Jumpstart Your Online Business
Cohort-Based Course | Interactive Workbook
Tools
Adobe PDF, Zoom, Slack
Team
- Mara Measor, Graphic Designer
Content Outline
Introduction
Section 1: The Work / What You Do
Section 2: The Market / Whom You Serve and Why
Printable: Even Leaner Business Canvas
Section 3: The Offer / How Your Work Helps Your Market
Printable: Get Your Next Client Action Plan
Time to Launch
Interactive Features
Transfer fields, checkbox selectors
Introduction
Cynthia Pong is a successful career strategist, helping BIWOCs earn more money, power, and respect in their careers.
Goals
In fall 2020, Cynthia taught a live course called Start Your Small Business (SYSB). SYSB was popular and delivered great results.
Between coaching clients 1:1, winning a spot in a crowdfunding accelerator, and marketing her new book, however, she didn’t have the time or energy to run a live course again or record hours of new video for a self-paced course.
Solutions
I reorganized the content from the live course into an interactive workbook that guided learners through creating a simple but effective business canvas and an action plan to pitch one offer to one new client or customer.
Each section has instructional content interspersed with guided exercises. This format allows students to read and work in the same file. They can write a draft niche statement or pitch, and then the PDF will automatically transfer that draft onto another page where they can go through prompts to refine and revise the draft. This reduces the need to copy and paste or scroll back to a previous page to review, which is especially important in a self-paced course that is likely to be worked on little by little.
I also included annotated examples as a way for clients to coach themselves in the absence of face-to-face guidance from Cynthia. We created three sample personas that students can follow through the entire ebook course, taking care to choose names, identities, and artwork that reflect the diversity of Cynthia’s clients.
During my preliminary review of the course materials and student feedback, I realized that the interaction with Cynthia and other cohort members was a major reason the live course was so effective.
To make that interaction more scalable and accessible, I used a flipped classroom / blended learning model. Students were expected to read and complete the workbook exercises before attending live office hours to ask questions and workshop their exercises. They also had access to a Slack community for questions and support outside of office hours.
Course Assets
It was so valuable to have you organize all my source material into a concise, pedagogically-sound ebook course that I would say packs a punch! I am SO excited to share it with people, I think it’ll blow them away! AND also allow us to support many more BIPOCs to start their own successful businesses.
