One day. That's all it takes to expose yourself to the fundamentals of starting and running a business. So we've built a day of education and community designed with you in mind.
No guest speakers. No boring PowerPoint presentations.
This is an action-driven, collaborative workshop with a small and supportive group of like-minded entrepreneurs, led by an experienced entrepreneur who will introduce concepts and help you put them to work immediately through hands-on activities and exercises.
A typical schedule. Atypically awesome. Workshop schedules may vary from workshop to workshop, but the core fundamentals are the same.
8-8:15 a.m.: Welcome and Orientation
8:15 - 9:15 a.m.: Understanding You
We'll talk about your ideas and inspiration and dig into activities that help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, what time you have available, and how to form a team around you.
9:15-9:45 a.m.: Identifying Your Assumptions
At the heart of every business are core assumptions. We'll explore those assumptions, and use a custom version of the Business Model Canvas —a visual template that helps you develop your business model — to identify, test and refine those assumptions.
9:45-10 a.m.: Break
10-11 a.m.: Your Customers
We'll work through exercises to understand who your customers are, what they do, and where they are when they're making key purchasing decisions.
11 a.m. - 12 p.m.: Customer Development
To truly understand your customer, you must learn to be empathetic. We'll walk through activities and mock interviews to better understand how to get the most from customer interactions, before you spend money building products they may or may not want.
12 - 1 p.m.: Lunch
1-2:15 p.m.: Legal and Accounting
In this round-table breakout session, you'll have a chance to meet with a lawyer and an accountant to ask questions and learn some basics, in a casual Q&A format.
2:15 - 2:45 p.m.: Messaging
If you're going to create a killer brand, you need a killer brand message that defines who you are and what makes you great. In this activity, we'll break that statement down, and help you come up with language you can use to present your brand to the world.
2:45 - 3:15 p.m.: Customer Acquisition
How do we find customers, and how do they find us? How do we get our customers to know, like and trust our business? We'll talk about customer acquisition and come up with some steps our fans and followers can take on the path to becoming loyal customers.
3:15-3:45 p.m.: Break
3:45-4:45 p.m.: Money
Our afternoon turns to a conversation of all things money-related, from a basic financial overview of revenue streams, fixed costs and variable costs, to more detailed instruction on how to calculate a break-even point and construct basic financial projections for your business.
5-6 p.m.: Happy Hour