Use this course as your A-Z, step-by-step roadmap to turn a business idea into a profitable business.
Achieve freedom and independence that comes from being your own boss.
Includes my 200-page business plan book which is used by a number of universities.
Even if you are an absolute beginner, this course will guide you to successfully plan and start your business.
ARE YOU BUILDING YOUR FIRST BUSINESS AND FEEL LOST AND UNSURE OF WHAT STEPS TO TAKE?
YOU ARE NOT ALONE…
Millions of first-time entrepreneurs feel that way, and that’s exactly how I felt when I started my first business 20 years ago. I’ve felt the stress you are feeling, and I’ve been through the hardships you are facing.
The great news is that I’ll walk you through every step of starting your business from selecting the best business idea, to business planning, registering your business, raising money, and starting your business with correct fundamentals to give your business the best chance to succeed.
WELL-KNOWN FACT ABOUT STARTING A BUSINESS
Getting the right advice and direction from an expert will help you greatly decrease your learning curve, minimize your period of struggle, and give you the best chance to succeed.
WHAT YOU WILL ACCOMPLISH BY THE END OF THE COURSE
By the end of this course, you will no longer be one of thousands of “wantapreneurs.” You will have taken your first positive steps to business success. You will become a strong and independent entrepreneur. You’ll know exactly where you are going in business and how you are going to get there. You will be able to make correct and confident decisions.
Use this course as a step-by-step entrepreneurship guide to go from business ideas to starting a successful business.
INSTRUCTOR BACKGROUND: ALEX GENADINIK
My business plan book ‘How To Write A Business Plan’ is consistently the top business plan book on Amazon. My book is used by a number of universities and high schools in business class curriculums and entrepreneurship centers. I regularly get invited by these institutions to give talks about starting a business to aspiring entrepreneurs.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for 20 years, have personally coached over 1,000 entrepreneurs, taught business topics to 150,000 students and helped millions of entrepreneurs worldwide to create 6 and 7-figure businesses in the process, and I can help you too.
Imagine how much better and easier your road to success will be, and how much more you can achieve with an experienced mentor.
WHY THIS BUSINESS COURSE IS UNIQUE
There is a unique story behind this course. I originally created the Problemio business apps which now have over 1,000,000 entrepreneurs who downloaded the apps. On the apps, entrepreneurs were able to learn business fundamentals and ask business questions. I took all the questions that were ever asked on the apps, and summed them up into the issues covered in this course. That means that the business issues covered in the course come from entrepreneurs just like you!
So if you are starting a new business, this is a great way to guarantee that the material in the course will be very relevant to the things you are going through now, or things you will be going through soon during your entrepreneurship journey.
BONUSES INCLUDED
* Lots of extra freebies, downloadable worksheets, and exercises to make the course more interactive and valuable
* Personal invitation to my Facebook community for entrepreneurs after you complete the course
* My list of 50 business-success skills after you complete the course
* Be entered to get chosen for my entrepreneur student of the month status and have your business featured
RESPONSIVE AND CARING INSTRUCTOR: WORLD-CLASS STUDENT SUPPORT
If you have questions, know that I am here to help! I answer 99% of student questions within 24 hours. Many students tell me that other instructors don’t respond. Well, I do because
1) I care about my students.
2) I feel a responsibility to make sure that students get their money’s worth from the course.
MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
This business course comes with an unconditional, Udemy-backed, 30-day money-back guarantee. This is not just a guarantee, it’s my personal promise to you that I will go out of my way to help you succeed just like I’ve done for thousands of my other students.
Invest in your future. Enroll in this now.
How to get feedback on your business ideas and make them better than ever
Common business ideas questions and issues
Real-world examples of starting businesses
-
6Five types of different business risk you must be aware of
-
7What to do if you have too many ideas
-
8Client case study: Choosing an influencer niche and monetizing it
-
9Different kinds of business ideas & what you must be aware of with each
-
10Top reasons businesses fail & how to decrease chance of failure
In this lecture of the business course I explain some of the top reasons companies fail, and explain what you can do to avoid some of the major pitfalls and help to prevent you from failing in these ways.
