Introduction (39 minutes)
  • Course Overview
  • Join our community on Slack!
  • The Sprintkick story
  • Seven reasons to start a web development business
  • How to add development services to an already existing business
  • Who this course is for
  • Section 1 Review Material
  • Review sheets & resources - all in one PDF
The Essentials (47 minutes)
  • Understanding the development stack
  • How to pick a stack
  • The startup timeline
  • How does this work as a programmer / non programmer?
  • How do development firms typically work?
  • Build yourself or subcontract?
  • In-house hiring or out-of-house?
  • Section 2 Review Material
Planning your strategy (40 minutes)
  • Good - Fast - Cheap
  • Planning for the grind
  • To niche or not to niche
  • Types of subcontractors
  • In-country or out-of-country?
  • Section 3 Review Material
Setting up your presence (76 minutes)
  • Focus on 80/20 solutions for web presence
  • Looking at other studios Part 1
  • Looking at other studios Part 2
  • Finding a template on TemplateMonster
  • Finding a template on themeforest
  • Selecting a name
  • Advanced: Upgrading your presence with custom design
  • Section 4 Review Material
Finding subcontractors (74 minutes)
  • Where to find subcontractors
  • What makes a good long term partner?
  • Intro to Elance Part 1
  • Intro to Elance Part 2
  • Intro to UpWork Part 1
  • Intro to UpWork Part 2
  • Intro to Freelancer
  • Finding freelancers elsewhere
  • Section 5 Review Material
Building a portfolio (22 minutes)
  • Building portfolios upfront
  • Use these tricks to grow your portfolio faster
  • Thoughts about portfolios
  • Buying testimonials and case studies with catchafire
  • Section 6 Review Material
Getting clients (72 minutes)
  • Strategy: Email scrape and blast
  • Strategy: Offer adjacent services to those trying to hire in house
  • Strategy: Discount offers to groups
  • Strategy: Use your affiliations
  • Strategy: Tag your work
  • Strategy: Selling things that require maintenance
  • Strategy: This sucks, let me fix it
  • Strategy: The perpetual discount
  • Strategy: Build something and give it away
  • Strategy: Making tutorials strategy
  • Section 7 Review Material
Building proposals (84 minutes)
  • Types of proposals
  • Components of proposals
  • Types of estimates
  • Our technique, in depth costs of everything
  • Going over tools for improving your proposals
  • How much do you customize
  • Ballpark estimates versus exacto
  • Strategy: Introduce ideas and see if they stick
  • Section 8 Review Material
Managing clients (60 minutes)
  • How to keep the right amount of distance
  • Confidence is key
  • Just enough jargon
  • Sniffing out their budget
  • Speed is important with clients
  • Is the client always right?
  • Don't talk about problems, say what's happening
  • Do you deliver what's good or what the client likes?
  • Section 9 Review Material
Best practices (105 minutes)
  • Under promise, over deliver
  • What is agile? Should I use it?
  • Client budgets and what difference they make
  • Web presence clients aren't worth it
  • Price per project, price per hour
  • Should you worry about competition?
  • Hedging your launch date
  • Beautiful design makes beautiful development
  • Running without contracts
  • Red flags for bad clients
  • Rich clients versus successful clients
  • Tell when you're getting fizzled
  • Don't quote off the top of your head
  • Meeting in person
  • Is there a benefit to delivering early?
  • Repeat customers are the best
  • Avoid assumers