Entrepreneurship Academy: Strategize & Start A Business

Explore the risks and sacrifices of entrepreneurship, from no steady paycheck and uncertain demand to health, stress, and time commitments, while building a support system with family.

Involve family in your business while setting clear boundaries to protect personal relationships, align roles, establish clear communication, and manage time with practical plans for family participation.

Define your personal and business why to reveal the driving force of starting a venture, and explain why your business exists to solve customer pain points and inspire loyalty.

Assess whether to start a business part-time or full-time by building a personal balance sheet and budget, weighing assets, liabilities, monthly expenses, and family impact.

Assess your strengths and weaknesses by building a personal résumé of your professional and personal achievements, and identify the skills you need to learn to start and run a business.

Validate your business idea by aligning it with your interests and expertise and ensuring it fulfills a need or solves a problem through community feedback.

Navigate the five stages of the business life cycle—from startup development to decline—by analyzing marketing, building a plan, testing the model, and reinventing and innovating.

Identify your target audience through market research to tailor a marketing plan, reduce cost per acquisition, and define a product identity that differentiates you from competitors.

Compare primary and secondary market research, explore do it yourself and paid methods like focus groups, and leverage government data, trade associations, and libraries to identify growing markets.

learn how to perform a swot analysis to evaluate internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats, and translate findings into actionable startup strategy.

Explore how the local library supports small business via the business reference section, a business librarian, and resources like merging intellect, Gale, and US Census Bureau data for market research.

Analyze industry trends, growth, and technology impacts through market research using library resources, assess opportunities and risks, and refine your business plan with industry forecasts and SWOT insights.

Create a realistic customer avatar by researching demographics, education, income, and purchasing behavior using sources like the U.S. Census and Merchant Intellect; tailor your offerings to your target market.

Identify direct and indirect competitors using merchant intellect advanced search, location and industry criteria, and Google insights to benchmark your after-school enrichment business and map strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Create a mission statement that states your business purpose and how you serve customers, guided by market research. Use the workbook's questions to articulate your why and share it widely.

Explore the product life cycle's four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline, and how marketing, production, and innovation drive strategy from introduction to decline.

Explore types of business entities—sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, corporations and nonprofit options—covering tax implications, liability, pass-through taxation, and essentials like partnership agreements.

Evaluate name availability, trademark status, and domain availability, and avoid costly naming firms and name generators. Create a name that reflects your brand, using niche terms or a made-up word.

Identify and protect your brand by understanding what a trademark is and its benefits. Learn to conduct a USPTO trademark search to avoid conflicts and costly legal battles.

Learn to verify domain name availability and trademark status, search for a business name using Google, check USPTO trademarks, and register a dot-com domain with hosting through HostGator.

Secure an attorney and accountant early to protect trademark rights and help avoid tax and legal trouble; then evaluate local lawyers by reviews and transparent fee structures.

Find a CPA to handle bookkeeping, tax planning and compliance, auditing, and financial statements, improving your business's financial health with clear engagement terms before signing.

Assess how different locations meet your business needs, from home-based setups to retail, mobile, pop-ups, farmers markets, and co-working spaces, while considering permits, regulations, and costs.

Align your location with your brand style, target the ideal customer, and assess foot traffic, accessibility, costs, and local competition to ensure growth potential.

Explore how to find a business location like choosing an apartment, using LoopNet and criteria such as office space, size, price per square foot, and lease terms.

Identify and obtain the necessary local, county, state, or federal licenses and permits by researching your city's government website, checking fee schedules, and calling for guidance.

Create a brand, develop a marketing and sales plan, and convert prospects into customers by aligning branding, marketing, and sales to grow your business.

Tell your story to brand your business, using your unique narrative to connect with customers. Learn a practical process to craft your story, inspired by immigrant roots and entrepreneurship.

Craft your unique story to build a brand that represents your foundation and purpose. Define your audience, differentiate from competitors, and develop a brand personality that delivers the promised value.

Create a cohesive brand identity by selecting legible typography, strategic colors, and a strong logo, then translate these into a consistent website, packaging, business cards, and email designs.

Create a standout logo for your stem after-school program using a free logo maker, choose beaker, robot, and rocket graphics, tailor colors and text, and save with a transparent background.

Create a logo in Canva using free templates, search and edit graphics, add text, customize colors and fonts, group elements, and export options with free vs pro features.

Discover how to use Fiverr or Upwork to hire a logo designer, compare gigs, packages, and reviews, and start a project by creating an account and messaging the freelancer.

Define clear marketing goals, articulate benefits, identify your target audience, and map your marketing plan with tactics, budget, and analysis to grow sales.

Master the seven-step sales lifecycle from identifying and connecting with leads to qualifying, presenting, overcoming objections, closing, and following up, and craft a compelling unique selling proposition to drive referrals.

Identify startup expense categories—borrowing costs, technology, equipment and supplies, advertising, and employee expenses—to estimate your total capital needs based on your business type.

Conduct thorough competitive research to select equipment for stem education after-school programs, using the startup expenses worksheet to estimate initial costs and explore alternatives like Lego Mindstorms and Vex IQ.

Plan startup costs with a two-tab expense worksheet covering start-up and ongoing costs. Estimate one-time and monthly expenses to determine the total upfront investment for a home-based business.

Discover why business insurance is essential for protecting your property, income, and liability, how policies vary in price, and how to choose coverage that fits your business needs.

Identify a basic insurance package including general liability, property and casualty, umbrella coverage, and business interruption to protect your business from accidents, property loss, and disruptions in operations.

Assess your business location and protection needs, apply higher deductibles, review coverage annually, and shop for the best policy; then report incidents, document proof of loss, and avoid inaccuracies.

Discover how to forecast revenues and expenses with financial projections, understand cost of goods sold (cogs), profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet, and apply pricing strategies and markup.

Learn to build a simple three-month sales projection and connect revenue, cogs, margins, and operating expenses to a cash flow, income statement, and balance sheet.

Use the financial projections template to build startup costs, fixed assets, payroll, sales forecasts, and income statements, then analyze cash flow, balance sheets, break-even analysis, and ratios.

Learn break-even analysis by calculating gross margin, fixed expenses, and monthly sales needed to cover costs, then update projections to influence profit.

Evaluate your business health by learning financial ratios, comparing them to industry norms, and using notes on current and quick ratios, diagnostic tools, and loan assumptions to guide decisions.

Self-finance your startup by building a personal balance sheet, trimming expenses, and taking on side hustles. Investors expect you to invest, and family or friends funding carries relationship risks.

Explore equity financing, where investors gain ownership in exchange for funding, including venture capital and angel investors, along with benefits and risks such as ownership dilution and loss of control.

Explore debt financing for startups—installment loans, lines of credit, and SBA loans—where banks require a business plan, you keep ownership, and you pay interest, fees, and possible asset seizure.

Learn why funding your business with 401k withdrawals or credit cards is risky; you lose tax-free growth, pay fees, face high interest, and risk debt, so avoid them.