Course Offerings

LaunchAPEX

Course ID: SEF-3001BH3
Overview
Course Outline
Requirements
Intended Audience
More Details

Assess your ability as an entrepreneur and the feasibility of your business or idea. Learn how to develop a complete business plan for starting and running your new or existing business over the course of eight three hour classroom sessions. Be guided through a thorough thought process on every element of your business, from basic description and mission statement to financials and sales forecasting. Then complete the homework to finish the class with the first draft of a comprehensive business plan. Supporting material and resources are available for download and access to the online course content is available to students for a full six months after completion of the course.

Course Objectives

Assess your own ability as an entrepreneur

Evaluate the feasibility of your business idea

Align personal goals with your business idea

Create organizing and marketing strategies

Explore pricing for your product or service

Develop capital needs & sound financial statements

Research, develop, and write a comprehensive plan for your business

Outline of Instruction

RECOMMENDED CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
Week 1: The Owner
• Review Personal Vision:
o List your priorities in spending your time and money
o Define your personal values and goals
o Declare your purpose or your why
• Review Business Concept
o Problem statement
o Solution
o Target market
o Unique value proposition
o Business model
• How the Personal Vision and Business Concept relate
• Review Business Risk Assessment
o Market risks
o Financial risks
o Operational risks
o Technological risks
o Regulatory risks
o Reputational risks
Homework:
• Complete your Personal Vision
• Complete your Business Concept
• Complete your Business Risk Assessment

Week 2: Value Proposition and Pitch
• Refine your Business Concept by sharing with others in the cohort
• Establish your initial Business Value Proposition
o What problem does it solve?
o How does it solve it?
o What benefits does it provide?
o Why is it unique or better than existing solutions?
• Review Elevator Pitch
o Perfecting your pitch - know your audience
- Pitching for awareness and networking
- Pitching for money or resources
Homework:
• Finalize your Business Risk Assessment
• Determine your Business Value Proposition
• Develop your initial Elevator Pitch

Week 3: Market Research
• Review your Elevator Pitch with the cohort to gain feedback
• Your customers
o Explore customer motivation: What problems do they face? What makes them buy?
o Interview your customer: learn how they get their information and what makes them tick.
o Create personas: create 2 fictional characters that represent the person to whom you want to market
• Your competitors
o Find and evaluate your competitors
o Name what makes you different
o Research your industry
o Calculate how many customers are realistic for your business
• Review Major Market Segments and Prioritized Market Segment Penetration
Homework:
• Update your Elevator Pitch if needed
• Identify your Major Market Segments
• Identify your Prioritized Market Segments Penetration

Week 4: Market Research and Competitive Analysis
• Review of Market Research and cohort feedback
• Review customer journey:
o Awareness
o Consideration
o Decision to Purchase
o Retain and Refer
• Map the customer touchpoints for each part of the customer journey
o Develop a touch point library
- Your customer personas
- The market research you gathered
• Develop a physical and digital presence:
o Digital platforms
o Website layout
o Email marketing
o Social media strategy
o Packaging and presentation
o Design customer's experience and model community engagement
Homework:
• Define the items in your customer touchpoint library
• Define your physical and digital presence
• Start an initial marketing plan

Week 5: Lean Business Canvas (LBC)
• Review your initial marketing plan with cohort to gain feedback
• Review Lean Business Canvas
o Define and review all the LBC building blocks
Homework:
• Begin to enter your information into your Lean Business Canvas

Week 6: Pricing Strategy
• Estimate your product or service cost
• Price your product or service for your customer
• Estimate your personal budget
• Calculate how many customers you need to reach financial goals
• Lending and loan types:
o Startup loans
o Microloans
o Federal programs
o Business line of credit
o Crowdfunding
o Grants
o Friends and family
• Review market objectives and related pricing strategy
Homework:
• Define your Market Objectives and related Pricing Strategy

Week 7: Financials Part 1
• Basic Bookkeeping - Money In & Money Out
• Cost of Goods Sold
• Forecasts
• Budgets
• Review Financial Statement Terms
o Loans
o Seed money
• Intellectual Property, Laws, Regulations, Service Contracts
Homework:
• Identify major revenue streams and if loans or seed money is needed
• Your initial revenue projections
• Create an annual budget

Week 8: Financials Part 2
• Review initial Income Statement and Balance Sheet
• Cash flow
o Review your initial revenue projections and gain feedback from cohort members
o Review Cost of Goods Sold/business expenses
• Create a basic Profit & Loss (P&L) statement using cash flows and expenses
• Long-term planning
Homework:
• Identify expense summary and add it to a monthly P&L statement
• Continue to complete your Lean Business Canvas (LBC)

Week 9: Legal
• Review organization needs
• Taxes & Insurance
• Disaster Recovery Planning
• Success and Exit Strategy
• Review Legal Structures /Value of Sub-Chapter
• Advantages of Board of Directors/Advisory Boards
Homework:
• Identify possible legal structures and potential insurance requirements for your business
• Finalize your Lean Business Canvas (LBC)

Week 10: Strategies & Launching
• Achieve Sustainability
• Goals and milestones to work on for next steps (time-based)
• Predicting the future
• Role of your business in the community