You might have heard of people such as Pat Flynn, Derek Halpern, Jeff Walker, Ramit Sethi and Lewis Howes, all entrepreneurs who are crushing it with their online businesses. They earn millions by selling online products and are the true rockstars in the the marketing world.

How cool would it be to sell your online courses from your home office, generating an income that allows you to be financially independent and live the life that Tim Ferriss showed us in his book “The 4 hour Work Week”? Pretty cool, right?

But is this even possible for us, as normal individuals who want to leave their 9-5 jobs? Who are just starting out and never attended any marketing or business class? Who don't have millions of followers or have $100 000s to spend for ads?

The answer is YES! But as everything in life there is no shortcut and it takes dedication, patience and a willingness to walk a terrain that nobody from your family and friends might have ever walked before.

I am a self taught photographer selling online products such as ebooks, coaching and an online course teaching people how to get started in the concert photography world. I started totally from scratch with no followers, no money to spend for ads and no plan at all.

3 years later and I am rushing towards a 6 figure business, I built a loyal following with an email list of 6000+ subscribers from 100+ countries and 10,000 of followers on my social media channels. I generated a unique hashtag on Instagram which is used almost 100 000 times, I am publishing an online magazine and recently started my own podcast.

In the last years I read literally every book about online marketing, invested into workshops, attended seminars, got a mentor and talked hundreds of hours to other people in this field. I wanted to find a “success formula” that I can use to build my own dream business.

“The Product first” vs. “The Audience first” approach

By trial and error I found out that there are 2 ways on how to build a success online business: The “Product first” approach and the “Audience first” approach. Let me explain in more detail.

This is the approach where you build your online product first and than you´re searching for your clients. However this approach has some serious drawbacks.

Imagine, you got the masterplan. It´s simple, right? Build a course, go online, share it on your social media channels and wait until the money pours in.
Sorry, but you’ll be more than disappointed, because I can guarantee you that nobody will buy your $200-$500 product only because you´re a nice pal.

How do you know if people are interested in your course?

Do people trust you if they have never heard of you?

Can you reach thousands of targeted people through your social media channels?

You see, that there are quite a few challenges right form the start. However there is a solution to all of them: paid advertisement.

With paid ads (most likely Facebook ads) you`ll be able to reach millions of targeted people who might be interested in your products. This sounds awesome in the beginning, but you’ll have to experiment and test to find what works.

In terms to find your target audience you need to know:

And here lies the main problem for me as a small business owner. Unless you have $1000s to spend for ads this approach won´t work. Normally the big marketing stars spend $100,000 - 1 million per month(!) for FB ads. It´s all about driving enough traffic to your site and hopefully get out more benefit than your ads spend is.

Another drawback is that you´re totally dependent on platforms such as Facebook. Facebook is known for changing their algorithms quite often and I have heard stories where your acquired lead jumped from $1 to $10 over night. Ouch.

Even though I have seen some of my friends being successful with this approach, i wouldn´t recommend to go this route when you´re starting your business.

I first heard of this approach from Derek Halpern (Socialtriggers,com, read my success story here). It´s a beautiful yet simple idea which goes like “build an audience first, than sell your products to them”. This was an eye opener for me. Sure, people who know and trust you will become more likely customers, right? Would you rather buy from a friend or a stranger online you have never heard of before (the Product first approach)?

So, I started to build my audience from scratch and the next 3 factors should help you to grow your own community of raving fans.

1. Choose a topic you're passionate about

Do you have a hobby or passion for a specific topic? Is it knitting, painting or cooking? If you start brainstorming you`ll immediately recognise what you're passionate about the most. Sometimes people say „I like relaxing on the couch on Sundays, or I like watching TV in the evening.’ I am not talking about these kind of activities,
Your hobby should be something where you can teach other people what you have achieved over the period of time.

Need some inspirations, which fit perfectly for starting your online business: Photography. Dating. Business. Relationships. Personal Finance. Social skills. Software training. Social media. Marketing. Cooking. Health. Writing. Web Design. Productivity. Networking. Careers. Coding. Music. Photography. Yoga. Fitness. Food.

I read about this phenomenon in the book "Give & Take" from the author Adam Grant. In his book he describes two different kind of people: Takers and Givers.

Takers have a distinct signature: they like to get more than they give. They putting their own interests ahead of others’ need. Takers believe that the world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place. They feel that to succeed, they need to be better than others.

Givers on the other hand are people who give more than they get. Givers are other-focused and paying more attention to what other people need from them.

Grant concluded in his book that Givers are the ones who profit the most when they find a balance to benefit from their generosity for themselves.

