Operations   

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Microsoft Word or other word processing program (not included in enrollment).
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Turn your business ideas into a solid plan for financing and long-term success. This course will guide you through all the major components of writing a business plan and you'll emerge with your first draft in hand.

A Strategy for Success

In this first lesson, you will meet several leading entrepreneurs and determine if you have similar passions and skill sets. You will discover that business plans are not just for funding your dream, but for guiding it along the path to success (as you choose to define it).

Defining Your Business

Now, you will start to mold your business. You will develop a vision and a mission for your enterprise. You will define and refine your product or service, and you will uncover your niche. This is the fun part of the journey—your only limitation is your imagination.

The Role of the Customer

This lesson will focus on the customer. Successful companies focus not on the products and services that they offer, but on the customers that they serve—on many levels. You will learn to position your company to be customer-centric, and how to move that customer from satisfied to loyal (and perhaps even an advocate for your business).

Structuring Your Organization

In this lesson, you will structure your organization so it's in the best position to provide your product or service to your targeted customers. You will discover the role that change plays in your entrepreneurial evolution. Change is good—it shows that you're thinking.

The Marketing Plan

This lesson explores the plan within the plan—the marketing section of your business plan. You will also discover the features and benefits of your product or service, and you will begin the ongoing task of market research. This is where you can differentiate your product or service from that of your competition.

The Competition

This lesson will explore three separate areas of marketing. First, you will learn about your competitors so that you can better position yourself and discover just how solid your business ideas are. Then, you will address one of the most difficult issues of new business—pricing. Finally, you will become a SWOT agent—analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Marketing in Action

In this lesson, you will join a panel of outstanding marketing, public relations, and graphics experts who are also entrepreneurs and believe in the power of networking. You will explore graphic design, logos, image, public relations, and guerrilla marketing, as well as marketing in action.

Operations and Manufacturing

This lesson tackles operations and manufacturing concerns.

Understanding the Finance Section (Part I)

This lesson takes a bird's eye view of the financial section of a business plan. You will also briefly explore the capital equipment list, the balance sheet, and break-even analysis.

Understanding the Finance Section (Part II)

In this lesson, you will discover three additional financial components of the plan. You will explore the projected income statement, cash flow, and historical financial records. Be sure to take some time to explore the Supplemental Links area (in this lesson and in all the others) for outstanding online resources.

Financing Your Business

This lesson continues the focus on money, but from a different perspective than in the previous two. You will focus on funding and financing opportunities, and by the end, you should have a better understanding of financing. You will also find out where to locate traditional, and not so traditional, sources of funding.

The Final Document

In the final lesson, you will end one journey while beginning another. First, you will write an outstanding executive summary. You will receive a few important document formatting tips, and you will learn what supporting documents you should add to your final business plan. You now hold all the keys to the doors along your entrepreneurial path. Journey well.

What you will learn

• Develop a strategy for success, starting with a detailed business plan
• Learn the role of the customer in your new business venture
• Gain an understanding of marketing and all the pieces you will need to know to succeed
• Understand the financial aspects of starting and running a business
• Learn how and where to obtain financing

How you will benefit

• Learn what you will need to know to get a successful start as an entrepreneur
• Understand how to surround yourself with the right people and tools for success
• Feel more confident as you step out on your own to achieve your dreams

Kris Solie-Johnson

Kris Solie-Johnson, chancellor and president of the American Institute of Small Business, best-selling author, educator, speaker, and mother of three, is an energetic and passionate entrepreneur. Her books are in public libraries, high schools, colleges, and military bases both nationally and internationally. Solie-Johnson has an MBA in Venture Management from the University of St. Thomas and over 19 years of experience helping entrepreneurs reach their goals quickly through joint venture partnerships, creative marketing programs, and innovative financial options. She's dedicated to motivating and inspiring owners to achieve beyond their dreams.

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Give yourself an employment advantage by developing analytical skills that are consistently in high demand. This course will teach you powerful quantitative methods that will have you making better, more informed, and more effective business decisions.

Problem Solving and Decision-Making

Decision-making is one of the most important aspects of business, so you'll start things off by exploring a variety of analytical approaches that you can use for making business decisions. You'll also look at the basic steps involved in problem solving.

Introduction to Probability

This lesson will help you understand the probability of events. It will talk about basic probability concepts and how you can assign probabilities to experimental outcomes. You'll also find out how to apply probability concepts to business situations.

Introduction to Sampling and Surveys

In this lesson, you'll delve into the concepts of mean and standard deviation and how they're used in business. You'll also go over survey analysis, the various steps involved in doing a survey, and the most common errors that people make.

Decision Analysis

This lesson is all about the use of probability in decision-making. You'll explore an analytical approach called Decision Analysis. You'll learn how to structure a problem so that when you decide how to deal with it, you know what result to expect. The lesson will also talk about using an optimistic, conservative, and in-between approach when making decisions. Finally, you'll examine the concept of Expected Value.

Utility and Decision-Making

What if the decision you want to make isn't the most sensible one from a financial perspective? There are times when you need to base the worth of a decision on its value to you. An example of this would be deciding to buy a lottery ticket. Sometimes it's appropriate to make business decisions this way. This lesson will talk about this approach and where the different decisions can lead.

Forecasting

All businesses need to forecast sales and expenses, and the forecasts need to be accurate. This lesson will cover forecasting as it's done in business analysis. You'll learn about the two types of forecasting: qualitative and quantitative.

The Modeling Process

In this lesson, you'll discover modeling, which is the application of mathematical constructs to decision making. You'll explore simple, intermediate, and complex types of models and discuss the two approaches to model development: reductionist and holistic.

Modeling in a Corporate Environment

This lesson is about how models are developed within a business organization. It will talk about what needs to be done and who needs to do it in order to make the modeling effort a success. You'll explore the respective roles of the analyst (modeler) and the client for whom the model is being developed.

Financial Analysis

The most widely used type of business analysis is financial analysis. This probably doesn't surprise you too much since the point of any business is to make a profit. In this lesson, you'll look at financial analysis and how it differs from accounting. The lesson will discuss cost estimates and various types of business costs. You'll get familiar with the concepts of break-even analysis and cost/benefit analysis, both of which play a vital role in business analysis.

Project Management PERT/CPM

The techniques of PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) and CPM (Critical Path Method) have proven to be extremely valuable to project managers. This lesson will explain the basics of PERT/CPM and how to utilize these techniques in your work. You'll meet a simple technique called a Gantt chart, which works quite well for planning a simple project with a relatively small number of tasks.

Computer Simulation and Risk Analysis

Risk is a part of any business situation, which makes it something you need to consider when you do business analysis. Simulation is an excellent method of performing risk analysis, so this lesson will cover step-by-step procedures for creating and using a simulation model.

Computer-Based Information Systems

In the final lesson, you'll look at computer-based information systems. This includes such areas as Decision Support Systems, Optimization Analysis, and Knowledge-Based Systems. You'll learn what each of these areas constitutes and examine many business applications of each.

What you will learn

• Learn quantitative methods that will have you making better, more informed, and more effective business decisions
• Understand probability, sampling and surveys
• Learn qualitative and quantitative forecasting
• Understand modeling and how it is used to make better business decisions
• Learn how financial analysis differs from accounting
• Examine how to perform a risk analysis

How you will benefit

• Make better, more informed, and more effective business decisions
• Give yourself an employment advantage by developing analytical skills that are consistently in high demand

Matt Crabtree

Matt Crabtree, CFP ®, earned his Bachelor of Science in Business, Information Systems Management, in 1999, a mini MBA certificate from The School of Management at Yale University in 2004, a certificate in Financial Planning from Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business in 2012 and has received the financial industry's most rigorous and prestigious professional designation of Certified Financial Planner ™. After many years in project management, office management, and business sales, Matt began training individuals and organizations in areas of business finance, leadership development, successful negotiations, sales management, and customer service excellence. Matt has trained individuals and various units within the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as corporate organizations including IBM (technology), Accuray (healthcare-technology), and Gen-Probe (molecular diagnostics). Matt's natural aptitude for explaining his material in an easy-to-understand and enjoyable manner allows each student to gain insights into areas that are often considered challenging.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Learn how to correctly anticipate and meet your customers' needs. This course will help you discover some effective methods to bring out your best and do the same for the other people you work with as you serve as an ambassador for your company.

