticism others decide to knowingly or unknowingly bestow on you. These criticism often leads to scenarios where I’m going to extreme lengths just to prove people wrong. To this day, I still hear my high school football coach telling me I won’t amount to anything in life, I still hear my college professor telling me to settle for a salary less than $50k, I still hear my college counselor telling me students from Ivy Colleges often don’t make it to work for Google, Apple or Microsoft, and I still hear the noise of other people’s opinions about my life. Those voices in my head are what fueled me to become a D1 college athlete, those voices are what drove me to take a salary out of college that was higher than the average Georgia Tech grad at the time (I graduated from Savannah State University), and those voices are what motivated me to accept a job at Microsoft.

While in college, I had developed apps for both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. After I graduated, I naturally wanted to become a mobile app developer, so I interviewed and applied to several job openings for that position. Unfortunately, none of those opportunities came through so I eventually went back to what I was great at, web development – and that’s how I got my start in the industry 5 months later. At the time is was a very humbling experience because I wasn’t getting hired in the industry I graduated in and I started looking to settle for working at Best Buy and Micro Center.

The last thing I still struggle with to this day, is balancing a full time job, several businesses, personal relationships, and a social life. There are days where I am behind a computer screen from 9 am all the way to midnight until my eyes, brain, and body cannot type a single key stroke anymore. Getting this balance under control is what has prevented my businesses from fully launching this year. I’ve had to spend a good portion of this year evaluating and understanding when I do my best work and understanding how to properly schedule my weeks. Along with this, I’ve had to learned to say NO. Something that is very difficult for a person that truly cares about being there for others. Saying yes to everything thing or every project results in an unbalanced and unhealthy schedule you cannot consistently maintain. Having balance in life is a health habit that keeps your stress down, levels your expectations, and improves your productivity.

We’ve been impressed with Sourware, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We help entrepreneurs create strategic business growth by becoming a technical business partner! Our growth strategies involve

1. performing market research to understand your business, customers, and competition
2. then we help generate leads based on our market research through SEO marketing using tools like a modern minimalistic website
3. finally, we supercharge the business with our creative services that includes a stunning logo design, social media branding, promotional videos, and branding photoshoots.

As a partner to your business, we are as committed to the success of your business as you are and as a technical partner, we will take care of all your technical requirements leaving you time to focus on the core aspects of running a successful business.

You won’t need to interface with a marketing agency, web developer, logo designer, photographer, or videographer to start your because Sourware provides the services you need to start your business.

Checkout the links below to learn more about our key discriminators, and the services we offer.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I’ve learned that life is too short not to enjoy it. Experience life and don’t let a moment pass you by!

Theses are challenging times so we need to be kind and have compassion for others.

Pricing:

• Sourware – Startup Branding
• Sourware – Curated Products
• Jay Jr. Photography – Weddings
• Jay Jr. Photography – Video Production
• Jay Jr. Photography – Photography

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://linktr.ee/_jay.jr
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_jay.jr
• Other: https://instagram.com/jayjr.photography

Image Credits
Jay Harris