Entrepreneurship Fundamentals: How to Start a Successful Business

How to start a business

• Your guide to start a business

  Being an entrepreneur can be overwhelming at first, but this lesson will really help you to grasp the very fundamental information that you need to consider when you think about starting your business. Understanding your company type and exactly what your market will be are the two key principles that is covered in this lesson.

• Beyond the basics

  Business structure are essential to ensure you have the support needed for your company. This lesson will give you the tools you need to organise your company structure, manage your staff, explore more financial concepts and prepare you for setting up a business plan in Lesson 3.

• Business Plans

  The business plan will give you the ability to plan how you turn your vision into a business. It will enable entrepreneurs to answer the tough day to day questions as the plan will have been considered and will help the individual look at the cash flow forecast, market research and the milestones to make the start up a reality.

• Your corporate Identity

  Having professional looking design elements (logo, email signature and flyer design) are crucial for your business Not only will your customers take you seriously, but you will also have a sense of pride in what you do. In this extremely competitive age, you need your business to stand out in all the noise. Professional looking design is one of the ways to stand out. This lesson is all about teaching you amazing tips and tools to make use of so your business can have that edge. All tools being illustrated in this lesson are free online-based software, so you can access this from almost anywhere. You will be taught how to create a company logo, an HTML based email signature as well as other corporate identity elements like a poster design.

• Overall Marketing Plan

  No business would succeed without some form of marketing - nobody will know about you if you don't tell them. Once you have your objectives and you know your target market, it's time to create your marketing plan. Learn about the marketing funnel, and different marketing platforms and considerations, including content, SEO and paid advertising.

• Social media Marketing Strategy

  The average adult spends 5.9 hours a day with digital media which means that for businesses Social Media Marketing is a crucial element to success in any industry. Learn how to develop a social media marketing strategy for your start-up that enables you to post like a pro while focusing your efforts where it matters most - on growing your business.

• Setting up your social media accounts

  This practical lesson teaches you how to create and optimise social media business profiles on the top channels, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

• Introduction to Web Design Principles

  In this lesson you will be introduced to the world of website design. You will learn about key components and tips that can make your site unforgettable for all the right reasons! Just a few of the concepts we will be discussing include usability, responsive design and emerging design trends. I will be sharing some top tips and guidelines on key elements of your site such as images, text and calls to action. The topic of outsourcing your website design vs doing it yourself will be explored as a key element in this lesson to help you make this vital decision.

• Introducing website builders & e-commerce

  Now that we have covered the basics of Web Design it is time to talk about what an e-commerce site is and the different elements that you need to consider when creating one. During this lesson I will be demonstrating how to use Wix and WordPress, two very popular website builders. Your introduction to Web Design will conclude with a section on the most frequently asked questions I have received based around this subject.

• Optimising your website and marketing performance

  The only way a business can gather info (data) about their digital marketing efforts and website visitors is through tracking. Understand what tracking is and how it is done, with an introduction to Google Analytics. The data you collect through tracking is critical for growth, and even if you do nothing but implement Google Analytics in the beginning, you'll be in a good position to improve your business. Learn about proven ways to improve website performance with simple changes, and we close off with questions to answer when looking at increasing your marketing spend.