Business Startup Essentials - Supercharge Your Business

A summary of the approach taken in this course. We will be looking at action plans that you can implement in your business or startup immediately.

The course is presented in 5 Pillars - Strategy, Team, Customers & Market, Marketing and Operations. Each are vital elements to the success of a business enterprise.

Each will provide you with action steps to solidify your business in these areas

The 2 strategies examined are introduced. You will see a common theme between both these strategies. We begin our journey into making your competition irrelevant.

Set sail for the tranquility of a blue ocean rather than a fiercely competitive red ocean. Why not build a company and serve a market that no one else is?

You don't have to create a brand new market or industry yourself, but you can specialize in an under-served area of your existing market.

Cirque de Soleil created their own blue ocean by creating an entertainment extravaganza that had no rivals. Learn how they did it.

Here we look at the theory and the strategy grid for Blue Ocean vs. Red Ocean strategy. Notice the difference in approach and business strategy.

This grid should serve as your starting point throughout the rest of this course. However, you may wish to jot your ideas down in pencil, because they will be built upon and perhaps even changed completely by the end of the course.

The ERRC grid is a great tool that you should use to brainstorm different ideas on building a company, service and/or product that no one else has.

What can you do differently in your industry? What can you change completely because you are not stuck with the adage that :"it's always been done like this." Do not trap yourself in old ways of thinking because then you will just be doing what everyone else is doing and competing in a red ocean.

Let's look at how created a whole new line of shoe that no one else in the industry offered. We'll take a look at how their analysis of the elements in the ERRC grid helped them create a unique shoe and resulting brand.

This case study will give you great ideas and a framework

A great concept and approach that can change the way you do business. What can you do better than anybody else in your industry?

Many businesses try to be like foxes. Ideally, they should be more like the dowdy hedgehog. Knowing how to do one thing but being great at it.

An analysis of companies that went from Good to Great showed that they all came to the realization that they could be great at doing one thing. They were more like hedgehogs than foxes.

What are you passionate about? What drives your economic engine? And finally, what can you be the best at?

Once you figure this out, out together your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and work towards it like a hedgehog.

You can't go about it all alone. At some point, you will need to put a team together to help build and grow your startup into an enterprise.

The people in your business will be your most important asset. Just ask Walt Disney or the folks over at Google what they have to say about their people.

We begin by looking at you. Do you have what it takes to be a leader? Do you intend on leading or just offering your technical expertise?

There are different levels of leaders in the business world. Without question, it has been shown that companies that have grown from good to great had a Level 5 leader at the helm.

Here we look at the characteristics of an effective leader. You may be surprised at what the research and real world has shown some of these traits to be. Do you possess any of them? Or more importantly, are you will to change and challenge yourself to be this type of leader?

Here is a simple test to determine the type of leader someone is (or the type of leader you would be). After watching this tutorial, look at leaders or owners/managers you may know and see what their approach is when they look in the mirror and out the window.

After watching this tutorial, you will learn a lot about some of the leaders you may know.

Let's start building your team. Without a doubt one of the challenges I see a lot in the field relates to human resources and the team that companies have put together.

It's shouldn't come as a surprise when I tell you that those organizations that had a great team were much more successful than those that had 'people problems'

It's not just about having the right people on your team. It's also about making sure that they are in the right positions in your organization.

When it comes to HR and people decisions, many organizations hesitate or take too long to make decisions. In this tutorial we look at some important people decisions that need to be made and acted upon.

Are all the members of your team working within their strength zone? If not then you could be in some trouble.

People whose work emphasizes and zeros in on their strengths are more effective than those where weaknesses are tried to be improved.

How do I find someone strengths and talents? Doesn't that come after working with them for a long period of time? Fortunately, there is a tool and assessment that you can use with your existing team (or when hiring a new one) that gives you an accurate insight into the true strengths and talents of someone. Here we look at that tool.

Why not make a day out of it? In this tutorial we look at an idea for team building and having everyone in your enterprise know their true strength and finding ways to build on them.

It is amazing how accurate the Strength Finder assessment can be. In this tutorial I revisit a client example and show how the Strength Finder assessment pegged the strengths and hidden talents of a team member.

Completely change the way you conduct job interviews and make decisions regarding your next hire.

You now have an idea as to what your blue ocean strategy or hedgehog concept is. Now lets focus it down a little bit more and try to find your ideal customer and market. You may be surprised to see that amount of changes to your original ideas from Pillar 1.

As I send, it's best to write them down in pencil for this course until you have completed it.

An example of a accountant who offered such a specialized niche that even his competitors were sending him business.

Another example of a bookkeeper I helped grow her business into a specialized niche.

Don't get caught making these mistakes and spending valuable time and resources trying to find something that you customers do not value.

Here we begin looking at a very important concept in the business realm ... the Unique Value Proposition. If you focus your efforts on created an effective UVP over meaningless slogans and mission statements, then you be more successful in the long run? Why? .. because this is what your customers/clients value.

Never focus on how great you are. Nobody cares ... most importantly your customers doesn't.

It's all about your customer. What does your company deliver that meets their needs? Solves their problem? That is where you focus should be.

Have it so customers brag about how great you are ... not you.

In this tutorial I provide a simple formula that you can use to brainstorm and build your UVP. You'll notice that you will be putting yourself in your customer's shoes quite a bit for this tutorial and the rest of this course.

