Online Business Planning

Cantillon eCourse for Technology Entrepreneurs

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The Cantillon eCourse is a comprehensive training resource for technology entrepreneurs at any stage of business development. Whether you are engaged in pre-launch planning or are working to achieve your first $50 million in annual revenue, Cantillon is a learning experience that will lay an invaluable foundation for your business and enable you to respond quickly and wisely to the ever-changing marketplace.

How it Works

Cantillon’s self-paced, online instruction modules are presented by successful, practicing entrepreneurs or seasoned educators and are based on the business practices taught at today’s leading universities. Coupled with hands-on guidance from experienced business mentors, Cantillon can help you learn to:

Evaluate business opportunities.
Develop new product concepts.
Analyze and segment markets.
Attract business financing.
Build and run a high-growth business.

The Cantillon is accessible 24/7 so you can complete each module at your convenience and from virtually any location. Each course unit is divided into seven 15-20 minute segments that allow a high level of instructional flexibility. For those who wish to explore a topic in greater detail, downloadable examples, recommended reading, mastery questions and links to relevant sites are included. These supplementary elements offer five additional hours of study and realistic examples.

As you proceed through the Cantillon program, your mentor will review your progress and will employ additional tools, techniques and training aids to address the unique needs of your business or market. He or she will review each element in your business plan and will help you evaluate your opportunities objectively.

Deliverables

At the completion of the Cantillon program, you will have developed everything your potential investors and partners need to evaluate your business. A detailed business strategy will provide business partners and future management team members with a guide for building the business. Specifically, you will complete these critical business elements:

Executive Summary
Financial Plan
Marketing Plan
Product Roadmap

The Cantillon eCourse

Cantillon is comprised of ten modules, each designed to address the strategic decisions common to entrepreneurs and second stage businesses. Each module was developed and is presented by one of ten outstanding leaders in entrepreneurial business building.

Unit 1: The Entrepreneur

Defining yourself as an entrepreneur and understanding what lies before you will give you a realistic frame of reference for your new venture. This unit will help you define the vision and values for your company, your role and your goals.

Unit 2: Executive Summary

Babs Carryer - Adjunct Professor Carnegie Mellon University and CEO of several startups. Author of several publications on commercializing university technology.

Problem, product, market, team, competitors, financials: By describing each element of your business, you will clarify your current position as well as your needs. The resulting executive summary will help you understand your needs and provide a basis for the recruitment of essential team members and resources.

Unit 3: Product Innovation

Larry Schmitt - President Inovo. Guest Lecturer at UM Ross School from which this Unit was developed, and noted authority on the front end of innovation.

Do you need to develop an entire suite of products for one market or a unique product offering for a targeted group of customers whose satisfaction will lead to invaluable references? In this unit, you will focus on defining your customers, their needs and their personas in order to create insights into product strategies for various market segments.

Unit 4: Market Strategy and Competitive Positioning

Thomas C. Kinnear - Eugene Applebaum Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Professor of Marketing, Stephen M Ross School of Business. Active angel
investor and advisor to startup companies.

Your company is defined by its positioning and the marketing battles it chooses to fight. Identifying your corporate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will help you zero in on the battles you can win.

Unit 5: Management Team

Kurt Riegger - Managing Partner, Business Engines, a venture catalyst and investment firm, Serial Entrepreneur, board member for Great Lakes and Ann Arbor Angels.

The right people in the right roles plus the guiding principles they need to achieve extraordinary results: this is pivotal for any company’s success. Unit 5 will address the management team, what it should look like at each stage of development and how to hire complementary team members.

Unit 6: Business Model and Key Metrics

The Business Model explains how your company will make money and the strategies for building up your core strengths. Learn how to define the metrics that will help you "keep score" in your business by measuring the progress of the various factors that drive your business.

Unit 7: Growing Sales

Growing sales in an early stage technology company can be a considerable challenge. While your customers struggle to understand the value in a new solution, you must assemble an ecosystem of partners in order to deliver that solution. This unit will help you explore the sales barriers you face, the cost of acquiring customers (based on pricing, distribution and product costs) and methods for accelerating sales.

Unit 8: Entrepreneurial Finance

David J. Brophy - Director of the Office for the Study of Private Equity Finance; Associate Professor of Finance, Founder of Michigan Growth Capital Symposium.

How will you find investors and other sources of capital? Start with a compelling and well-rehearsed business pitch. Then add a finance plan that explains where your business is going and the milestones that lie ahead. Learn how to determine the amounts and timing of your capital requirements as well as the sources of funding that are best for your company.

Unit 9: Entrepreneurial Leadership

The success of your company will be linked to the role of the CEO and his or her ability to accomplish a few very important things. In this Unit, Noel Tichy looks at the Leadership Engine and identifies the teachable point of view as a crucial
element in entrepreneurial leadership.

Unit 10: Firm Lifecycle

Ensuring that a raw startup can mature quickly into a growth company requires the early adoption of disciplines that can evolve with the organization. Understanding the growth process can shape key decisions about company structure and management. It can also help eliminate the difficulties many entrepreneurs face in “scaling” their growing companies.

Course Fees

The suggested price for the Cantillon eCourse is $150 and includes online participation for up to five team members for a full year. Mentoring fees from participating organizations are typically quoted at $250. While financial assistance may be available, many mentoring organizations across Michigan are offering full or partial reimbursement upon completion of the Cantillon course or with satisfactory advancement to the next recommended stage of business development.

How to Begin

To register, contact a mentoring organization for a login ID. You will be assigned a business mentor at the same time. Your mentor will work with you throughout the course and will review all deliverables. For more information visit http://cantillon.gleq.net.

Technical Support

If you have difficulties or if your browser has trouble displaying the course, technical support is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. (Technical support is available at other times as well, but with delayed response times.) The course requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. If you have questions or difficulties logging in or with content of the course talk to your mentor.

Mentoring Organizations:
Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest
Diane Durance
diane@gleq.org
(734) 527-9151

Ann Arbor SPARK
Scott Olson
scott@AnnArborUSA.org
(734) 213-6292