Business Plan Development On Line Series

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Module 1: Business Foundations
Business planning is one of the key differentiators between business success and failure. In this first workshop we discuss the exploration and research that will create the foundation for your business concept. We will talk about some research tools and techniques that will help you to identify your information needs and to source that data. In Module 1 we lay the foundation: what market research consists of; why it is important; and what the key discovery points are at each research stage that are needed to turn your raw research data into knowledge that you can apply to your business.

Module 2: Marketing
Once you have collected and interpreted your research data, your next step in the business planning process is to develop a marketing strategy that takes into account all of the knowledge you have gained. Knowing who your customer is allows you to build your product or service and polish your marketing approach. It will help you to provide the greatest value to your customer: establish the proper pricing levels that will appeal to that customer; get your value message out to the customer; and, get the product or service to the customer in the most convenient manner. Marketing decisions have implications for production, operations, administration, finance and future planning. Businesses that are customer-centric are marketing centric. The marketing strategy leads logically to the marketing plan and marketing budget.

Module 3: Operations
This third Module addresses the operations of your business. A well designed operations plan defines all the processes required for a business so that you and your potential employees, if any, will be aware of the tasks that are necessary and the resources that are available to carry out your business activities. In this Module, we will be talking about pricing strategies, systems and processes, equipment, materials and supplies, location and premises and human resource requirements. In short, everything you need to plan for, on a tactical level, to get your product or service to market, establish and maintain your brand, and run your business on a day to day basis.

Module 4: Financial Planning
This fourth Module is the culmination of our course work and brings all of your decisions to bear on your financial projections. Module 4 will help you to answer the very critical question of whether your business in its current form is, in fact, viable. We will look at some of the risks that you will encounter in your business and some of the contingency plans that you will need to have to consider to overcome those risks. We will take a peek at your future vision for your business and give you the opportunity to revise and rethink some of the important decisions that you have built into your plan in order to achieve that successful future.

Register for individual modules or the entire series.