Driven By... Business Planning Course Recap

Jul 20

This July, we wrapped up our very first session of the Driven By… Business Planning Course! The Driven By… Business Planning Course provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to start their business, complete a Business Plan and learn more about business operations!

In the first session of this course, we took 11 budding entrepreneurs and small business owners on a journey where we walked through all aspects of the Business Plan. In this group of entrepreneurs, we had a variety of expertise and industries including dental hygiene, retail pop-up markets, catering, subscription box providers, skin care lines, and even specialty desserts. All the entrepreneurs had very different businesses and were also at different stages of their business planning and execution process. This diversity provided a variety of perspectives and experiences that added value to the course during our discussions, as the business owners shared insights on how they approached different challenges.

So what did we talk about during the 6 weeks? We went through quite a bit.
We started with the Vision & Mission Statement, narrowed down the Business Structure, identified the Target Customers, built Operations and eCommerce Plans and organized the Finances and Accounting Processes.

Here are the details:

Key Course Concepts

Vision & Mission Statement

The Vision and Mission Statement are absolutely critical to your business. Your Vision and Mission provide clarity on the direction of your business, so that all business goals align to your ideal future state.

Business Structure

Understanding how to appropriately structure your business is foundational to the success of the business. There are 3 major business types and depending on the structure you choose, there is a different set up process.

Target Customer

Identifying your target market is central to your business. If you don’t have a clear idea of who your target market is, it can result in a waste of resources as you try to sell to everyone. Your marketing efforts might not be very efficient without identifying a target market, because you are essentially marketing to anyone and everyone. Trying to be everything to everyone, usually results in very few people resonating with your message, because you are failing to communicate to the unique characteristics of the people who WOULD be interested in your products or services.

Marketing & Branding

Marketing your business involves so much more than communicating what products and services that you offer. Marketing involves creating, communicating and delivering value to your target audience. Your entire marketing strategy should be crafted to resonate with your target audience and should be consistent across all platforms. Building a strong brand as the basis for your marketing strategy helps you stand out in a saturated market and gives your business credibility by portraying a professional image.

e-Commerce and Operations

Creating a strong operations plan is critical to executing your business goals and achieving your mission. Your Operations plan will allocate the materials, physical space, IT infrastructure and human resources of your business for optimal efficiency and productivity. e-Commerce and a web presence is a requirement in the current business world. Consumers depend on online information that is accessible and valuable to their purchasing process.

Accounting & Finance

Money is the lifeblood of the business and improper management of money can lead to business failure. Implementing an accounting system and understanding the finances of the business will help with business decisions and progress tracking.

Entrepreneur Feedback

With all of this covered in 6 weeks, our entrepreneurs were very busy! Here is what they had to say about the course:

“I started this course to get knowledge about business planning and with the purpose of creating my own for my future entrepreneurship journey. But not only did this course exceed my expectations but also it gave me much much more . I got inspired by amazing people who participated in it , made connections with incredible individuals that I hope will last for a long time and overall it was a great experience that I will totally recommend to anyone.”
“The class was great. Very informative & interesting. Di is a great speaker and is extremely knowledgeable. Loved it.”
“It was very interactive and had entrepreneurs from all different businesses, at different stages of their business so it gave the participants a real feeling of what others are going through to achieve their goals.”
“I would definitely recommend and retake this course if I could! From the beginning I knew it would be fun, interactive and at times intense, covering all the topics provided. This course is worth it in all aspects and thanks to my amazing facilitator for making the course something to look forward to, Great Job DrivenBy…”
“I really enjoyed how many examples and extra resources were used in the course. It really helped see things from a different perspective each time, while also allowing you to have more things to check out rather than search for them yourself (and not even knowing if what you’re searching for is right). The presenter was very knowledgeable and very accommodating!”
“Needed this course for many reasons specially for structure- marketing - finances. I learned so many tools to help me to improve on this side.”
“This course is no fluff. All straight facts on how to make a respectable business plan. How to fine tune your business to make it profitable and successful.”

As you can see, the course was intense, but it brought a lot of value to each and every one of our entrepreneurs businesses. Interested in taking the course?