It's no surprise that all the online marketing superstars give most of their content for free in form of blogs, youtube videos or ebooks. Ramit Sethi states on his homage that he is giving away 98% of his content for free and sell his premium products only to those who are willing to pay high prices for it.

Engaging with your followers and let them know you´re there for them is the most important point. Nobody wants to reach out to an expert for help and never get an answer- If you commit to start an online business you need to treat your followers like kings.

Do whatever it takes to help them and make your connection a great experience.

Engaging with your followers can start with a simple Facebook group. Add interested people to the group and start a conversation. Not only do you build trust, but you´ll also learn what they´re struggling with the most. I get emails from people all around the world asking for help. I collected hundreds of questions which served as blueprint for my own online course without ever guessing which topic I should talk about.

Depending on which platform your future clients are also on, try Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest to build your audience there.

Let's build your community of raving fans

It has never been easier to build an online business, where you can reach your raving fans with one click. It always gives my goosebumps when sending out an email to my followers and watch thousands of people reading my latest blog post or listening to my podcast. This will not only give you an energy boost but also show you what your audience is interested in and what they want more of.

The “audience first” strategy is not a „get-my-money-fast“ approach, but it will let you grow organically and sell your products to a profit.

Why do you think everyone who is a successful online entrepreneur has a huge email list? Simply, because building a community first is a proven strategy that works.

Hopefully this article gives you the motivation and help you to start your own online business.

If I can build a worldwide brand without any marketing or business degree you definitely can do it too.

If you want take your sales to the next level and get more tips on how to start selling more courses online, download my free ebook on 4 must-have tools for building your own online community.

Matthias Hombauer is a self taught Rockstar Photographer, Author and Entrepreneur. He built a worldwide community of raving fans with his online project "How to Become A Rockstar Photographer" where he helps people to live their dream as concert photographers. In addition he teaches online marketing and how to build an awesome brand for small business owners. 

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The best hidden secrets to selling online courses

As more employers recognize the important link between soft skills and career success, greater emphasis is being placed on the development of non-technical skills in the workplace – skills such as flexibility, leadership and good communication.

If you’ve read our previous article on the importance of soft skills in today’s workforce, you’ll know that employees with high-level soft skills can bring many benefits to an organization. In light of this, hiring managers and HR departments are increasingly keen to attract and retain employees who possess a good mix of hard technical skills and soft interpersonal skills.

However, this does present some challenges. Because while most technical skills can be measured and tested, soft skills such as empathy, resilience and a positive attitude are harder to define and qualify in certain terms. How do you measure someone’s resilience? How can you test the level of compassion a person shows?

Clare Dygert, senior instructional designer at Sweetrush, agrees that the most difficult thing about creating soft skills learning objectives is “the general lack of precision around how you will know if the learner has accomplished the objective.” Usually, managers and HR professionals will establish learning objectives for staff, to clearly define:

and what successful mastery of the objective looks like.

So how do we write learning objectives for soft skills? 

Here are some tips for writing soft skills learning objectives, to help you understand, define and measure employee success in these areas.

Make Sure You Understand Key Terms and their Context


The first step is to make sure you have a thorough understanding of all key terms that are used in relation to learning objectives. Before you even start writing any objectives, think about how the concepts of empathy, resilience and leadership are used within your organization.

Understanding key terms within the context of your own organization is imperative, as it will help you identify ‘real world’ scenarios that can be used to measure these skills. For example, compassion is an important part of many roles in the non-profit sector, and can be directly linked to the values and culture of that industry. Define each key term in your own words, before you even begin to try and measure them.

As Dygert says, “a well-defined list of knowledge, skills, and abilities for job roles can provide the foundation for learning objectives and help you use keywords in a way that others will understand. It will also help you understand what success looks like.”

Write Learning Objectives that Focus on Employee Actions 

When you start writing learning objectives, make sure you’re writing them in a way that focuses on the learner. You want to outline actions and behavior of the employee – what they are doing and will be able to do.

Try to avoid vague language – be clear about what an individual is doing and will be able to do in the future once they master the skill. The more specific you can be, the better. For example, talk about employees performing tasks and completing actions, rather than “gaining an understanding of the policy.” Focusing on things that can be observed, not just assumed, make measuring a lot easier.

As we said before, the hardest thing about writing learning objectives for soft skills is knowing whether an employee has actually accomplished the objective or not. Therefore, you need to find an effective way to measure and test each objective.

You can do this by seeing how staff members apply new knowledge to their roles. If employees aren’t able to successfully apply freshly acquired knowledge to a relevant work scenario, you may need to review your learning objectives to make sure they were specific and clear enough. Dygert gives a very good example of a clear, specific learning objective:

“Given a situation, a task to accomplish, and a disruption to the situation, the learner will adjust her plans so as to accomplish the task within the time allowed and at the budget given, in spite of the disruption.”

