Start Your Own Business
Many good ideas never become businesses because people do not know where to start.
About this course
Many good ideas never become businesses because people do not know where to start. This three-day course takes you step by step from an idea to a clear, realistic plan for launch.
You will test your idea with real potential customers, describe your business model on a single page and look at the legal and practical steps to check before you open. You will also estimate start-up costs, set prices, work out your break-even point and prepare a simple cash flow forecast, then finish with a 90-day launch plan you can start on straight away.
What you'll learn
- Assess your own readiness, skills and motivation for running a business.
- Generate business ideas and screen them against real market needs.
- Validate an idea quickly and cheaply with potential customers.
- Describe a simple business model using a one-page canvas.
- Compare common legal forms and identify the registration and licensing steps to check before launch.
- Estimate start-up costs, set prices and prepare a basic cash flow forecast.
- Plan practical ways to find and keep your first customers.
Curriculum
- Is entrepreneurship right for you?
- Personal strengths and gaps
- Managing risk and uncertainty
- Learning from failure
- Sources of business ideas
- Problems worth solving
- Screening ideas against criteria
- Choosing an idea to test
- Talking to potential customers
- Understanding the competition
- The minimum viable product
- Interpreting early feedback
- The business model canvas
- Value proposition
- Customer segments and channels
- Key resources, partners and costs
- Choosing a legal form
- Registration and licences to check
- Basic contracts and record keeping
- Choosing premises or working from home
- Estimating start-up costs
- Pricing your product or service
- The break-even point
- A simple cash flow forecast
- Sources of start-up funding
- Low-cost marketing
- Social media and word of mouth
- Selling skills for founders
- Customer service from day one
- Setting first-year goals
- A 90-day launch action plan
- Presenting your idea
- Next steps and sources of support
Who it's for
Aspiring entrepreneurs, graduates, freelancers and anyone planning to start a small business or turn a side project into a source of income.
Before you start
No formal prerequisites. Bring curiosity and a willingness to practise.
Prepares for
Part of these Alalamia diplomas
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View course →Let's plan your next step together.
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