Course Introduction

Starting a business is an exhilarating and challenging journey. It requires a unique combination of creativity, determination, and strategic thinking. This course is designed to provide you with the essential knowledge, frameworks, and tools to turn your entrepreneurial vision into a thriving start-up.

Learning Outcomes

This course covers a lot of ground and we’re proud to say it’s a good bang for the buck. It distills a lot of research, and experience we’ve had on the ground, and Upon completing this course, you'll be able to:

• Cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset
• Generate, evaluate, and refine compelling business ideas
• Understand who your customers are, how to find and engage with them
• Conduct market research and assess the viability of your product or service
• Create a strong brand identity and online presence
• Validate your business concept through customer feedback and lean experiments
• Develop a comprehensive business plan and financial projections
• Understand what your startup costs are, how to price your product, and how to find your breakeven point
• Assemble a talented team and build a network of mentors and advisors
• Explore various funding options and craft a winning pitch
• Launch your startup and develop a scalable growth strategy

Whether you're a first-time founder or an experienced entrepreneur looking to start a new venture, this course will provide you with the knowledge and confidence to navigate the start-up landscape. By combining proven frameworks with real-world examples, we aim to empower you to transform your ideas into successful businesses.

Course Structure

The course is divided into three main sections, each focusing on a critical aspect of the startup journey:

Plan For Success

In this section, you'll establish a strong foundation for your entrepreneurial endeavors. We'llbegin by exploring the mindset and skills required to succeed as a founder. You'll learn effectivetechniques for generating and evaluating business ideas, assessing market potential, and craftinga compelling value proposition. We'll also cover the basics of branding and building an onlinepresence.

Validate Your Idea

Before investing significant time and resources into your startup, it's crucial to validate yourassumptions. In this section, you'll learn how to conduct thorough market research, gathercustomer feedback, and test your product through the creation of an MVP (Minimum ViableProduct). By applying the Lean Startup methodology, you'll iterate and refine your offeringbased on real market insights.

Prepare for Liftoff!

With a validated business concept, you'll be ready to plan for launch and growth. This sectionwill guide you through the process of developing a robust business plan, including financialprojections, pricing strategies, and key metrics. You'll learn how to assemble a strong team, seekmentorship, and explore funding options. Finally, we'll provide a step-by-step framework forlaunching and scaling your startup.

Lesson Format

Each lesson in the course follows a consistent structure to facilitate learning and engagement:

• Intro: A real-world case study that highlights the lesson's key concepts
• Lesson Overview: Clear learning objectives and a summary of the main topics covered
• Core Content: A blend of theoretical concepts, practical frameworks, and actionable insights
• Further Reading: Curated resources and links to dive deeper into specific subjects
• Assignment: Hands-on exercises and prompts to apply your newfound knowledge
• Knowledge Check: Thought-provoking questions to reinforce your understanding and stimulate discussion

This course aims to equip you with a comprehensive toolkit for startup success by combining instruction, examples, and application.

So let's dive in and start building the foundation for your entrepreneurial journey!

A side note: A bit about the people who built the lessons

Wes

Founder

Wes has been involved in helping small and large businesses succeed for over 35 years. In the 1980’s on the ‘front line’ in Retail and Banking, the 1990’s in Exec roles in Banking, then worked in a ‘Big Five’ consulting firm in leadership roles on significant global projects. In 2003 Wes established his own business, focused on helping large Western businesses find ‘success-via-transformation’ across Asian markets. Over the last 20 years, Wes has led large-scale transformation efforts across Asia, managing cross-functional and multi-cultural teams with budgets over USD 120 million.

Anthony

Founder

Anthony is a product owner, business consultant and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in large and small businesses. His recent accomplishments include raising over $70k on Kickstarter. Anthony’s expertise and passion lie in SaaS and AI, and he is always coming up with new ideas to create a passive income.

Jonathan

Founder

Jonathan has worked in leadership roles across Education, Not-For-Profit, and Corporate Philanthropy sectors for the past 12 years, specialising in leadership, operations, and innovation. He has also toured the globe as a musician and has over 10million streams on Spotify under the group name, YesYou.

We use our multiple decades of experience plus extensive research to build out our passion: Helping entrepreneurs succeed. We have founded a website called IdeaFloat which helps aspiring entrepreneurs float any business idea and launch with profit.

We automate everything and save you weeks of work and money by utilizing AI (plus our own magic sauce) for a business plan and lean canvas generation, market size analytics, breakeven and pricing analysis, competitor and SWOT analysis, and much more. We validate your businesses instantly and help you get started, get funded, or get grounded.