Here, we can see that the employee’s behavior was observed, within a well-defined, specific situation, where both time and budget outcomes were also measured. With this learning objective, it's clear what is being taught, how it is presented and what successful mastery of the objective looks like.

Consider these guidelines when writing learning objectives for soft skills – they'll help you define, test and measure your employees' success in these areas.

How to write learning objectives for soft skills

Most companies are made up of employees of various ages, with staff members of different generations working together in the one organization. As an employer or manager, you most likely have a number of Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials across your teams, bringing positive benefits to your organization through different levels of experience, knowledge and diversity.

As beneficial as this is for your company, a multi-generational workforce can sometimes make learning and development programs a little tricky, due to differences in learning styles and technological abilities. While younger team members might prefer high-tech, independent training methods, older staff may need something more traditional and trainer-lead.

So, when it comes to employee training, how do you make sure your learning materials are engaging and effective for all staff – of all ages?

The answer can be found in eLearning – an effective training solution that meets the needs of learners from all generations.

With online learning, you’ll find you can give employees the flexibility, autonomy, customization and engagement they want and need – regardless of age. eLearning courses can be designed to perfectly fit your target audience, allowing you to tailor online courses specifically to your business and workforce. This means you can create the exact courses you need for your staff, whether it’s for onboarding, professional development or compliance testing.

Let’s look at how you can use eLearning courses to successfully train staff of different generations.

eLearning for Millennials – mobile and tech Savvy

The youngest generation to be part of today's workforce, Millennials have been raised with technology and social media as a part of everyday life. Widely experienced in using technology and all form of digital devices, these workers are tech savvy and looking for fast, on-the-go learning.

Millennials expect technology to be an integral part of learning and need to know exactly what they’re going to get out of a training program. For these younger workers, traditional classroom training methods are at risk of leaving them feeling disengaged, distracted, or just plain bored. So how do you make sure Millennial employees are engaging with training materials?

Jeffrey Roth, Vice President of Marketing for Interactyx, points out that distractions such as “social networking sites and gaming apps can be integrated into the learning plan to motivate and connect with learners on a level that they’re more familiar with.” Look for eLearning platforms that allow you to include social learning features into your online courses such as social media channels, instant messaging (IM) and gamification.

When learning, Millennials in particular like to form connections, share ideas and interact with other people in the workplace. These forms of social interaction play a large role in training and are known as the social learning methodology. By encouraging social learning in your eLearning course, Millennial team members will be able to create and share content with workmates, helping them to connect with the materials and one another.

For Millennial staff members, you’ll also want to make sure your training program is available on-the-go. eLearning will allow individuals to access course materials through mobile-friendly apps and devices, making learning more flexible and convenient for users.

eLearning for Gen X – flexibility and autonomy 

Between Millennials and Boomers, we have Generation X – born between 1965 and 1980.

When writing about How to Target the Right Generation in eLearning, Sean Stoker believes that many Gen Xers were “forced to grow up rather quickly and to some extent learn to take care of themselves. For these reasons… this generation is full of independent thinkers, wanting to do things their own way.”

This means Gen X workers thrive when given the freedom to learn independently and at their own pace. In fact, many Gen Xers prefer flexible, autonomous work life and are very successful when working remotely or from home.

eLearning offers this generation flexible learning options that are self-lead and self-governed. Online courses can be accessed at a time and place that’s convenient for the Gen X learner, while allowing them to plan out their study and monitor their own progress.

eLearning for Baby Boomers – intuitive and easy to navigate

A large sector of today's workforce, being middle-aged or older, are from the 1946 to 1964 Baby Boomer generation. It’s unwise to assume that this generation is averse to technology, as many Boomers are very tech savvy. However, unlike Millennials, they haven’t grown up with these devices playing a large role in everyday life, so there is still a different mindset when it comes to learning.

Older workers will embrace eLearning when the online materials are intuitive, user-friendly and easy to navigate. Make sure your course can be navigated easily, without frustration. A good learning management system or eLearning platform will allow you to create custom content, specific to your audience and their training needs. Read through our article on what makes a good online course, for helpful tips on all aspects of eLearning design.

For example, for these employees, you may want to consider making your default font a few points larger. For users who experience age-related problems with their eyes, the option to make text larger on screen can mean a world of difference. However, as Stoker says, “while making these considerations, it’s important to not make the learner feel old. Today’s seniors are more sharp and active than ever before, so it pays not to pander."

As you can see, eLearning allows you to easily tweak and tailor your training materials to perfectly suit your learning audience – whatever age they may be. By following these guidelines, you can provide each employee with the tools and environment they need to succeed in training. As a result, you can expect to see more skilled, productive and connected employees, helping your organization to achieve its business goals. 

eLearning – an effective training solution for all generations

Saying that knowledge can save lives might sound a tad dramatic, but in this case, it’s absolutely true.

