Learn to be a Startup CEO

Once the plans have been written, the value proposition has been determined and the funds have been raised, it is time to take your products and services to market. The manner in which you do that can determine your success. In this lecture, you will learn:

· How to prepare your business to meet customer expectations

· A variety of “Go to Market” strategies and some potential pitfalls

· How to create the best possible experience for your early customers

· Techniques for ensuring that your business can scale with customer demand

Many entrepreneurs who are starting their first venture overlook the details associated with setting up an office that supports operations. These activities include choosing an appropriate site, obtaining needed office furniture and equipment and many other details. This lecture will discuss:

· How to choose a site for your venture and negotiate a favorable lease

· How you can lease or buy office furniture and equipment

· Types of insurance to shield your venture from damaging liabilities

· The importance of marketing collateral to ensure an effective start to your venture

Intellectual Property is often an important and valuable part of any new venture. However, many entrepreneurs fail to recognize that what they have created is intellectual property. In fact, nearly anything you create, whether it is a product feature or a business process, can be identified and protected as intellectual property. In this lecture, you will learn:

· How to identify your venture’s unique intellectual property

· The various types of IP including: patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyright

· How to protect your venture’s unique IP

· How to use IP to enhance the value of your venture

Every entrepreneur eventually learns the value of networking. Get a jump by understanding that networking is a purposeful activity used to make vital contacts, learn valuable lessons and communicate venture activities to others. Negotiation skills also are required for effective venture development and management. In this lecture, you will learn:

· How to network efficiently, not wasting time on ineffective networking

· Professional negotiation skills and tactics

· How to negotiate for a win/win outcome

· Opening and closing gambits that will help you get more from each negotiation

You don’t need an accounting degree to be a successful entrepreneur. However, understanding some basics about accounting and cash management will increase your chances of success. In this lecture, you will learn:

· Why accounting is considered the “language of business”

· How to manage your venture’s accounting cycle

· How to use accounting information provided by your accountant to grow your venture

· How to manage your venture’s cash flow cycle to ensure that you have cash on hand to pay the bills

Businesses use contracts to document the rights and responsibilities of parties involved in each transaction. Some contracts are simple and don’t require a lot of thought — such as when you purchase an item at retail and the receipt constitutes the contract — others are highly complex. To effectively transact business, entrepreneurs need to develop and utilize contracts that best fit their venture. This lecture will teach you:

· The essential components of an effective contract

· How to protect your interests through contract language

· How to work with attorneys to minimize the cost of contract preparation

· The importance of “standard form contracts” to professional business practice

As your business begins to grow, the stress of delivering value to an increasing number of customers can become overwhelming if you haven’t developed efficient operations. This course covers the steps you should take to ensure your venture is ready to meet increasing demand. Specifically, this lecture covers:

· The notion of quality and how to build it into everything your venture does

· The need for policies to guide internal behaviors

· The role of customer service and follow up to ensure repeat business

· The importance and role of control mechanisms in your venture

Many first time entrepreneurs are not trained in, nor are they particularly interested in, selling and marketing. Yet, most every business hinges on a sale being made to a willing customer. This course will help you see sales as the simple exchange of value — little green pieces of paper ($) traded for a product or service you’ve created. In this lecture, you’ll learn:

· The different types of selling

· How to prepare for a sale and how to close a sale

· The difference between marketing and selling

· How to develop an effective marketing plan

· How much money you will need to budget, in general, for sales and marketing activities

Managing and leading becomes increasingly important as your business grows and adds additional employees and contractors. The entrepreneur/founder of a venture is the person others look to for guidance and motivation. YOU are the leader of the venture; get used to that fact! This lecture is designed to teach you:

· The difference between managing and leading

· The root source of creative leadership

· Communication strategies for managing and leading

· How to manage your emotions as the leader of your venture

Copious entrepreneurs leave the corporate world partly because they are tired of human resource issues that prevail there. They hope that by “being their own boss,” they can escape the drama. Then, as their business grows, these same people end up dealing with many of the same “people issues”. This lecture is designed to help you understand how to:

· Create jobs that are compelling and motivating for your employees

· Orient new employees to your workplace and culture

· Motivate staff to perform at a high level day after day

· Prevent needless problems by establishing workplace policies and rules

Every venture should begin with its end in mind. Even if the end you envision is to continue to operate until you retire, there should always be an overriding end goal in the structure of a new venture. In this lecture, you will learn:

· How to position your company for an acquisition

· The challenges of growing the company for an initial public offering (IPO)

· How to maximize the enterprise value of your venture

· How to evaluate the real value of your company and negotiate with potential suitors

As your venture grows, it is quite possible you will need additional capital. Raising capital while the venture is operating is quite common, but still presents a difficult challenge even for seasoned entrepreneurs. In this lecture, you’ll learn:

· How to determine how much capital you’ll need to grow

· Where to find growth capital

· How to retain enough ownership to stay motivated to operate your venture

· How to entice investors to consider funding your venture

There are a wide number of legal issues that face entrepreneurial ventures. Legal risk occurs any time you place a product or service into the stream of commerce. Fortunately, simply by knowing these risks exist in advance there are a number of things an entrepreneur can do to minimize them. In this lecture, you will learn:

· How to minimize risk associated with product liability laws

· Human resource laws that will affect your business should it grow beyond 15 employees

· The role of the Uniform Commercial Code in governing business transactions

· Laws which govern warranties and claims you make to customers

There are a variety of risks that entrepreneurs face as they launch, build and exit their venture. Managing risk is one of the most important skills of successful entrepreneurship. Seasoned entrepreneurs are comfortable managing risks, and therefore can seize opportunities from which others would shrink. In this lecture, you’ll learn:

· How to manage financial risk

· How to deal with personal and emotional risk

· Techniques and strategies for coping with failure

· Insurance products you can purchase to reduce risk exposure