ONLINE COURSE

Our online self-directed course allows you to create a comprehensive business plan which is crucial to the success of your business. It serves as a roadmap for your entrepreneurial journey. It helps you clearly define your business goals, identify your target market, and outline your strategies for achieving success. A well-crafted business plan not only guides your decision-making and helps you stay focused, but it also makes it easier to secure funding and attract potential investors. By laying out a detailed plan, you can anticipate challenges, measure progress, and adjust your strategies as needed, ultimately increasing your chances of building a successful and sustainable business. 

Course Outline:

Module 1: Entrepreneurship

This module aims to provide participants with a solid foundation in understanding entrepreneurship, the landscape of small business in Canada, and strategies to avoid common pitfalls. 

Module 2: Business Planning

This module highlights the significance of business planning and offers an overview of the key components found in a business plan.

Module 3: Business Model Canvas

This module introduces participants to the Business Model Canvas, covering its essential building blocks, providing step-by-step guidance on how to complete it, and including a real-life example. It also explores how to validate your business model to enhance your chances of success.

Module 4: Executive Summary

This module outlines the purpose of the executive summary, details its essential components, and offers formatting tips for creating an effective summary.

Module 5: Company Profile

This module covers the contents of the business history section, providing examples for both new and existing businesses. It explains the significance of vision and mission statements, detailing what they are and why they matter. The module also explores how to use AI to craft impactful statements that define your organization’s purpose and goals. Additionally, it includes guidance on setting business goals to be accomplished within a specified timeframe.

Module 6: Rules and Regulations

This model highlights choosing the right business structure, choosing a relevant business name, introduces requirements for registering your business name, registering with Canada Revenue Agency, and provincial regulations if you are selling online or out-of-province, business permits and licences depending on your industry, intellectual property, and labelling requirements for consumer packaging, food, textiles, precious metals, and pharmaceutical drugs.

Module 7: Market Research

This module covers the fundamentals of market research, including data collection methods, techniques for conducting surveys, and the importance of market research for your business.

Module 8: Industry Trends and Insights

This module explores industry trends and insights, featuring a case study that outlines a company's industry profile, outlook, statistics, and key trends. It also includes links to valuable resources and statistics for further research.

Module 9: Customer Identification and Segmentation

This module explains how to identify your target audience, gain insights into customers through market segmentation, and create a buyer persona, complete with an example.

Module 10: Competitive Analysis

This module details how to conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis, enabling you to identify opportunities, make informed strategic decisions, and maintain a competitive edge.

Module 11: SWOT Analysis

This module explains how to conduct a SWOT—strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats—analysis and how it empowers businesses to make informed decisions, capitalize on opportunities, mitigate risks, and achieve their strategic objectives in a dynamic and competitive environment.

Module 12: Marketing Mix

This module covers the 4P's of the marketing mix—product, price, promotion, and place—delving into the foundational concepts and essential research needed to craft the marketing section of a business plan.

Module 13: Understanding Your Value Proposition

This module explores the key components of a value proposition (VP), using the Value Proposition Canvas as a tool to design, test, and refine a company's VP, with a sample for reference. It also provides an example and guidance on writing a clear value proposition statement that effectively communicates the value of your offering.

Module 14: Products and Services

This module explains how to craft a compelling description of your product or service, clarifies the distinction between features and benefits with examples, and highlights their importance in developing effective marketing strategies.

Module 15: Revenue Model and Pricing

This module explores the framework for generating financial income by identifying key revenue sources, determining the value to offer, setting the right price for that value, and understanding who will pay for it. It also examines effective pricing strategies to maximize profits, remain competitive, and attract customers.

Module 16: Marketing Plan

This module delves into the importance of branding in establishing a unique identity for your company or product. It guides you through creating a brand identity, setting marketing goals for strategic direction, and exploring traditional and digital marketing strategies. The module also covers how to create a sales funnel to generate leads and maximize conversion rates, along with crafting a comprehensive marketing strategy implementation plan, complete with an example.

Module 17: Sales Tools

This module examines sales tools designed to boost the efficiency, effectiveness, and scalability of your sales and marketing operations, and provides guidance on selecting the right tools for your business.

Module 18: Operations

This module emphasizes the importance of selecting the right location for your business, understanding business insurance requirements, and establishing payment terms and methods. It also covers identifying the necessary tools and equipment for effective operations, choosing suppliers, managing inventory, and conducting a thorough risk assessment.

Module 19: Human Resources

This module explores the decision-making process between hiring an employee versus a contractor or self-employed individual. It examines the advantages of hiring a contractor, legal considerations for employing staff, and provides guidance on creating job descriptions and navigating the recruitment process.

Module 20: Financial Plan

This module covers identifying startup costs to ensure your business has sufficient capital to launch successfully. It also explains how to make sales assumptions and provides a step-by-step guide to creating cash flow projections, income statement and balance sheet.

Registration Fee: $149