Productivity and emotional intelligence to make you a better entrepreneur
Should you follow your passion?
-
16EXERCISE and brief introduction to emotional intelligence, productivity
-
1750 productivity skills that will help you for the rest of your career
-
18Five productivity tips to boost quality and quantity of your work
-
19Your brain and business - which parts of the brain work when
-
20The Marshmallow test - Stanford study of the best predictor of future success
-
21Think how Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg think
How to protect intellectual property
How to write a business plan
-
23How to protect business ideas and your company's intellectual property
-
24How to protect your business by creating a moat around it
One of my favorite ways to beat your competition and protect your business ideas is to build a moat around your business. The moat strategy is a very popular and maybe an intermediate or advanced topic. In this lecture of the course I explain what is a moat strategy and how to create it for your business.
-
25For first-time entrepreneurs: More on moats, barriers, being first-to-market
It is great if the kind of company you are starting has barriers to entry. This is similar to having a moat strategy, but with a few distinction. The moat helps you during competition. The barrier to entry helps to prevent your potential competitors from even starting the business.
-
26Case study of my decision of whether to get a trademark
Business plan financials
-
27Business planning section introduction
-
28What is a business plan
In this section of the business course I explain what is a business plan (sometimes called business proposal). The business plan is a basic document that outlines your business model and general execution strategy for your company in the near and mid-term future.
-
29How long should a business plan be?
In this part of our business course I explain how long your business plan should be. Some business plans can be just one or two pages, and some business plans can be quite long. Here I explain when you need a longer and when you need a shorter business plan.
-
30The executive summary of a business plan
-
31The product section of a business plan
-
32Product mistake
-
33The stage of your business
How much progress have you made with your business? It is ok if you are just starting. Every company had to start somewhere. You must simply help the reader of your business plan know how long have you been working on your business, and what kind of traction or growth you have. If you have customers, product or revenue, this is a good place to note the maturity of those.
-
34Your market size section of the business plan
-
35Example of writing the target market and market size part of the business plan
-
36The marketing plan of your business plan
The all important marketing plan in your business plan. You must be able to promote your business and get customers. Without marketing and without clients, a business can't survive for long so your marketing plan is absolutely important. It isn't enough just to have any old marketing plan. Your marketing plan must be very good and savvy. If your current marketing plans consist of promoting on Facebook, Twitter, with business cards and flyers, you must definitely come up with a more professional marketing plan.
-
37Your business competition
You must have a section discussing your business competition. You must also explain how you are different than your competition. You don't need to say that you are better than your competition, but you should explain how your business is unique, and how it differentiates itself from competition.
-
38Your revenue streams
-
39Pricing and customer lifetime value (LTV)
-
40Your founding or management team
Discuss your founding and management team. Also mention any investors, advisors that you have on your team, and the board of directors if you have a board of directors. Most importantly, list all the members of your founding team, their education, and their relevant skill sets and professional experience.
-
41Your business unit economics
Unit economics are a good way to look at a single transaction in your business and understand its finances at a small level. The unit economics can give you a lot of insight about the health of your business.
-
42S.W.O.T analysis
-
43S.W.O.T example
Promotion and marketing strategy for your business
-
44The cash flow statement
The cash flow statement is an important financial part of your business plan. The cash flow statement is as much a very good thing to add to this document as it is good for you to be able to look at a cash flow statement and use the cash flow statement to help you understand where all the money is going and coming from in your business. Having a cash flow statement can help you to realize what to do to stop or decrease some of your spending, and what to do to increase revenue.
-
45How to calculate the gross profit, net profit and the bottom line
-
46How to calculate your company profit margin
-
47Example of calculating profit and margin
-
48Balance sheet introduction
-
49When do you need a business plan?
