Courses are a great way to scale your business, without necessarily putting in extra time–at least after the course is built.
But first you have to create that course. And if you’re like many business owners, that’s a big hurdle. It takes time and expertise—and usually just a little bit of accountability—to get it done right.
So where do you even start planning your course? And how do you move forward?
Validate your idea
Before you start writing out your course, you need to know if it’s something that’s even needed in the marketplace. Start keeping your ear to the ground and asking around to find out who needs or wants the course you’re cooking up.
Find out what your audience really wants
You know that your offering is viable and needed, but what does your ideal audience really want? And how do they want it delivered? Different course and program types take a vastly different expertise to put together.
Start with the end in mind
One of the most important things to pay attention to when building out your course or program is the end result. What do you want your students to be able to do or accomplish as a result of participating in your course or program? That’s where you need to start your planning.
Test it before building it out
You have your course outlined and you’re sold on its viability. Now it’s time to test it out. Find a few beta testers to take the course, at a discounted rate in exchange for feedback and a testimonial. Going through this process will allow you to add more value, test out the flow of the course, find out what needs to be more clear, etc. It’s a valuable part of the planning process.
Promote early
It’s never too early to start putting a bug in people’s ears when you want to sell something. Future buyers need to know that you’re an expert in your field and that you know what you’re talking about. They also need to know that you’re the person to come to if they need help with your offering.
But don’t start selling just yet. Instead, just start talking about the topic. So if you’re selling a course on how to master money mindset issues, write blog posts about it, talk about it on Instastories, send your audience emails about it. Offer tips and tricks they can use to start to see some success. And when they see some success, they’ll likely come back for more and buy your program.
If you’re struggling with where to even start with creating content for your course, find out where to start here:
