Learn to Start a New Business
Prepare to start up a new business over as little as one weekend! Understand what is behind a successful business and benefit from hands on knowledge and experience with this Short Course. Identify your potential customers, learn how to make a sale and how to then deliver your product or service.
Lesson Structure
There are 8 lessons in this course:
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INTRODUCTION - A REALITY CHECK
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Businesses don’t need to fail
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Getting a product that is saleable
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Establishing management systems
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Finding potential customers
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Selling to potential customers
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Delivering the product
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Know your strengths
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Types of Businesses
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THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE
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Passion is not enough
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Consider your options
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Scale of Business
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What you might sell
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Supply and demand
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Understanding change
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Developing ideas for businesses
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Primary industries
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Manufacturing
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Professional services
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Future growth areas
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Time saver services and products
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SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING A BUSINESS
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Cost of systems
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Compliance and procedures
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Business systems
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Total quality management (tqm)
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Innovation management
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Information technology
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Staff management
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Employee induction
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Performance management
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Financial management
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The simplest approach
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Planning in business
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Creating a strategic plan
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Risk
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Strategy formation and implementation
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HOW TO FIND POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
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How can you become visible?
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Technology
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Media
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Trends
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How to attract attention
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Target marketing - strategies, market segmentation, etc.
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Competition
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Market research
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The marketing mix
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HOW TO MAKE A SALE
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What makes a good salesperson
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Who is the customer
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Making a decision
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Rational decisions
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Heuristic procedures
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Decision making processes
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Selling online
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DELIVERING A PRODUCT OR SERVICE
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Presentation and packaging
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Ways of delivering products and services
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Virtual consulting
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Virtual education
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Mail order retailing
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Selling downloads
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Customer satisfaction
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Review what you have been learning
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PITFALLS TO AVOID / RULES TO FOLLOW
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Managing money
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Keeping cash flowing
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Persistence
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Doing market research
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Keeping up with change
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Sales focus
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Being different
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Niche products and services
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Business coaching
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Final assessment
Why we developed this course.
Many new businesses fail. This is often because they are started on a whim, driven by an interest or passion which seems promising at the time, but is not properly thought through before time and money is invested.
The new business owner is often so motivated to get things started that they jump into the project with "blinkered" eyes, and do not notice their mistake until it is too late.
The best way to start any business is much slower; learning about business first and then planning and preparing over many months before launching. It's hard to move slowly when your enthusiasm is running high though.
This course was developed as a balanced compromise - to provide you with an opportunity to fast track learning the most critical things about starting a business in as little as a few days if you want. This way, you can quickly get yourself up to speed without delaying moves to begin. You can then make better informed early decisions. That reduces risk of failure and increases the chance for success.
