Last updated: 9/4/99
Link back to course Welcome

Getting Your Team Started

This is the start of developing your team's eCommerce web site. Before we start, a warning. Actually starting your own business is serious stuff. This course considers mainly technical issues, not, for example, legal or financial ones. You can start a web-based business very simply, with "sweat equity" -- do it yourself. But, depending on your business and need for staff, this may not be the best choice, or even an acceptable choice.

OK, that is your "due diligence" warning. Now, back to your web site.

The first step in this course is to form a team. Normally, teams will have from three to five members. For people registering late, the Instructor may require a team to accept a new member. From the start, the team should eschange names, telephone numbers and email addresses. The team should agree on a work schedule, including any outside meetings. The team should choose people to play the following roles:

• CEO. In this course, the CEO is responsible for seeing that all of the tasks are completed. The only task that the CEO must complete personally is the final team report, including descriptions of which members made which contributions. (Here, a general statement that "we all shared the work" will not be sufficient.)
• CIO, or Chief Information Officer. This person has overall responsibility for the functioning of the team eCommerce web site.
• Computer Graphics Guru. Many teams will want graphics on their web site. Finding and/or creating these can be a special burden. Your Graphics Guru will provide leadership here.

The next step for the team, if it has not already been done, is to decide on one or more products to sell. This can be either goods or information. And, how will your web site make money? Will users pay for your services? Will you sell advertizing on your site? Will you establish an audience and then sell out to a larger web site? While I do not, as Instructor, want in any way to restrict your imagination here, here are a couple of possiblities to consider:

• Find and publish the requirements for starting a business, or web graphics.
• Offer to produce web sites according to a customer's requirements.
• Collect opinions from people who have taken particular courses, and sell this information to people who are thinking of taking the course. After five years' experience, what do people think about the course?

A business plan is an indispensable part of any start-up company, including yours for this course. The business plan should describe the status of the business, describe how the it expects to grow, and describe the obstacles it expects and how it expects to overcome or live with them. The benefits of a business plan for a start-up are:

• By writing the standard sections, the principle players are forced to think about all of the facets of their business, and to agree on their expectations for the business. For example, can you reasonably expect revenues to exceed expenses before your self-financing runs out, or will you have to borrow money to start the business?
• If your business cannot be self-financed, then you must borrow start-up funds, and any experienced lender will expect a carefully-written business plan. The business plan should convince your lenders that
  • You know how to run the business you are proposing
  • You are committed to its success

For this course, you will not need to produce a complete business plan. A complete business plan is typically fifty or more pages in length, and has the following sections (not necessarily in this order):

1. Cover page with company name, contact person, and statement that confidentiality is expected and required. Include address, telephone number, FAX and email.
2. Table of contents.
3. Executive summary containing the main points of the remainder of the business plan, for busy people. The "Cliff's Notes" for your business plan.
4. Company description. History of formation of the company and expectations for its future.
5. The product or service, including any unique aspects.
6. The market. What type of competition will you face?
7. Marketing. How you plan to capture your prospective customers. Besides advertising, this can include packaging, fast or convenient distribution, etc.
8. Management and ownership. Who owns the company? Who will run it? Why can they be expected to do a good job?
9. Competition. Specifics about competitors. What does each do well? Where do you think they are vulnerable?
10. Financial statements and projections. Expenses, revenues and cash flow. (Cash flow includes timing. For example if you must buy your products to fill the showroom, and pay for them right away, but sales won't start for a month, and then the customers can back pay a month, you will have a negative cash flow for two months.)
11. Appendices. This can include resumes, an organization chart and further supporting data.

While the business plan is written for a general audience (that is, not, for example, engineers in your field), many of the readers will be street-savvy, and will treat incomplete pictures or rosy scenarios harshly. Do not hide problems.

Your business plan for this course should include the following sections:

• Cover page with company name, contact person, and statement that confidentiality is expected and required. Include address, telephone number, FAX and email.
• Table of contents.
• Executive summary containing the main points of the remainder of the business plan, for busy people. The "Cliff's Notes" for your business plan.
• The product or service, including any unique aspects.
• Competition. Specifics about competitors. What does each do well? Where do you think they are vulnerable?
  [Get this information from the Yellow Pages and from an Internet search]
• [This part not due until 10/27] Financial statements and projections. Expenses, revenues and cash flow. (Cash flow includes timing. For example if you must buy your products to fill the showroom, and pay for them right away, but sales won't start for a month, and then the customers can back pay a month, you will have a negative cash flow for two months.)
  [Include the following expenses:
  * Web services such as hosting, design, creation
  * Cost of product
  * Order fulfillment, such as shipping
  * Expenses for credit card verification
  * Any salaries and wages
  * Any printing, mailing or advertising expenses
  * Computer equipment and software
  * Domain name registration and/or digital certificate
  Include the following revenues:
  * Purchases by customers
  * Any assumed revenues from others advertizing on your web site