Two Day Workshop
Start-up Clinic
Everything you need to know to create a successful web start-up
Leaving your 9 to 5 to launch your own company is exciting but a bit scary. With everything riding on your success you need to make sure that you have the best advice from the folks who've done it all before - that's where Start-up Clinic comes in.
It's a small and intimate workshop (limited to 12 people) where you will receive one-to-one advice from five experts in the field. Over the two day workshop, Ryan, Elliot, Lisa and Nick will work with you to create a solid start-up plan. The practical, hands-on sessions will help you to devise the right plan of action for you and your idea. You'll also get all the tips, strategies and connections you need to get your start-up up and running.
Here at Carsonified we've learned a lot about web-based start-ups - both the right way to do it ... and the wrong. You'll learn from all of our mistakes and victories. By learning with us, we guarantee that your start-up will get the best start in life possible and therefore you'll be more likely to succeed.
If you have any questions, or if you prefer to pay via invoice, just email.
What You'll Walk Away With
- The Web App Survival Kit
- - Each attendee will receive this amazing kit, which is chock full of useful tips and resources. We'll also be placing valuable tools on the disc as well!
- Years of Experience
- - You'll be benefitting from Carsonified's real-world experience in running a successful web start-up. We've made the hard mistakes, so you don't have to.
- Practical Knowledge
- - We're not going to bore you with theory. You will receive practical training that focuses on information that you can immediately incorporate into your start-up.
Who should attend?
- Anyone who is planning to launch a web-based Start-Up company
- Business owners who are managing a small team that is building a web app
Past Reviews
"I gained tons of practical advice. All valuable hands-on stuff." - Henrik Pettersen, MTV
"The question and answer section was excellent" - Mark Francis, Yahoo!
"The workshop was extremely useful and well organised" - Duncan Ponting, BBC
"Comparing example architecture to our own gave us some really great ideas" - Richard Keen, Multimap
"It was invaluable to get confirmation that other big players are using the same approaches as us" - Erki Esken, Skype
"I loved the real-life practical examples and insight into the rules behind web standards" - Andy Brockie, Guardian Unlimited
"It was great meeting other quality developers" - Ryan King, Technorati
"The workshop was great for comparing experiences" - Jeff Veen, Adaptive Path
"Being able to ask questions and participate freely was great" - Marcia Palmer, Cabinet Office
"No fluff, just good real-world info. Bravo!" - Christopher Kelly, State Farm Insurance
"Great real-world examples." -Ahren Gerber, elliance.com
"Superb organisation and preparation - thankyou!" - Andrew Hoskings
"I'll break even on this investment, both in terms of time and money, within one week!" - D Rondell
"What a great workshop! Both engaging and useful." - Chris Graver, Bank of America
"Great real-world examples." -Ahren Gerber, elliance.com
"The Survival Kit was really helpful." - Paula Davies, Legal and General
"A very valuable and interesting day." - Simon Goodwin
"Very impressive." - Carl Huber
"The Survival Kit will be really useful for reference." - Seb Butcher
How large is the workshop?
We've limited the number of attendees to 12, to enable everyone to participate in the practical elements of the course
Free Cashflow Example
We've put together a free example cashflow spreadsheet for you. Feel free to take it for a spin.
Schedule - Day One
- Registration & Coffee: 8:15 - 9:00am
- Your Idea and its Viability (Ryan Carson)
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- How to perform basic market research
- How to determine who your customers will be
- Determining if the market is oversaturated or if you've found a valuable niche
- Differentiating yourself
- How will your business make money?
- Advertising, subscription or one-time payment model?
- Determine the value of your product or service
- US Dollars, Euros or the British Pound?
- Is your product or service right for the premium or economy market?
- Funding Your Start-Up (Ben Holmes, Index Ventures)
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- Bootstrap, Venture Capital, Angel Investment - what's involved?
- Which one is right for you?
- How much money do you really need?
- The next step - getting the money
- Coffee Break: 10:30 - 10:45
- Registering Your Company (Nick Callen)
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- Limited, Limited Liability Partnership or Sole Trader?
- How much will this cost you and how can you save money?
- Actually applying to register your company
- Accounting and bookkeeping (Nick Callen)
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- Finding an affordable and reliable accountant
- The basics of bookkeeping so you can save cash
- QuickBooks, Sage or MYOB - how to choose which is best for you
- Customer support (Ryan Carson)
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- How many customer support queries to expect and how to deal with them
- The secret to dealing with large amounts of customer support queries
- How to apply the Golden Rule and keep those customers coming back
- Gorgeous lunch is provided: 12:30 - 1:30
- IT infrastructure & Office (Ryan Carson)
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- MS Office, Google Docs or iWork - How to choose a software platform that's expandable and affordable
- Should you use EC2/FlexiScale, Google Apps, S3 etc
- How to use Version Control to avoid source code disasters
- Mac or PC?
- The essentials - what you need and what's a waste of money
- How to save money on desks, chairs, phones and office supplies
- Office or your top bedroom? Tips for choosing a location
- Your Sites (Ryan Carson)
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- Creating a website strategy - For example, do you need a company site?
- Beta testing and soft launching
- Do you need a blog?
- Coffee Break: 3:30 - 3:45
- Designing and Building Your Site (Elliot Jay Stocks)
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- Choosing the right brand
- Creating an effective wireframe
- What colours and typography say about you
- Simple XHTML and CSS tips to make your site accessible and search engine friendly
- Usability case studies - two in-depth walkthroughs showing what works and what doesn't
- How to find the right designer, how much will they cost?
