Online Business Fundamentals: Starting a Business That Works

What you'll learn

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• Understand what a business really is: value created for the right customers, and enough of it captured back to keep going

• Know who will buy and why, using the Value Proposition Canvas and the Business Model Canvas

• Work out what each sale earns: your costs, profit margin, break-even point and the cash your first stock ties up

• See what your online business is up against with Porter's Five Forces analysis

• Spot the outside changes that could help or hurt your business with PESTLE analysis

• Turn your findings into a SWOT analysis, then into concrete next moves with the TOWS matrix

• Test your business idea with quick market research and Drucker's Theory of the Business

• Decide with confidence whether to go ahead, test further or drop an idea, before you invest a dollar

Who this course is for:

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• Anyone thinking of starting an online business who wants to know it can work before investing time or money
• First-time online sellers who want to understand what makes a business succeed
• Anyone working in, or applying to, an online business who wants to understand how it really works
• Freelancers and consultants who want a clear way to assess business ideas for others

Description

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This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

All video and audio content of the instructor are genuine live recordings.

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Most new online businesses fail for reasons that were visible before day one.** A price buyers won't pay. Costs nobody added up. A market already full. A rule nobody checked.

This course shows you those reasons before they cost you anything. By the end, you'll know:

• Who will buy: the customer, their pains and gains, and the value your business offers them.

• What each sale earns: every cost of an order, your profit margin, how many sales cover your monthly costs, and the cash your first stock ties up.

• What you're up against: competitors, suppliers, buyers, substitutes, and the outside forces shaping your market.

• Whether to go ahead: your critical assumptions, tested with quick market research, and a clear verdict on your business idea.

You'll get there with a handful of time-tested models that business schools teach and experienced operators actually use: the Value Proposition Canvas, the Business Model Canvas, Porter's Five Forces, PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis with the TOWS matrix, and Peter Drucker's Theory of the Business. Each one is explained in plain language and applied to a single worked example: Fern, a backpack brand before launch, followed from first idea to final verdict.

Then you'll run the same check on your own idea, using the included spreadsheet. It takes about two hours. No business experience is needed, and no software beyond Excel or Google Sheets.

Why these models? They work on any platform and in any market, and they'll still work years from now. They also give you the judgement to tell whether an AI-generated business analysis holds up or just sounds convincing.

Your instructor: Martyn spent around ten years running online sales channels at up to $5.000.000 a year, and holds a Business Management Honours degree. The course closes with practical tips from that experience: the costs new sellers forget, why to start small, and how to keep an online business on track as the market moves.