Starting Your Own Business: The Comprehensive Online Course

Step 1 Business Names and Structures

• Choosing a business name
  • How to choose a name
  • What do you use the business name for
  • What to consider when choosing a name
  • Is your business name unique

• Business name registration
  • How to register a business name
  • How to find out if it’s available
  • What government websites to go to
  • Where to go on the government websites
  • How to search domain names and check availability
  • How to purchase domain names

• The structure of your business
  • 3 Structures
  • What each structure means
  • Agreements

• The importance of bookkeeping
  • The keeping of records for taxation purposes
  • You must know how your business is doing

• Setting up supplier accounts
  • Credit accounts
  • Return for refund policy

Step 2 Planning for Success

• Writing a business plan
  • Business plan included in the course
  • What is a business plan and why do you need one
  • Strengths and weaknesses
  • Competitors Strengths and weaknesses
  • Is your business idea viable
  • How your business will be organised
  • What is your business venture
  • Market research
  • Sales and marketing
  • Financial predictions

Step 3 Finance and Accounts

• Open a bank account
  • What you need to open a bank account
  • Registration of business name
  • Types of business accounts
  • Interview with bank manager

• Business finance
  • Ways to get finance/capital
  • Agreements

Step 4 Business Location

• Choosing a business location
  • Factors to consider
  • Security issues
  • Room/space available
  • Market research
  • Security issues

• Business leases
  • What length of lease to choose in the beginning

• Licences to work from home
  • Council licenses
  • Taxation issues
  • Types of businesses to run from home
  • Interview with home business person, set up, issues and insights to running a home based business

Step 4 Government Requirements

• Tax file number
• ABN number
• Register for GST
• Any licences

Step 6 Business Stationary

• Printing needs
  • Business cards
  • With comp slips
  • Envelopes
  • Letter heads
  • Invoices
  • Brochures
  • Flyers
  • Printing tips
  • How to design a logo and artwork
  • How to save on costs

Step 7 Marketing and Branding

• What is Marketing and when will customers buy
• What is Branding, name, logo and slogan
• Domain name rego
• Web marketing,
• Social media
• SEO and what this means
• Google Adwords, what is it?

Step 8 Employees

• Staff are most important for your business
• Understand employer obligations
• Part time or full time staff
• What your best employee would look like
• How to choose the correct employee

Step 9 Insurances

• What type of insurances do you need?
• What type of insurances to consider
• Insurances
• Fire and theft
• Legal liability
• Business interruption
• Business vehicles
• Public liability
• Workers compensation

Step 10 Starting a business, buying a franchise or buying an established business

• Tips on starting from scratch
• Fixed and variable costs
• Advantages of starting from scratch
• Positive and negative elements of buying a franchise
• Buying an established business
• Do your due diligence
• Factors to consider

Unit 1 Getting Your Image Right

In this module we look at your total company image from customer perception to staff look and feel. We cover company colours, slogans, uniforms and more.

• Learn how to change your image and your business image.
• Learn how to make your customers remember your business.
• Learn what colours suit your business and will attract your target customers.
• Learn how to act like a winner and not like a loser.
• Are you a possibility thinker or an impossibility thinker?
• Does your logo or slogan sell your business?

Included in this module is an interview with John Ferguson, who is a small business owner of Eco-Signs. John has invented the new ecologically friendly and easy-to-use slimline light box signs and John talks about his six-year journey from starting his business in his garage to operating out of a factory and out growing it by dominating his market.

In this interview he covers topics such as:

• Creating brand awareness
• Start-up marketing
• Growing your business and dealing with expansion
• Patenting and trade marking

Also, included in this module is an interview with Gerry Harvey, who is the co-founder of the Harvey Norman retail chain in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. He talks candidly of his upbringing and his family experience of losing money and dealing with hardship and how this shaped his mindset to earn money.

He explains what keeps him motivated to stay at the top of what he does. He also talks about the need to be organised and have a balance between work, family, exercise and relaxation.

