For early stage and scaling businesses with Global Ambition

What is this course and who is it suitable for?

This course is suitable for companies or promoters who;

• Have a product or service that is capable of being exported
• Are interested in going through an intensive process to validate themselves and their business
• Want to get their business onto the right footing or further developed to scale  
• Are interested in attracting investment  
• Are interested in going through a project focused process in order to enhance their business opportunity
• Promoters that have ambitious projects/products

NOTE:

• Business owners or founders will need to attend. It is not suitable for non-key personnel  
• Ideally the business/company will already be trading or formed and seeking to start a period of rapid expansion. However, experienced promoters with early stage ideas can also be considered.

COURSE OUTLINE

• Validating the promoter 
• Validating the business opportunity 
• Business models and building a Business Plan 
• Sales and routes to market 
• Finance and investment principles
• How to build your product
• How to market the product/ service
• Final pitch to an experienced business panel

Application Process:

1. Read the eligibility criteria above
2. Register your interest in the course
3. Final acceptance onto the course may require you being successful in an interview.  

SESSION 1:  Setting the Scene - Seamus Murphy

• Introductions and house keeping
• Elevator Pitch Preparation- assignment
• Identifying your skills gap and goal setting
• Entrepreneurial Self-Assessment
• Understanding the power of a network
• Intro to the pitch ‘teaser document’
• Guest speaker.

SESSION 2:  Vision, Mission and Values - getting the foundations right.

• Creating a Shared Vision for your business
• Mission statement and the importance of values
• Business structures and legal obligations
• SWOT Analysis
• IP, copyright and licences
• Business Plan preparation and key elements
• Effective communications-pitching
• Teaser document recap
• Guest speaker

SESSION 3:  Accounting for Growth: 

• Building a financial picture of your business
• Projecting profit and cash flows
• Break-even point and pricing
• Set-up costs, variable and fixed costs
• Investment requirements and bank requirements
• Building the financial model – draft 1. Begin the process of getting the financial prepared
• Guest speaker

This session will be followed, over the following 2 weeks, by one-to-one mentoring for all participants on the finance topic.

SESSION 4:  Building the model to Scale:  

• Promoter Validation
• Concept Validation
• Market Validation
• Value Proposition
• Business Model Canvas
• Growing customers and customer retention
• Guest speaker 

SESSION 5 - Understanding your marketplace. 

• Business model canvas 
• Problem Statement Canvas
• Gathering the intelligence you need to scale
• Market Discovery
• Developing customer Personas
• Customer discovery
• Qualifying and quantifying your market
• Guest speaker 

SESSION 6:  Sales and Marketing: 

• Tools of the digital marketing professional
• Target market analysis
• Social Media and its uses
• Paid owned and earned content
• Google ad words, remarketing, video
• Marketing – key message
• Prepare a digital marketing strategy assignment
• Supports
• Guest speaker.

SESSION 7:  Business Plan Review and pre-Pitch Session:

• Business plan review
• Financial health check in detail
• Preparing a winning Pitch- slide deck guidance
• Cap table/valuation of business
• Guest speaker  

SESSION 8:  Sharing your story

Pitch your business to a guest panel of high net worth individuals, angel investors, equity and/or debt funders.

Trainer:

Seamus Murphy
Gateway Consulting