4099 Courses

Time to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Take a look inside the Prep Worksheet that prepares you to write the pricing strategy section of your business plan. The key to success is taking the time necessary to deeply understand your business and be prepared to run it—use this workshop and Prep Worksheet to do just that.

The competitive matrix is a graphic that highlights your unique strengths vis a vis other players in the space. The visual snapshot is easy for investors to parse — but it’s more than a pretty picture. As you identify your most relevant strengths and how you stack up against competitors, the process of developing a competitive matrix gives you a greater understanding of your market and your business, and a valuable marketing tool. This learning stream will cover how to identify the most relevant strengths to plot on your graph, how to identify and evaluate competitors on the matrix, and how to position your business as a market leader.

A nascent trend can be wind in the sails of your company. Identifying trends that are relevant to your business, while steering clear of fads, convinces investors that you’ve done your research. And for your business, catching a trend on its upward swing can speed time to profitability. This learning stream not only identifies specific trends to watch, but points you to definitive sources for uncovering the up-cand-coming trends that are most relevant to your business.

What are the most effective ways to attract customers to your product or service? This video walks through three key steps in depth: Analyzing the marketing programs your competition is using, choosing a marketing mix for your business, and creating your marketing plan.

Time to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Take a look inside the Prep Worksheet that prepares you to write the pricing strategy section of your business plan. The key to success is taking the time necessary to deeply understand your business and be prepared to run it—use this workshop and Prep Worksheet to do just that.

How and why customers perceive the unique value of your product or service is something integrated into all aspects of your customer communication—from your website to marketing and social media to packaging. This lesson explains how that works by looking at a few top brands and how they communicate their unique value propositions.

What do you want to achieve with your marketing strategy? Your marketing objectives are the basis for all of your marketing activities and the foundation of your marketing strategy. This Microcast details what every entrepreneur should measure, where to target your customers, and how to evaluate the marketing methods of competitors. You will also learn how to decide what goals and measurements are right for your business—setting specific sales growth goals, landing partnerships, expanding distribution, and more.

Take advantage of the vast amounts of growth data available to you as you craft the market growth story for your business. By doing market research, computing your compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and validating your positioning, you will create an impressive market growth story. This market growth Microcast will help you get it done. Covered are: Deciding where you plan to sell your goods or services, identifying which segments of the market apply to your business, using historical growth rates, and how to validate your growth assumptions.

The Company Overview section of your business plan must excite investors. From the founders’ bios and company history to your business location and business model, it must be clear that you’re poised to succeed. This learning stream helps you navigate the five essential sections to include in your plan: company profile, team, staffing, business model, and current status—all with examples, as well as solid business mindset tips and how to talk to investors. The workshop provides a walk-through of the tactical aspects of the learning stream will be walked-through in the workshop step-by-step.

Contrary to popular belief, having plenty of competitors is a good sign – that's what makes a thriving market. This course delves deep into the competition, with strategies for identifying and evaluating competitors and classifying them to discover where opportunities lie to fill gaps in the marketplace.