Are you doing the same thing everyone else in your industry is doing? Are you just a copy cat .. offering the same service, the same products and making the business killing mistake of competing on price?

Take a fresh look at your business. Now that you have the ideas of blue ocean, hedgehogs and your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) lets start looking at way you can make your product or service stand out. Let's make it "remarkable"

If there is one thing I hate more than painting it's those dreaded paint cans. Let's look at how Dutch Boy was able to dig a little deeper into what their customers valued and created a "remarkable" paint can.

Here, we look at some great examples of UVP presented by companies on their websites. I can guarantee that after going through these examples, you may end up visiting these sites to find out more about their services ... and that's the point!

No slogans ... no missions statements .... just value.

It's time to start brainstorming and come up with your own products or services that you can serve your target customer with.

At this point, you may also wish to scroll down and watch the "Know Thy Customer" video tutorial in the Marketing Pillar module. That will provide you with some great insight into how to analyze your customer.

Let's look at how DollarShaveClub took a simple product like a razor blade and made it remarkable. Well, not the blade itself, but the service.

Also take note of the great marketing and copy in the company's website video commercial. You will understand what "copy" is in the next module.

You don't have to be a comedian to present your UVP. You can just be caring and genuine. Let's learn how Jenni created her own little artisan ice cream empire

I found this company in my city when my aging parents needed a new A/C during one of the worst heat waves in our city's history. I think you'll see why I chose this company and so many others make the same choice.

Don't make the mistake of settling for traditional advertising. Don't spend endless time and resources on logos and branding. Your customer doesn't care about these things.

Tap into the psychology of your target market with marketing strategies that been proven to work and effective.

If you master and abide by these 5 commandments, you will be a marketing master.

1. Know thy customer

2. Know thy calendar

3. Know thy competitors

4. Know thy partners

5. Know thy psychology

This could be the most valuable tutorial in this course. Don't make the mistake of thinking you know what your customer wants and values. Talk to them.

When you do have the opportunity to speak to them, ask them these four questions and watch/listen as they give you the blueprint for the perfect product or service.

Put your marketing on cruise control. Too many company's ignore marketing all together or cast it aside for what they feel is more important. If you prepare your marketing assets ahead of time, you won't have to fly by the seat of your pants in your marketing efforts.

Not a lot of time is spent researching and getting to know what competitors in an industry have to offer. A lot of valuable insight and knowledge can be gained from this which can ultimately make your marketing more effective.

This marketing commandment alone can transform your business and the source of your referrals and leads. If you have laser-beam focus in your market, you will not only build a blue ocean and purple cow, but your competitors may send business your way as well.

Now that you know what makes your potential customer tick, what they are looking for, what their pain and/or desires are, you need a system and way to market to them so that they buy your product or use your service. This tutorial shows you the common obstacles and hurdles that customers have when deciding to buy (or not to buy) products and services.

Now that we know what your potential clients' objectives are, let's overcome those obstacles by putting together marketing material that directly helps answer those questions and overcome every possible objection. Let's look at the marketing assets you need to put together to formulate effective and actionable marketing campaigns.

Let's look at some ideas of copy and companies that didn't it right, and those that didn't. You'll see how Volkswagen's marketing in the 70's was more effective than it's modern day efforts.

Want to join a gym? You be the judge as to which ad grabs your attention.

Operation manuals are the key to a turnkey operation, yet it is surprising to me how many businesses do without them. In this tutorial we examine the importance and usefulness

Let's bring our operations into the 21st century by using video and screen casting to put together awesome training material and a knowledge base.

Why not put together a website for your employees that has everything they need to do their job (and a lot more) right at their fingertips. Save hours of time and thousands of dollars on training.

There are huge benefits to finding a specialized niche over and above the important one of serving your target market. You will find that your operations will run more smoothly. It's much better to be a specialist to a few than a generalist to the many.

With a specialty, you can streamline your operations, hire and train staff quicker and easier and take a vacation whenever you want (I know you like that last one). From here on out, let's figure out how to do it.

One of the best business books I ever read was one I purchased at an iconic bargain store in Toronto. It was written by the man who owned the store (and other successful businesses) himself.

Let's look at how Honest Ed formed a blue ocean, came to grips with his true hedgehog concept and made his restaurant a purple cow. You won't believe how he did it.

What happens to your operations when you specialize? Well let's compare the job of Purchasing manager at Ed's Warehouse to a typical restaurant. There are valuable lessons to be learned here.

When I discovered this tool formulated and created by Alexander Osterwalder, it changed the way I examined businesses forever. I think if you dig deep into it's methodology and incredible simplicity, it will do the same for your business.

Business plans are not effective. No one wants to work on a 30 page business plan, and not many people want to read one.

The simplicity and elegance of the Business Model Canvas is astounding. It is divided into 9 components, all of which we have covered in this course.

Let's put it all together and focus on the operations side of the canvas for the remainder of this module.

Let's use our previous case study of Ed's Warehouse to see how the business model canvas comes together.

I've given you the ingredients, now go out and prepare your master recipe for a great business.

Now that we've competed the course content, let's help each other out! Why not help other students find ideas to build their enterprise ... help them find a blue ocean and build their UVP's?

Share your thoughts, questions, ideas and please, contribute to the forum and community. You never know, your "purple cow" can be out here somewhere. There is a potential gold mine in the minds of your fellow students.

I will pitch in as best I can.

Let's build a little community of ideas. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with the Udemy student community here. I'll jump in whenever I can with any ideas and guidance.