Project Development
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Kick Start Class:
Overview: This is a hands on course in starting your project. Projects range from businesses to bands to community organizing. This course will go over the basics of project plan or business plan creation, budgeting, group communication & decision making, time management and outreach.
Next Level Class:
Overview: This is a hands on course in moving your project to the next level. This course will go more in depth in the areas covered in the first class depending on your needs.
Course Dates: Custom one-on-one courses designed to fit your schedule available beginning July 1st
Time: 20 hours over 4 months
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Certification: Students completing the course will receive a Flashbulb Project Development Training certificate.
Registration: To apply for this course, contact sara@theflashbulb.org to discuss your project.
Tuition & Financial Aid: The tuition for this one-on-one class is $3000. Vermont residents may be eligible for a VSAC Non-degree Grant to cover the full tuition. See Tuition & Financial Aid for more information.
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Resources
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Website Design
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Weebly.com is a great easy to use website creation tool. It's free and has lots of options include, shopping cart, picture gallery, and blog.
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Domain Name
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GoDaddy.com is a place to buy a domain name, like theinternet.com, once you have a domain name you can point it at your weebly site or facebook or what have you, then when people type in yourname.com they go directly to the site you want them to. Once you have a domain name you can also get a nice email address like info@yourname.com and have the email forwarded to your current email address so everything is all in the same place.
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Registering a Business
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Registering a simple business is actually fairly cheap and quick. If your the only one in your business and you don't have large amounts of assets to protect (house, cash, etc) then a simple sole proprietor with DBA (doing business as) is all you need. Here is a link to the form http://www.sec.state.vt.us/corps/forms/tradeapp.htm
Here is the Vermont Secretary of State site where all the business forms and answers to questions are. http://www.sec.state.vt.us/corps/dobiz/ |
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Business Cards
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Quick nice business cards can be ordered from vistaprints.com, they offer simple to complex designs and great prices. Get the thickest cards you can.
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How to prioritize your time
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The Action Priority Matrix is a simple diagramming technique that helps you choose which activities to prioritize and which ones you should drop if you want to make the most of your time and opportunities.
It's useful because most of us have many more activities on our "wish lists" – whether these are bright ideas to pursue, exciting opportunities or interesting possibilities – than we have time available. By choosing activities intelligently, you can make the very most of your time and opportunities. However by choosing badly, you can quickly bog yourself down in time-consuming, low-yield projects that close down opportunities and stop you moving forwards. Read more http://www.mindtools.com/CXCCorporateTour/ActionPriorityMatrix.php |
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Bookkeeping
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If you've never done bookkeeping, start by making a really simple spread sheet, one column will be "money in", and one column will be "money out". This is all you really need to know what is happening in your business. Below is a simple template that can be added to as needed.
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Google Calendar
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A pocket calendar works great. It won't beep in your pocket, and it won't put in repeating activities though.
Google Calendar is a really nice online calendar that allows having multiple calendars, calendar sharing, and alarms that will txt your cell phone when you have appointments coming up. |
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Smart Phone
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I recommend getting a smartphone so you can check you email, calendar, and to do list on the go.
One option is Page Plus Cellular (pagepluscellular.com) they offer a 1,200 minute, 1,200 txt, 100 MB data, for $29.95/month no contract. They run on the Verizon network and any Verizon phone will work with Page Plus. You can purchase an LG Vortex android phone on eBay for about $100, activate on Page Plus and have your number switched over for free. |
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Raising Money
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Checkout Kickstarter.com
Here’s how it works: A user signs up and submits their project idea, including the minimum cash requirements (or threshold) to complete the project. Using social media, the user then solicits pledges primarily from friends, family and fans in hopes of meeting or surpassing the threshold. Pledges average around $68 with $25 being the most common pledge. All pledges are held in escrow: If the threshold is passed then all donations are passed on to the project, with Kickstarter taking a 5% cut of all money raised; If the threshold is not met, then all pledges are returned to the pledges and no money is given to the project — no cut taken by Kickstarter. |
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Budgeting
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A little notebook writing down everything you spend for a month will help you get a good understanding of where your money goes and you will be able to create a budget from that.
Mint.com is another great tool for getting all your finances in order. It mostly is based off of electronic transactions and you would still need to input all cash transactions. |
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Business Plan Writing
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Checkout score.org for a all the business plan templates and other business start up resources.
A projected cash flow sheet is the most important for any venture, is this going to work? and how much of a return for the investment? |
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Getting Things Done
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GTD or Getting Things Done is a great technique for bringing simplicity to daily tasks and goal setting. Here is a simple explanation of it. http://lifedev.net/2007/07/time-management-simplified-how-to-be-productive-with-no-worries/
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