Winning Customer Service

Do you know what winning customer service looks like? If you're like most of us, you know it when you see it, but you may not be able to replicate it easily within your organization. Well, that will soon change as you learn what it takes to provide the best service the first time.

Customers Revealed

Customers are complex and multidimensional, and the success of your organization depends on how well you can understand what your customers want and meet their needs. It's time to get to work by finding out who your customers are and how you can serve them best.

Customer Expectations

If you've ever handled a customer complaint, you know how expectations play a large role in ultimate customer satisfaction. Learn what motivates customers and the best way to appeal to them the right way, the first time.

Customer Service: Why Do It?

A lot of organizations still have the so what mentality when it comes to superb customer service. But you won't be one of them, will you? There are a lot of benefits to ramping up your customer service, one of which is making your current customers happy. You'll discover the secrets to doing so in this lesson.

The Decline (And Revival) of Customer Service

If you're like a lot of people, you've probably noticed that in some places, on some days, customer service seems to be a laughable misnomer. Ironically, the better the service, the greater the collective expectations for high quality follow-through and innovation. Learn about the decline and revival of customer service and see what you can do to capitalize on consumer expectations.

Moving Forward With the Four P's

Customers are happy when they get the right combination of product, price, and information. When you make the product available at the right time and place, you have a winning marketing mix—also known as the 4P's (product, price, place, and promotion). In this lesson, you'll see how you can help your organization grow by harnessing the power of the P.

Traits of Outstanding Customer Reps

You may already know which of your reps are top performers, and which of them are lackluster. But do you know how to cultivate the best qualities in every rep on your team? In this lesson, you'll unlock the secrets to efficient and friendly customer service.

Measuring Customer Service

It's great to know how to cultivate better service and how to pick the right team members, but it's also important to know how you measure the customer service you already provide every day. Get ready for a simplified, user-friendly tour of the measurements and math behind your customer service counter.

Customer Service Communication

Your success in satisfying customers largely depends on the level of your communication skills. So in this lesson, you'll see the importance of clear and direct communication. Plus, you'll find out how to solve communication problems, especially the ones that happen all the time when you're doing business over the phone.

Helping Upset Customers

In this lesson, you'll learn how to revive a troubled customer service program, deal with upset customers, and use technology to simplify your job duties. You'll also go over the steps to take when you face a difficult customer and review the use of call centers, email, and the Internet.

Motivating Your Team Part I

Your team of customer service personnel could probably stand a little more training and a lot more encouragement. Luckily, you'll soon know how to take your employees to the next level with motivation strategies that really work.

Motivating Your Team Part II

As you finish the course, it's important to reflect once again on how vital customer service reps are to the company. Learn the best ways to reward and motivate them to treat their jobs as careers, and their customers as friends. As you know, you only have one chance to make a first impression, and you don't want to waste it being busy or rude!

What you will learn

• Learn what award winning customer service looks like
• Discover who your customers are and how you can best serve them
• Learn what motivates customers and the best way to appeal to them
• Learn how you can capitalize on consumer expectations
• Learn to motivate and reward the people on your service rep team
• Discover how to deal with upset customers and the steps to take when you face a difficult customer
• Cultivate better service by learning how to choose the right team members

How you will benefit

• Discover methods to bring out your best and the other customer service reps on your team
• Reflect on how vital customer service is to your organization and how important it is to treat your customers with courteousness and respect

Tony Swaim

Tony Swaim has helped many clients, colleagues, and students reach their professional and personal goals. He has been an online instructor since 1998 and has taught at colleges and universities across the United States since 1981. His focus areas are project management, Six Sigma, and supply chain management. Tony manages a successful consulting firm, and his industry experience includes 20 years of supply chain management. He earned a Doctorate in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University and holds professional certifications in six disciplines, including the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI)® and Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB)® from the American Society for Quality (ASQ)®.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Learn the essential role of human resources in successful organizations. This course will help you understand this very vital link in the organizational chain, so that managers and business owners can feel prepared to handle basic human resource functions.

