Topic: Business 101

Whether you are a freelancer, a moonlighter or a dedicated member of a team, your business skills come into play every day. Day Camp 4 Developers #4: Business 101 will help you hone those skills. Our 6 speakers will present from their real-life experiences as they help you sharpen your existing skills as well and learn new ones.

Date: March 3rd, 2012 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM CST

We will be using FuzeMeeting.com. This means you can participate from your computer - Windows, Linux or OSX - or your iOS device.

Price: $40

Whether you want to participate live or get the videos and watch later, you still get six hours of great content for $40.

Host an office party!

Got 2 friends who also want to attend, get togehter and have an Office Party. Actually, we don't care if you all work together or if you are a local User Group and want to share the experience, any group of 3 or more can save by getting the Office Party ticket. The Office Party ticket gets you one connection into the conference. Grab a laptop, projector and a group of friends and make a day of it.

Meet the Camp Counselors

Lorna Jane Mitchell: Time and Money
You've heard the saying "Time is Money", and it's great advice for anyone looking to make a living working for themselves.  Freelancers need to have a good grasp of both time and money in order to make their businesses work; raw talent isn't enough (although it helps!).  Time means knowing what you should be doing today, what you did three weeks ago on Thursday, and when and whom you can bill for what.  Money means billing the right rate and then actually getting your invoice paid.  If you think paperwork is a drag then you're in great company; I often hear that comment, and I felt the same way when I went independent - but I soon learned to think differently!  This session looks at time and money as separate entities and gives tips for handling both from the point of view of a software developer who learned to love the business numbers.

Jacques Woodcock:  Protecting yourself from a Lawsuit
As you deal with bigger and bigger contracts, the risk of incurring a lawsuit, either by your fault or that of the client's, becomes more and more probable. If you win this lottery and are not properly protected you could lose more than your time, you can lose money, your possessions and more importantly your reputation.

In this session we will talk about the different means to protect yourself from being sued and how to set the stage of your business so in the unfortunately case you are, you won't lose everything you own.

Thursday Brahm:  Planning Your Business for the Long Term 
Abstract: You may think to yourself that you're a developer — as long as you do good work, your freelance career or business is going to grow no matter what else you do. But to keep moving forward, you've got to have a solid plan. You need to not only have goals that will make sure your efforts are on track, but that lays out what you're going to have to do beyond write awesome code. This session will break down the basics of creating a plan for your business, including setting goals and getting access to the resources you need to carry out that plan.  

Tara Aaron: Put It In writing: Why good clear written agreements are important for developers and their clients

Contracts are not just about boilerplate legalese.  We'll talk about how a good written contract can save you money, make you money, and make you and your clients much happier.  Topics will include how IP ownership can be affected by contract language, guidelines for the most important provisions to get into your contract, and real life examples of what happens when the contract isn't clear.

John Mertic: Is it good for the company?
One challenge that many new CS grads come into direct contact with on entering the workforce is learning to reconcile their technical skills with the realities of their employer. For example, most technical folks when encountered with an old, aging, and/or decrepit application system will counter with the knee-jerk reaction of a rip and replace or a complete application re-write. But that solution may not make business sense, as the costs of such a move could outweigh the benefits. There are many other situations like this where combining technical skills with business intuition can help drive forward projects and advance your career. In this talk, I'll give pointers and direction on how to improve your business soft skills by learning how to decipher and deal with corporate culture.

Paul M. Jones: Career and Life Planning
Details coming soon, watch the website.

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