The overwhelming reason people come out to TeamCamp is because they want to learn how to “bootstrap” a web-based business. Maybe you’ve got an idea: You’ve talked to your friends, family and business associates and they think that maybe you’re on to something. So what’s next? Prepare a business plan? Market research? Incorporate? Start building it or find someone to help you build it? Where do you start?

Great news! Over the coming months our meetings will be structured around how to start and build a successful web or software-based business. At each TeamCamp meeting (the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month) we will discuss a different topic and as often as possible we’ll bring in experts from the startup community to speak about their business and answer our questions.

I’m especially pleased to announce that Jason Kealey will be our first guest speaker! Jason is the co-founder of Lavablast Software Inc, a software development firm that focuses on software for franchisers. Many of you may be familiar with Jason as he’s a regular at Code Factory events and has done some great work for Ian. Jason will be talking about defining your product or service, and in particular, what makes a great idea.

Jason will be coming to the next TeamCamp meeting on March 19th, at The Code Factory.

Here’s a summary of what other topics we’ve got lined up over the coming months (thanks to entrepreneurship.com for some of these categories):

1. Defining your product or service

• What makes a great idea
• What are we trying to do? (Mission)
• What problem do we solve? (Faster/Better/Easier/Cheaper)
• Do we truly modify the way business is being done in our industry (as a change agent) or is this more of a fad or a trend? (Market Trends/First Mover Advantage (FMA))

2. Picking the right business model – a discussion on the types and pros and cons of different Internet business models. We’ll invite members of the startup community to talk about their business model and why they choose it.

• free (ad funded)
• free (referral fees)
• free/premium
• transactional
• subscription
• ad networks (google etc)

3. Sales, marketing and distribution Channels

• How do we reach our customers?
• How do we obtain our initial customers?
• Which are the easiest to reach?
• What are the target customers’ decision-making processes?

4. Competition/Competitive analysis

• Who else is doing this? Who are our competitors?
• How do we differentiate our product? (price, quality, value, features)
• What relationships do they currently have in place that will need to be terminated for them to do business with us?

5. Market research (substantiation)

• What market research do we do to be sure that someone wants to buy this product or service at this price – or at all?
• Market research on a shoestring budget

6. Creating a business model

• Defining who are we? (Team)
• How are we going to get it done? (Operations)
• Are these targeted customer relationships profitable? How do we make money? (Business Model)
• What do we need to accomplish our goals? (Cost structure/Budget/Resources)
• When will we be profitable? (Breakeven/Timetable)

7. Starting your business (finance and legal stuff)

• Incorporating
• Financing your business (self-funding, angel investor, venture capital)
• Business structure (go alone, or partnering, share structures, employees, sweat equity)

8. Patents, trademarks, licensing and intellectual property

• How to search for trademarks
• Patents
• Licensing models (opensource, Creative Commons, etc)
• Protecting your with IP

9. Building your business – how to find people, keep your people and make steady progress

• Finding people to help you (sweat equity, outsourcing, employees)
• Agile project management and software development (agile, scrum, test driven development)
• Finding alpha and beta users, bug tracking and feature requests
• Accounting, taxation , GST/PST and general administration

We’re also looking for other people in the startup community that would be willing to come out one of our meetings and speak. If you would like to do so, or if you know someone that would be interested in coming out, please email me at chrisjschmitt[at]gmail[dot]com.

Update:

TeamCamp is held every 1st and 3rd Thursday from 5:45 to 8:00PM on the 2nd floor of the The Code Factory at 246 Queen St. West in Ottawa. You do not need to be a member to come to a TeamCamp meeting however eventually you will need to join the TeamCamp Wiki to participate more fully.

PS – there is a small fee of $5/person per meeting to help subsidize the space – contribute to the “Cookie Jar” when you arrive.