- Newsletter design - the dos and don'ts
- Q & A: 5:30 - 6:00
- Social: 7:00 - Late
Schedule - Day Two
- Coffee & Croissants: 8:00 - 9:00
- Marketing (Lisa Price & Ryan Carson)
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- Ideas for marketing on a budget
- A list of marketing that you absolutely must do
- Do you need to advertise? How much does it cost?
- Should you advertise - where to spend the money
- Advanced tips for measuring your traffic with Google Analytics
- Knowing what people want - how to use Crazy Egg effectively
- How to create a passionate community around your product or service
- How to write copy that will increase revenue and communicate more effectively with your audience
- Coffee break: 10:30 - 10:45
- Important, but boring, Bank Stuff (Ryan Carson)
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- Which bank is right for you?
- How to establish a solid and friendly relationship with your Bank Manager
- The simple way to negotiate better rates and deals
- Your Merchant Account (Ryan Carson)
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- Which banks are best for merchant accounts?
- How to connect your merchant account to your bank account
- Technical tips on how to hook up your website to your merchant account (tech spec hand out provided)
- How to connect your merchant account to your accounting software
- Gorgeous lunch is provided: 12:30 - 1:30
- How to stay in business (Ryan Carson)
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- How to set up an effective cash flow spreadsheet
- The importance of knowing your margins and profitability
- What are the hidden costs?
- How to save money - bargaining for better prices
- Doing an Expenses Laundry
- Do you need an overdraft and how to set one up
- Getting things done (Ryan Carson)
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- Do you really need to work like a dog in the early days?
- How to keep a healthy work-life balance
- Tips for using IMAP to make life better
- Activating your to-do list secret weapon
- Coffee break: 3:30 - 3:45
- Your Team a.k.a. employees (Ryan Carson)
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- How to decide if you're ready to hire employees
- Contracts and other really important legal crap
- How to lay the foundations so expanding is easy
- Management for dummies
- Keeping your Team happy - pay, environment, career development, rewards
- How to keep your company creative and fun
- Your Launch Plan (Ryan Carson, Lisa Price)
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- Creating your own personal Launch Plan - We'll work with you to create your own actionable plan with everything you've learned at Start-up Clinic!
- Social: 7pm - Late
Who's speaking?
Ryan Carson
Ryan started his career as lead PHP developer at several design studios. He developed his first web app during his spare time in 2003 before founding Carsonified in early 2004. Shortly after that he built his second large-scale web application, the hugely popular DropSend followed by his third web app, Amigo and the online blog/magazine Vitamin.
Since then Carsonified has become famous for organising and co-ordinating the biggest Web 2.0 event in the UK, Future of Web Apps and its sister events Future of Web Design and Future of Mobile. More recently Carsonified has created a popular site featuring handmade items for your Mac hardware, Hug My Mac
Ryan is a passionate advocate of developing forward-thinking web applications. He writes regularly on the topic of building web apps. His articles have appeared on several websites including: A List Apart, Signal Vs Noise (37signals), Treehouse, and BD4D
Elliot Jay Stocks
Elliot's design work aims to blur the boundaries between work and play. His sites are both fun, well-executed and professional at the same time. Since joining Carsonified he has redesigned the site for the company's flagship event Future of Web Apps and created the hugely popular Hug My Mac. He has also won awards for the design of his own blog ElliotJayStocks.com and has been listed on many Best of... sites for his CSS and design such as Web Designer Wall, CSS Beauty and The Best Designs
Along with producing some truly inspiring websites he is passionate about web standards and accessibility. Elliot is currently lead designer at Carsonified and writes regularly for industry-leading publications such as .net magazine.He also speaks at international design conferences and blogs profusely over at his own site and Carsonified
Ben Holmes
Ben joined Index Ventures in 2002 in the London Office. He focuses on software and internet sectors and has been actively involved with many of the firm's consumer and media investments.
Prior to joining Index Ventures, he worked at the NewMedia Spark investment fund, before becoming Vice President at EO plc, a Spark portfolio company in the consumer financial services sector. Previously he spent four years at OC&C Strategy Consultants, advising firms in the retail and IT sectors.
He has a Masters degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University.
Lisa Price
Lisa is Carsonified's Marketing and Communications Manager, responsible for the planning, implementation and measurement of all our online marketing campaigns, which include community building, event promotion, site redesigns and launches, email marketing, sponsorship, branding and copywriting.
A communications professional with ten years' experience in publishing and marketing, Lisa is a former editor of best-selling monthly web magazine .net and has written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and Times.She is also Managing Editor of Vitamin, Carsonified's award-winning online magazine for web developers,designers and entrepreneurs.
Lisa is passionate about the important role that copy plays in creating special brand experiences on and offline, and is an advocate of the modern way to do marketing - with integrity, open communication and conversations with your community.
Nick Callen
Nick is an experienced Chartered Accountant and Tax Adviser. In the early days he sacrificed his physique for his profession by studying when he should be down the gym and went on to become Finance Director for several large and small organisations in various parts of the world.
Seven years ago he set up his own accountancy business solely with the aim of dealing with small and start-up business. His practice currently has a client base of some 120 clients ranging from small sole traders and partnerships with turnovers of a few thousand pounds to Ltd Companies turning over £2.5m.
He provides services such as advising on business start ups, setting up of accounting systems, preparation of accounts, preparation of tax returns and tax planning. He is well-versed in the needs of Web start-ups and has been Carsonified's faithful accountant since April 2004.
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