The History of Human Resources

Do you ever wonder why the field of human resources is the way it is? How it has evolved? In your first lesson, you will travel through history to explore the roots of human resources. You will see how the modern human resource function has evolved from trade guilds, through the industrial revolution, to modern times.

Human Resources Functions in Today's Organization

What exactly does the human resource professional do on the job? In this lesson, you will take a look at the variety of vital activities that are frequently included in the human resources function. This variety can include everything from recruiting, hiring, and retaining employees, to labor management relations and workplace safety and training.

The Hiring Process: Part 1

How does someone go about finding and hiring a new employee? The initial preparation for hiring is often done in the quiet of an office, which may make it seem like new employees just magically appear. This lesson explores what goes on in that quiet office—focusing on preparing advertisements and application forms, reviewing and screening applications, conducting interviews, and verifying information.

The Hiring Process: Part 2

Interviews and background checks are key components of the hiring process. The interview is your chance to evaluate the job applicant in person to see how well their skills match your job requirements. This lesson looks at each part of the interview—from setting it up and to rating the person after the interview.

Finding Employees in a Competitive Labor Market

How do you get someone to apply for a job? Solid recruiting practices using both traditional and nontraditional techniques will ensure that you have a large pool of applicants from which to pick and choose. Traditionally, many companies simply run a classified job ad when they need a new employee, but in this lesson, you will explore other alternatives that may be equally effective in recruiting.

Retaining Quality Employees

What motivates a quality employee to stay on the job? What can you do to keep employees happy and working? In this lesson, you will learn how to analyze job satisfaction and the factors that keep employees happy.

Respecting Employee Rights

What rights do employees have? What are moral rights and how can the company protect them? What is the difference between a moral and a legal right? This lesson explores both moral and legal rights and how they can be used to benefit employees.

Laws Relating to Human Resources

What legal responsibilities does a company owe its employees? This lesson provides an overview of the many laws that impact the workplace. You will examine laws that govern union-management interactions, prohibit discrimination, set wage and hour requirements, and enforce safety standards.

Policy Making

Do you have a policy manual at work? What policies are included in the manual? How does anyone ever decide what policies to include? In this lesson, you will learn about policy manuals—what they should include, what policies are most common, and how you can ensure your policies comply with the law.

Employee Communications

How can workplace communication be effective? What should you do to ensure that communication is taking place on a regular basis? This lesson focuses on the need for effective communication programs at work and how to implement them. You will find out how to keep communication running smoothly throughout the organization.

Administration of Employee Benefit Programs

What should a strong employee benefit program include? What is involved in putting a benefit package together? Benefits are a great way to attract and keep employees. This lesson explores common employment benefits as insurance and retirement.

Human Resources—A Source of Quality

Have you ever wondered what makes a human resource professional successful? In your final lesson, you will learn the eight habits that successful professionals adopt. You will leave with the insight and ability to achieve excellence at work.

What you will learn

• Learn to handle basic human resource functions effectively
• Understand the hiring process, including ways to locate quality employees in a competitive labor market
• Examine employee rights and the legal side of the human resource field
• Learn how to conduct effective interviews
• Gain a new respect for the vital role Human Resources plays in an organization

How you will benefit

• Gain confidence in your ability to relate to employees and coworkers in an appropriate way
• Learn to make better hires even in competitive markets
• Open the door to new opportunities in entry-level HR positions

Ann Nevers

Ann Nevers holds a law degree and a master's in health law. She works in dispute resolution for business, employment, and health care and regularly teaches courses in these areas. She has published numerous academic articles, edited legal manuals, and written chapters on employment, dispute resolution, and health care topics.