In this interview Gerry Harvey also covers topics such as:

• The risk of losing money and the need to generate cash flow
• Why you should follow your passion
• Why your perseverance will determine your success
• How to choose the right business for you
• The importance of educating yourself to learn a variety of skills needed to be successful in business

Unit 2 Know Your Business

In this module we look at what is happening with your sales. Which customers are profitable and which customers are simply eating into your profitability.

• Learn how to focus on your customers not your products.
• Learn how to choose your ideal customer.
• Learn how to price your products based on your ideal customers.
• Learn which of the three pricing structures will suit your business.
• Learn the four essential parts to making money in business.
• Learn how to use risk management to guide your expansion.
• Learn how to merchandise to increase profitability.

Included in this module is an interview with Ross Greenwood, who is the Finance Editor of the Nine Network in Australia and a small business owner himself. He discusses in detail the economic indicators that small business owners should be aware of and how these can affect your business.

He provides commentary on the best way to extend your line of credit when economic times are tough and you need more cash flow to sustain your business, without it adversely affecting your family and lifestyle. He also shares his thoughts on why nurturing relationships with your bank manager and accountant can help save your business from getting into trouble.

In this interview Ross Greenwood also covers topics such as:

• How to run your business according to the market conditions
• How to determine whether your business is merely a job or a sustainable business
• How to turn the income from your business into an asset
• The advantages of investing in commercial property over paying rent
• How to avoid your business becoming a living nightmare
• What skills you will need to learn if you have chosen to commercialise your interest, skill or hobby into a small business

Unit 3 Systematise Your Business

In this module we will cover how to develop systems that will let your business almost run by itself, freeing up your time to put into place your new business strategies.

• Learn techniques to give your business measurable consistency.
• Learn systems that will allow you to duplicate or franchise your business.
• Learn how systems will increase the value of your business to the potential buyer.
• Learn the ten steps to systematizing your business.
• Learn how systems will increase staff productivity.

Included in this module is an interview with Andrew Ricker, who is co-owner of The Aged Care Channel - a membership-driven organisation that provides educational resources to train the staff of residential care homes via satellite. In this interview he covers topics such as:

• Introducing best practice and continuous improvement programs to keep up to date with current demands
• Building a business slowly on strong foundations rather than rushing expansion by over financing
• The importance of having the right skill set within the staff of the business
• The importance of keeping an eye on the core business
• The importance of having well documented procedures to enable duplication of your business
• The importance of succession planning to enable expansion
• Learning to use your past mistakes to guide you to future success

Also included in this module is an interview with Tim Sims, Managing Director of Pacific Equity Partners. He explains what private equity is and how it works. He gives commentary on the criteria used by private equity partners when looking at a business in which to invest.

In this interview Tim Sims covers topics such as:

• The elements that make a good business
• How to take profits to a higher level without reducing costs
• How to create value in a business
• How private equity partners can help to grow your business
• Understanding the importance of having a sound business strategy

Unit 4 Sales Team Training

We teach your staff to sell in a tough market. Your staff will be trained how to make business friendships with your main customers.

Learn how:

• Staff members can contribute to the culture of your team
• To train your staff on selling the features, advantages and benefits of products
• To communicate your unique selling position to your customers
• To attract repeat customers
• To decide between part-time or full-time sales staff
• To match the personality of your sales staff to your products
• To recapture lost sales
• To develop business friendships
• To use telemarketing successfully
• To use testimonials to sell your products or services
• Your business has the potential to lose customers
• To manage the integrity and reputation of your business
• Staff meetings can boost your sales team's performance

Included in this module is an interview with sales and marketing expert Tim Shaw, who is regarded as one of the worlds best salesman. He talks about his years selling for Demtel on television and why customers buy the salesperson before they buy the product. He will help you to understand how to influence your customer to spend their money with you and not your competitors.
In this interview Tim Shaw also covers topics such as:

• What is quality customer service
• How to brand your business
• How to connect with your customer
• How to use testimonials
• Why you should continuously update your presence in the market place
• How important the boss is to the business
• How to leverage every sale you make
• What portion of your sales

Unit 5: Marketing your Business

We will look at how to write copy that sells. You will learn all the rules to copywriting that help a customer make a decision to buy from you.

• Find your niche and dominate it.
• Learn to blow your competition out of the water.
• Learn what your unique selling position is.
• Know the benefits of your products and how to market them.
• Learn how to write an attention grabbing headline.
• Learn the ten biggest marketing mistakes businesses make.
• Learn how to write hypnotic sales copy.
• Learn how to grow your mailing list.
• Learn when it is best to market.

Included in this module is an interview with copywriter David Said, who has thirty-years experience in leading Australian and international ad agencies. He explains what is required to write good copy and sell by "remote control" as he calls it.

In this interview David Said also covers topics such as:

• How to present your product
• How to control your reader's eye
• How to control your reader's pace
• How to write different copy for different mediums

Also included in this module is an interview with John Hilton, who is an inventor and Managing Director of Spatial Freedom. John has invented the products Space-ball™ and the Astroid™ spatial controller, which are used in 3D design engineering. His list of clients includes companies such as Boeing, Ford and General Motors.

In this interview John Hilton covers topics such as:

• How to take your product to the market place
• How to protect your idea or technology
• How to package your products

Unit 6: Website Ranking

There are unwritten rules to getting your website onto the first page of a search engine. We take you step-by-step through how to optimise your website and make it sell for you.
Learn how:

• To use the web to promote your business
• To use ad words to laser guide your marketing on the web
• Search engines work
• Sponsored links work and their benefits
• To get high natural ranking for free
• The rules of search engine optimisation are achieved
• Your key words can help get you to the top
• To make your website relevant to the search term
• To use testimonials to get more out of searches
• To use links to get higher rankings
• To use e-articles to link to your site

This module includes an interview with small business owner Gavin Tooley, owner of Click Business Cards, one of the worlds largest supplier of business cards. Click Business Cards transformed it's business from a run-of-the-mill printing business in 1996 to an internet-driven business with a global customer base.

In this interview Gavin Tooley covers topics such as:

• The value of having testimonials on your website
• Why you should make it easy for the customer to contact you and order from your website
• Why it is important to give your customer simple options when ordering
• Why a customer chooses an internet business instead of a face to face business
• The best way to promote your business on the internet search engines

Unit 7: Bullet Proof your Customers

In this module we cover how to stop your opposition from stealing your customers. We show you how to set up a customer loyalty program. Your customer loyalty program will help your customers distinguish your business from others.

You will learn:

• Why you should know your customer
• Who your most loyal customers are
• How to develop a system to identify your most valuable customers
• How to put together a customer evaluation form
• What customer rewards programs work
• How to create a mystery shopper program
• How often to contact your customer
• How to identify when you are losing a customer
• Why an interesting newsletter that will cement relationships with your customers
• Eye-catching formats for your newsletters
• How to use your newsletter as a sales tool
• How to track the sales of your customers
• How to alter staff behaviour to increase your sales
• How to use a competitor analysis to your advantage

Unit 8: Print Advertising

In this module we will take you through writing a Yellow Pages advert that works. We will discuss strategies to help you get more sales by splitting adverts to get maximum benefit.

You will learn

• What will appeal to your customers
• How to make your advert stand out from your competitors
• What the Yellow Pages sales team will not tell you
• How to negotiate the best price for your advert
• How to design your advert for your target customer
• Which classification headings will generate more enquiries
• What fonts to use for impact headlines and body copy
• What graphics work best
• What style of advert to avoid
• How to tell your customers why they should call you
• Why Yellow Pages advertising works
• How to track and measure the success of your Yellow Pages advert

Unit 9: 7 Key Marketing Strategies

In this module we present seven key marketing strategies that are easy to follow and put into action.

We also cover setting business goals that are on purpose for your business.

Included in this module is an interview with David Koch, co-host of Australia's No.1 breakfast show, Sunrise. David is also well respected as a top investment and business commentator, presenting My Business Show on the Seven Network, plus A Minute on Your Business and A Minute on Your Money, which has aired on over 50 radio stations across Australia.

In this interview David Koch covers topics such as:

• Effective communication for partners when dealing with finances.
• Where to start seeking financial advice.
• Why you should invest in income protection insurance.
• Why it is important to have predetermined goals.
• Tips of on how to balance your personal life with your business life.