I
Can Start a Business
and Do e-commerce.
I couldn't help but realize that the Internet is one of the best ways an individual can have and share "Total Access" which has been my vision for many years. When I discovered the Educational Technology Leadership program at George Washington University I knew it would provide me with the deadlines to discover and reach my more specific goals. My college courses motivated me to practice with a variety of software and hardware and required me to refine my vision. My specific goals are to develop Internet instruction to compete with, and in time, replace bad schools and teachers with vibrant educational environments.
First I had to think of a catchy domain name for my Internet based educational business and then I had to do a name search to see if anyone else had that name. Through the web site called www.godaddy.com I searched and bought the name www.talentteacher.com for about nine dollars a year. I then had to get a business Internet account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and they had to point my new domain name to my new business directory on their server. With all the pictures on my site I needed at least twenty-five megabytes of server space so I have to pay around twenty-five dollars a month for that.
For an Internet based educational business to become profitable my students would have to be able to enter their credit card numbers online to pay for my lessons. So I needed a merchant's account with a company who is an intermediate with all the credit card companies. But before I could get a merchants account I needed a business bank account to automatically receive the credit card transactions. The business bank account doesn’t cost much more than a regular account, but to get a business bank account I needed a federal tax number from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The federal tax number cost a few dollars and I had to fill out a form. To get a business bank account I also needed a business license from the courthouse, which required about thirteen dollars a year, and I had to fill out another short form. Then I had to display my business license on my web site. Not enough people made donations to my art lesson business to pay for it's up keep so my business license is now out of date. But that was only my first try at a business and I will do better next time because I learned so much from that first business.
Finally I was able to get a merchants account because I had all the things I needed to get a business bank account. The merchant account cost about a thousand dollars to set up and fifty dollars a month but then people were able to send me money when they liked the lessons on my web pages. Now days there are much less expencive and easier to use merchant account companies than the one I used. But when you are providing a service or product on line this is called e-commerce.
Objective: The students will create a quick pretend business, a business log, a resume web page and a business page. You will make a link from the business page to the resume page.
1. Log the following steps on a word processor document (Word or Word Perfect) which can be checked at any time to asses your progress and evaluate your grade. (100 Test Points for each checking)
2. Choose a pretend product or service, an appropriate name for your company, check to see if the name has been taken on www.godaddy.com and write what you found as a complete sentence in your log. (100 Points) 20 minutes.
3. Choose a web page style that is appropriate for the advertisement and distribution of your product or service. This part of your grade will be based on documentation in your log of three web sites that have goals similar to yours. You may cut and paste the URLs but include a sentence with them describing each site to which they point. (100 Points) 15 minutes
4. Create your resume by filling out the provided check list and using the HTML editor on your computer. Include your best school subjects and your personal interests which are applicable to your business. (100 Points) 30 minutes
5. Enter the URLs of a bank, an internet service provider (ISP) and a merchants account company into your Business Log in three complete sentences. (100 Points) 20 minutes
6. Create a business web page using Front Page or Dream Weaver and include a link to your resume page. The title of your site is your choice but the name of the document must be all lower case, with no spaces and as follows. (your last name, your first name, your class period and .html.) No capital letters and no spaces will be used between the words. Example: broomejoe5.html (100 Test Points) 40 minutes
7. Use File Transfer Protocol software to create a directory on the ISP server and send your business page and resume to the server with the following information.
Host Address:
User Name:
Password:
(100 Points) 10 minutes8. Call your local courthouse and ask them to send you an application for a sole proprietorship business license. Write your name on it and turn it in to me. (100 Test Points) Homework
9. Fill out the Employer Identification Number application as accurately as possible using data from the IRS web page. (100 Test Points) 20 minutes
10. Present your web page to the class explaining your financial and motivational goals for the business and the rational for its design. (100 Test Points) 5 minutes each
You have five class periods to complete this project so use your time wisely, work fast and accurately.
You will do well!