Topic outline

  • COURSE INTRODUCTION

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    • Time: 45 hours
    • Free Certificate
    The first step in entrepreneurship is understanding your personality traits and mindset that will help your new business venture succeed. This course will address this first step in your journey by allowing you to better understand the role of entrepreneurship in society and address creativity processes to help you develop your new idea. Many tools can be used to help you develop an idea, such as Timmons' Framework, which we will address in this course. Once you consider the creativity process, generating ideas is a key aspect of the planning phase of your business. As ideas are generated, you'll consider if they are viable financially and marketable, but also address if they meet your personal goals. Once you have a list of ideas, you can begin to vet them – determining which ones have viability in the marketplace. In this course, you will learn several ways to vet ideas, such as through competitive analysis, feasibility studies, and opportunity assessments. Let's get started.

  • Unit 1: Creativity and the Entrepreneur

    Do you have what it takes to start your own business? This unit will address the many aspects to help you self-assess your readiness to start an entrepreneurial venture. For example, did you know that passion is an important entrepreneurial mindset? Part of this passion will propel you into understanding creativity and innovation in this module, which is the first ingredient of developing your business idea.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 13 hours.

  • Unit 2: The Ideation Process and Innovation

    Now that you've learned about the entrepreneurial mindset, the next step to generating your ideas is to use the ideation process and understand how innovation works. In this unit, we will cover the six stages of ideation and design and the diffusion of innovations. We will also discuss tried and true methods for generating ideas based on your passions and interests. We will also address how to create a culture in your company that focuses on innovation and creativity.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 17 hours.

  • Unit 3: Idea Evaluation and Analysis

    Once you have your next great idea, now what? This module will discuss the next step in the process of vetting your idea to see if it makes sense to move forward with it. We will address how to research your ideas and how to evaluate the feasibility of the idea. You can do this through feasibility analysis and using a business model canvas, which we will discuss in this unit.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.

  • Unit 4: Planning the Next Steps in Your Venture

    Your idea has been vetted, and you are excited to move forward! But there are some things to consider before moving forward with your idea. The first is to perform an opportunity assessment and use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix and SMART goal setting to ensure it is the right business venture. In this unit, we will also address other considerations you might want to analyze before launching your business, such as how to plan for product development and product life cycles.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.

  • Course Feedback Survey

    Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses. If you come across any urgent problems, email contact@saylor.org.

  • Study Guide

    This study guide will help you get ready for the final exam. It discusses the key topics in each unit, walks through the learning outcomes, and lists important vocabulary. It is not meant to replace the course materials!

  • Certificate Final Exam

    Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

    To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.