Are you looking to set up your own business? Are you wondering how to turn your ideas into reality? Discover more about setting up and running your own business in this free course, Entrepreneurship – from ideas to reality.Using case studies, this course will take you through the decisions you will need to make when building a business: from generating initial ideas through to deciding what you will do and how you will establish your business and grow it. It will guide you through business models, funding options, business types and the influence of location and importantly assessment of your own skills, values and attitudes to risk. The course is focused on practical advice from real entrepreneurs, and will signpost you to where you can find additional support and how you can further develop your own capabilities. TranscriptEnrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation - which also displays your Open University badge.This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Please tell us more about your Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and personal skill development!We would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to complete this survey and tell us about yourself and your experiences of CPD and lifelong learning.The Open University is working in collaboration with the CPD Standards Office in a national study to understand more about individual professionals' experiences, perceptions and practice for adult skill development. Find out more here cpdstandards.com/research.By participating in this high profile research, you will be contributing to scientific knowledge about adult skill development and how we can develop successful future careers. Participation is confidential, voluntary and we will not pass on your details to others.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction and guidance
- Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged course?
- How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
- Session1Session 1: Where do good ideas come from?
- Introduction
- 1 Are you an entrepreneur?
- 2 What’s the big idea?
- 3 Invention, innovation and enterprise
- 3.1 Finding ideas or ideas finding you
- 3.2 Discovery skills
- 4 Learning about ideas
- 4.1 Ideas all around us
- 5 Solving problems and seeing opportunities
- 5.1 Design thinking
- 5.2 Framing
- 5.3 Learning from mistakes
- 6 This session’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Session2Session 2: From idea to reality
- Introduction
- 1 Starting your business
- 1.1 Motivation and context
- 2 Business in the UK
- 3 Planning for growth
- 3.1 Medium-sized businesses
- 3.2 What are your goals?
- 4 Protecting your idea
- 4.1 Professional advice is advised
- 5 What kind of business structures are there?
- 5.1 Not for profit
- 5.2 What structure do I need?
- 6 Getting and running a business
- 6.1 Bootstrapping it
- 6.2 Developing your enterprise and finding help
- 7 This session’s quiz
- 8 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Session3Session 3: Creating value
- Introduction
- 1 Practice and theory
- 1.1 Traditional approaches to business
- 1.2 The business model canvas
- 1.3 Defining the terms of a business model
- 2 Your business model is unique
- 3 The entrepreneur’s dilemma
- 3.1 Dilemma 1: building confidence
- 3.2 Dilemma 2: managed growth
- 3.3 Dilemma 3: finding support
- 3.4 Dilemma 4: pivoting
- 4 This session’s quiz
- 5 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Session4Session 4: Customers and markets
- Introduction
- 1 Who are your customers?
- 1.1 Are they customers at all?
- 1.2 Beyond customer transactions
- 1.3 Getting to know your customers
- 1.4 What do customers want?
- 1.5 Customer segments
- 2 The marketing mix
- 2.1 What does the market look like?
- 2.2 What kind of market is it?
- 3 How will you compete?
- 3.1 Returning to the Ps
- 3.2 Returning to the competition
- 4 This session’s quiz
- 5 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Session5Session 5: Defining and building the value proposition
- Introduction
- 1 The value proposition (VP)
- 2 How mutual value is created
- 2.1 Dimensions of value
- 3 Optimising value
- 4 Brand or USP?
- 5 Defining your value proposition
- 6 This session’s quiz
- 7 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session6Session 6: Aligning resources to opportunities
- Introduction
- 1 An environmental scan
- 1.1 Porter’s Five Forces
- 2 Transformation model
- 2.1 Types of transformation process
- 2.2 Overlapping transformations
- 3 From resources to capabilities
- 3.1 Human resources
- 3.2 Tangible resources and ‘know how’
- 3.3 Mapping your capabilities
- 4 Sustainability and making a difference
- 4.1 Key success factors
- 5 This session’s quiz
- 6 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Session7Session 7: Financing your business
- Introduction
- 1 Financing your business
- 2 Cash management
- 3 Financial accounts
- 4 Limited liability
- 5 What are potential investors looking for?
- 6 Debt
- 7 Grants
- 8 Alternative finance
- 8.1 Online platforms
- 8.2 Rate of return
- 8.3 Crowdfunding
- 8.4 Peer-to-peer lending
- 8.5 What is public equity?
- 8.6 Private equity
- 8.7 Angel investors and venture capitalists (VCs)
- 8.8 Weighing up the pros and cons
- 9 This session’s quiz
- 10 Summary
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Session8Session 8: Bringing it all together – just start!
- Introduction
- 1 Overcoming self-doubt
- 2 Building your network
- 3 Pitching your business
- 3.1 What to cover in your pitch
- 4 The secrets of success
- 5 This session’s quiz
- 6 Summary
- Where next?
- Tell us what you think
- References
- Acknowledgements
