How to take your one-person software start-up from start to success

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Rob Walling, entrepreneur, has come up with a great business model for a one person entrepreneur, looking to launch his or her product quickly and effectively without going through a steep learning curve. When I first heard about them, I have to admit I was a bit wary. I have never been a fan of online learning sites and this one seemed to be just one more of those. However after reviewing their course materials, and accessing their website for a few days, I have to say I am impressed. Usually these courses are 90% theory that will usually be proven wrong after a couple of years and very little practical content. This one gets it right through an intense focus on practicalities of product launch and getting the strategy vs implementation balance exactly right.

The Micropreneur Academy is an online training program and community for current and aspiring software entrepreneurs, and priced at $97 a month. Its goal is to create a community for software entrepreneurs and take one-person software startups from zero to launch in four months. The creator, Rob Walling is a full-time Serial Micropreneur based in Fresno, California. Rob is the main force behind the Academy, but guest contributors include Bob Walsh, author of "Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality", and Ian Ozsvald of ProCasts.co.uk.

The academy begins with lessons that help define the goals of the Micropreneur and continues through all aspects of the product development process, ending in lessons about managing your business, accounting and legal obligations, and the process of seeking out angel and venture capital funding. The lessons are well organized and share actual examples of the situations entrepreneurs face while launching their products. The company has arranged exclusive discounts for Academy members on mentoring rates from experienced entrepreneurs. This is a member benefit; the Academy receives no funds from mentors and takes no portion of mentoring fees..

As a special for Examiner readers, Micropreneur Academy agreed to share the outline of the course module and one lesson module for free. The lesson they have included is perhaps the most useful one - and it is about finding niche and product ideas - which can sometimes be the biggest stumbling block for entrepreneurs. The free lesson is available here.

The modules are organized as follows:

Module 1: Introduction to Micropreneurship

Exchanging software for cash is the revenue model most of us think of, but there are many models available for one-person companies. In this lesson we look at your options and discuss the best time to use each approach.

Module 2: Building the Right Product

Estimating demand is one thing, but watching real people visit your website and decide whether to buy is another. This lesson looks at how, for less than $100, you can test traffic, click through rates and conversions before you build your product.

It's a difficult choice of whether to build or buy. In lesson 1 of this module we looked at the pros and cons of both. If you make the decision to hire our your product construction here are things you need to do to ensure your success. Also included are inexpensive, reliable resources I've used to successfully build applications.

Module 3: Taking the Risk Out of Buying a Product

In this lesson we'll look at how three purchase transactions played out.

Module 4: Creating a Killer Sales Website

Privacy policies, terms of use, copyright.should you bother with any of these? How can you create the legal documents you need without forking over a month's rent to your lawyer?

Module 5: Proven Methods for Traffic Generation

Viral marketing has arguably the highest ROI of any form of internet marketing. Add social applications to the mix and you have the potential to very quickly generate a substantial number of users for your application.

Module 6: Growing Profits through Analytics

A/B and multivariate testing are powerful, but how do you determine what to vary in these tests? This lesson takes an in-depth look at specific approaches to increasing conversion rates.

Module 7: Launch and Beyond

The day after launch you're going to start receiving feature requests. How do you manage them, develop the product and provide support all at the same time? This lesson takes a detailed look at how to make it happen.

Module 8: Case Studies

I built and launched a product a few years ago that went viral and garnered several hundred links in a few days from high-profile sites. The success was great but I had no idea how to monetize it.

Module 9: More on Building the Right Product

It would be nice to say "Micropreneurs never give up," but the real answer is that sometimes an idea just isn't going to fly. This lesson looks at how and when to make that decision.

Module 10: More Proven Methods for Traffic Generation

If you choose your niche wisely you can often own many of the top search keywords through SEO alone. But often there are related keywords that don't directly apply to your product website. That's where Satellite websites come in.

Module 11: Your Business

Disclaimer: I have no connection with the Academy and beyond a few days access to the website for the review, did not receive anything from them