Welcome to the Develpreneur Developer Introductory Course. We have made this course a great place to start for any of our offerings. The concepts and software we build here will be a basis for all other courses. Also, we will be creating a business for each student. This business often will be a consulting business where we can utilize our new skills. However, we will look at ways to use the web to launch other business types as well.
Even if you are familiar with all of these topics, it will help to walk through the classes. Thus you can ensure you have the software and an environment similar to the ones we describe and use. Our courses build on each other, and this is the foundation of them all. This material will help you move smoothly through each class.
In any case, make sure you read the post on generating a business idea. It will help you get started on this course with a good foundation and a goal you can embrace. We will go deeper into the process of turning hobbies into a business. However, it always helps to have a concrete idea to use as the starting point for a business.
Solving Problems
Our approach is to start all of our classes with a list of problems to solve. These issues are turned into a series of questions at the beginning of each class. There are more questions you will want to ask, but these give us a focus for the class. In fact, when you get to the end of the content there will be an assignment related to the questions. We want each class to teach the student how to solve problems as well as give them practical experience with the subject.
In this course, your business should be an underlying thought while reading and discussing the content. The assignments will often reference your business and goals. Thus, your work in each class should focus on your business. We will not be assigning busywork; instead, we will be walking students through tasks they need to perform as part of launching a business. One of our last classes even takes that final step and walks through opening the virtual doors of your enterprise.
In some of the class lectures, we will only touch on some of the topics. There will be a return to these in later courses to keep the scope manageable in this course. Because of this, you should take advantage of the class discussions and access to the facilitators to deepen your knowledge where needed.
Classes for this Course
This course contains the following classes. You can find them quickly by looking at the Introductory Course category page, or just navigate from here. You can also follow the links provided.
- Overview (this class)
- AWS intro (ec2, S3)
- Linux Overview/basics
- A crash course of the VI editor
- Your First Web Server and Page
- WordPress Basics/configuration
- Getting Around in MySQL
- Domain registration and configuration
- Writing for Fun and Profit
- Affiliate sites
- HTML Basics
- CSS Intro
- Responsive Design/Bootstrap
- Google Analytics/Evaluating your site
- Work sites – Finding customers for your new skills.
- Building Your Brand
- The Business Launch
- Balancing your new business and other obligations
The primary goal of this course is to take students from little or no IT knowledge/experience to a point where they can build a web-based business, start earning cash as a part time coder/designer or launch a blog that has a chance at providing a revenue stream.
We are not providing the ideas, but we will help you find ways to turn your passions and desires into something that provides you income as well as joy.
What You Will Build
Our goal is to have something concrete for each student as they complete classes and courses. Too much of education today is done through spoon feeding rather than building experience and skills. With that in mind, let’s look at what you will be building in this course:
Your Business
- Business concept: we will be working with you to create a business all of your own and making sure you have a focus that can lead to success
- Spot on the Internet: You will be setting up and configuring your server for hosting the applications and services you will be building. The server and infrastructure are yours to keep and not just available during the class.
- Business presence: A web server is just the beginning, we will work with you to add encryption, design, a domain name, and other aspects that make a website a professional one, rather than just another photo album on the web.
- Web Server: You will be installing and configuring your web server and learn how to create pages to market your products and services while building your online community.
An IT Infrastructure
- Blog site: You will be building a blog site that can work with your website and provide you a launching point for building your customer base and community. This class is where you learn to build your online presence.
- Affiliate Accounts: We will work with you to establish some affiliate relationships so you can get paid for the content you provide.
- Consulting Accounts: You are building up a skill set during this class, and we will show you how to provide those skills to others as a part, or full, time way to earn money
- Templates for communication: We will provide you several templates to help you present your message in a way that shows you are professional and a good employee or consultant. Thus, you are someone others want to work with. You will be customizing these for your own particular business.
Along the way, we will be helping you build the skills needed to not only do all of this for yourself but be able to help others do the same. The skills are just an entry point into a career in web and application development, but it is an entry point that can jump start your IT career as an entrepreneur or consultant.
You get out what you put in
We highly recommend blogs and podcasts as a way to build your core knowledge and as a source for your business ideas. Even a little time each week will steadily grow your business knowledge, and podcasts are a great way to learn during your commute or even as you fall asleep at night. We will provide links to articles and episodes during our classes, but in general, we find these to all be great:
- Smart Passive Income (website)
- Smart Passive Income (podcast)
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
- The Tim Ferris Show (podcast)
- The Ask Gary Vee Show (podcast)
None of these are technical/IT podcasts and are instead about building your business and getting ahead in the modern world. These are our “secret sauce” that keeps us driving to provide useful content. We hope they will help you in the same way. We will be offering you a wide variety of technical skills for launching your own business. These other sources are also a great way to add value to those technical skills. We also might bring up points mentioned in these podcasts or sites during class discussions. Thus, we want to give you an easy way to get it “straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Assignments
- Create your business idea. This might be something you have always wanted to do or a whole new idea.
- Write a paragraph or two about your business. Try to sell us on its appeal.
- Present your idea to the class for feedback and suggestions.
Further Reading
At the end of each class, we provide a further reading section. The links presented often are free reference guides and websites to further your foundation of knowledge. Although the reading is not required, you are asked to take some time at least scanning the sites and articles. When a book is referenced at least check out the outline or excerpts (as available). While being good references these further reading suggestions are good to have as a source for learning in the future. You may not need the information today, but knowing it exists is a good way to avoid headaches and re-inventing the wheel.
Let’s move on to the next step: AWS intro (ec2, S3)
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