How to Start a Business Course (How To)

If you have an idea and think you can make some money off it, it's time to start a business! In this course, we're going to look at what it means to take an idea and make a business model out of it. Once we have a business model, we're going to spread the word, try to sell our product and get real customers!

What you'll learn

• Product market fit
• Exploring a business model
• Inbound marketing strategies
• Sales basics

Discovery

Before we start working on our business, we need to flesh our idea how to form a starting business model. In this stage, we're going to take a simple idea and break it down into nine different stages using the Business Model Canvas.

Chevron 13 steps

• Introduction

  3:41

• Breaking Down Our Business

  4:33

• Value Proposition

  7:05

• Customer Segments

  10:54

• Value Proposition and Customer Segments

  5 questions

• Channels

  9:19

• Customer Relationships

  5:36

• Channels and Customer Relationships

  5 questions

• Key Activities, Key Resources and Key Partners

  7:37

• Revenue and Costs

  10:46

• Industry Analysis

  3:05

• Recap

  6:38

• Discovery

  8 questions

Product Market Fit

Once we have a starting business model, we need to test all the assumptions we put forward and eliminate those that don't work. In this stage, we're going to talk about product market fit and how we can conduct experiments to learn what works and what customers want.

Chevron 5 steps

• Testing Our Assumptions

  8:11

• Experiments

  5:48

• Persevere or Pivot

  4:16

• Recap

  3:01

• Product Market Fit

  6 questions

Marketing Your Product

One of the most important activities when starting a business, marketing allows us to spread the word about our product or service to our customer base and increase our reach. In this video we look at different types of marketing activities that are suited for our business.

Chevron 8 steps

• Developing Your Customer Relationships

  1:53

• Inbound Marketing

  4:41

• Inbound Marketing

  5 questions

• Content Marketing and Social Media

  6:07

• Search Engine Optimization

  6:13

• Activation Activities

  5:02

• Recap

  4:53

• Inbound Marketing Activities

  5 questions

Selling Your Product

Once you’ve made your product you have to sell it as well. There are a lot of aspects to being a great salesperson and in this series we’ll go over prospecting and qualifying leads and making a sales presentation.

Chevron 5 steps

• What is Sales?

  2:57

• Who Do I Sell To?

  4:35

• Sales Presentation

  3:25

• Recap

  3:52

• Sales

  5 questions

Financing Our Company

Starting a business and building your company doesn’t come cheap - it takes dedication, hard work, and money. Financing can come in different forms. In this stage, we’ll explore different types of funding, from debt to equity and more.

Chevron 7 steps

• Why Do We Need Money?

  1:16

• Debt Financing

  6:40

• Debt Financing

  5 questions

• Equity Financing

  9:07

• Picking Your Poison

  2:48

• Recap

  1:53

• Equity Financing

  4 questions

Next Steps

Now that you have the foundational knowledge to start your business, let's look at how we can make this official and where we go from here.

Chevron 3 steps

• Forming A Company

  3:18

• Forming a Company

  3 questions

• Next Steps

  0:54