How to raise money to start your business
-
50Marketing plan section introduction
-
51Basic marketing plan for an Ecommerce product
-
52Local business marketing plan example
-
53Agency or services (marketing, web development, design) company marketing plan
-
54Marketing plan for a blog or YouTube or podcast or influencer or coach
-
55Marketing plan for a platform or big website domination
-
56Marketing plan for an innovative new product or website
-
57B2B company marketing plan
Business Registration
-
58Fundraising section introduction
-
59How much money you need to raise
-
60WORKSHEET: New business expenses and calculating how much you need to raise
-
61WORKSHEET: Existing business expenses and calculating how much to raise
-
62Fundraising paths worksheet
-
63Bootstrapping your business
Most businesses don't end up raising money, and for that reason they must do something called bootstrapping. Bootstrapping is simply a way to start and grow your business by finding ways to do that without needing much money or any money. This is what most businesses must do when they start.
-
64Raising money from loans
In this part of the course I explain how to raise money by getting loans, the difference between raising money from personal loans and business loans, and what options entrepreneurs typically have. It isn't easy to get a loan to start a business, but in some cases it makes sense and it is possible to get a small business loan.
-
65Raising money from grants
Do you want to get a business grant? Many people ask about whether they can get a grant to start their business. It is more difficult to get a grant for businesses which have not started, but if you have started, there are a few grants available for small businesses. Check out this lecture to understand how to fund your business or project with a grant, or whether grants are not a good option for you.
-
66Notes on grants
Extra resources for getting grants for your business.
-
67Raising money from investors
How to get grants by getting investors. There are many kinds of different investors. The different kinds of investors are angel investors, start-up incubators, seed investors, professional venture capitalists (VC) and investors who invest in specific kinds of businesses like maybe restaurants or real estate, or local businesses, or high growth start-up companies.
-
68Raising money from donations and crowdfunding
There are two ways to get donations for your business. There is the old fashioned way to get donations by reaching out do rich donors or philanthropists like many nonprofits do. And there is also a new way to get donations for your business called crowdfunding. You can raise donations for your business with crowdfunding by trying to raise money on KickStarter, IndieGoGo, or GoFundMe. It is now possible to get donations from the crowd online. It isn't easy to do crowdfunding, but it is possible.
-
69Earning money from your own revenue
One of the best ways to fund your business is by doing it through the revenue of your own company. Instead of waiting for money to come from a different course, why not just earn the money from your own customers. It is, in fact, what I did with my business, and what I recommend doing to other entrepreneurs. Long-term, you will have to get the money to grow your business from your customers anyway so you might as well start to focus on making money from your customers sooner than later.
-
70Creative fundraising: Host events & workshops or selling educational products
Events are a great way to get clients, extra revenue, build extra awareness, and build loyal fans. Basically, events are a great marketing strategy for most kinds of businesses. Events can range from small meetups that drum up community to educational workshops to large conferences. It all depends on the kind of business you have, your event promotion abilities, and your ultimate business goals.
Bringing your idea into reality (business name, brand, website, etc)
-
71Should you register your business
-
72Company registration and formation decision (LLC vs. S Corp vs. C Corp)
-
73Why you need a commercial bank account
Why you need a commercial bank account for your business, and why you should not mix your personal finances and your personal bank account with the bank account of your business and the income and revenue you get from your business. All businesses should ideally have a commercial bank account.
-
74What is a nonprofit and difference between for-profit and nonprofit
Advanced: Business systems
-
75NEW! 3 ways to do a great product launch
How to do a great launch of your product. I explain how to launch in 3 different ways. This lecture is taken from my mobile apps course, but applies to other technology startups.
-
76How to choose a great website domain name
Some tips on how to get a good domain name for your business even if it feels that all the good domains have been taken.
-
77How to choose a great business name
How to choose a good business name and brand for your business.
-
78How to set up your website quickly, cheaply, professionally, and on your own
Basic explanation of how to set up your website. Incidentally I have additional courses on how to find a great domain name and how to set up a Wordpress website in 1 day. All links to those are in the last lecture of this course.
For non-technical entrepreneurs starting technical businesses
Case study of my current business from idea to failures to success
-
80Got a technical business idea? Tips to learn to code on your own!
This lecture does not necessarily need to belong in this business course, but for people who want to get into a mobile app business, creating the app is a struggle so I added a suggestion on how to learn to code in order to make your app or software product for free.
-
81Nightmares from outsourcing technical product development
-
82My case study part 1: Early entrepreneurship and years of failure