Knowing how to administer CPR, or properly carry out the Heimlich maneuver can be the difference between life and death for someone, and the difference between you being able to make a meaningful difference or being powerless to help.

Online courses for emergency and disaster training in the workplace are ideal ways to learn vital skills so that you or a colleague knows how to act in case of an emergency. eLearning continues to be an effective tool for in work training, and its use for emergency response is no different.

In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of being trained for emergencies so that you’re aware of the huge help that it can be.

The first and most obvious benefit of emergency and disaster training is that it will make your workplace so much safer. Even a relatively easy technique to train, like CPR, can make a huge difference to the safety of the place you work. With over 600,000 people suffering a cardiac arrest each year, the assumption that you’re unlikely to ever use your training isn’t exactly accurate.

In the case of cardiac arrest, every minute counts. As this study states, “Each minute without treatment decreases the likelihood of survival without disability. Without treatment within 10 minutes, the survival rate is almost zero.”

Considering that in a city like New York ambulance response time hovers around the nine minute 20 seconds mark, your training could quite literally decide who lives and who dies.

Response plans to fires, earthquakes and even terrorist attacks are needed to secure the safety of each person working.

Unfortunately, workplaces are often environments that are full of stress, which can potentially increase the chances of an emergency like a cardiac arrest occurring. Make your workplace safer by knowing what to do.

Although eLearning courses for emergency and disaster response will most likely to be given through your employer, the value knowledge that you gain does not stop at the place you work. The understanding of red flags for illnesses or knowing how to deal with a fire are lessons that can be taken anywhere in life.

This extends to your family and friends; all the people you love. Would you know how to treat burns or smoke inhalation if there was a fire at home? Would you know how to compress wounds if a family member injured themselves?

The knowledge you gain from your work life is transferable to your private life and with as serious a subject as the health of those you love at stake, this is a benefit worth its weight in gold.

Online courses in emergency and disaster response training don’t only offer the very direct benefits of knowing how to act in when facing a disaster. The skills that learners acquire along the way – communication, teamwork, and leadership – are all tools that are vital to a successful workplace. Individuals who can demonstrate these skills are always in demand.

In this sense, undertaking an online course in emergency and disaster response training is, as the old saying goes, like killing two birds with one stone. Not only are learners endowed with the know-how to tackle emergency situations head on, but they also dramatically improve the “soft skills” that employers are considering as more important than ever. Not a bad day’s work!

If safety in the workplace isn’t the number one concern of each and every employer then they have a problem. The company culture that doesn’t put the health and wellbeing of employees first and foremost is not one that is likely to succeed. Employees have a right to work in a safe place, and working with individuals who are trained in emergency and disaster response can offer that.

The safety of a workplace isn’t only a legal requirement, but it can also make a huge difference to company culture as a whole. Acknowledging the importance of every individual working at an organization promotes the company understanding of their workers, in turn allowing organizations to become more dynamic and better versed in creating a happy workforce. Happy employees work better and harder, and a happy company is more attractive to potential employees and clients.

Training a workforce in emergency and disaster response is a win-win for everybody.

It is the nature of online learning that makes it such a useful medium to teach emergency and disaster response through.

A problem that organizations often have with this type of training is that it can require entire teams to stop working for days to facilitate learning. Unless your organization has the resources to cope with an entire day’s inaction, you’re unlikely to offer this service. eLearning can step in here and fill that void.

Not only is eLearning extremely effective as a tool of education, it’s also completely mobile and far cheaper than inviting experts to the office. With usernames and passwords, each employee in a company can complete their training – from their home, at their desk, or even on the bus.

Because eLearning is done online it is vastly more affordable to medium and small size businesses that would otherwise be put off by the huge bills that often come with this type of training. eLearning makes this training – that will help to safeguard the health of an entire workforce – a viable option.

When a something as important as the health of employees, colleagues, and friends is on the line, online courses for emergency and disaster response simply make sense.

Online learning for emergency and disaster training

Want a sure-fire way to ensure students are fully involved in your course? Make it into a game!

Gamification. That’s the name given to the application of game-design to non-traditional gaming areas. Simply put, it’s the way that educators are reusing techniques that promote continued engagement between player and game, in educational arenas rather than video games.

This sounds complex but it really isn’t. Gamification of your online course can be as uncomplicated as rewarding learners based on how well they accomplish desired tasks, or as far-reaching as actually designing and making a video game yourself.

In this article, we’ll offer some tips and advice on how to use gamification to improve the participation in your eLearning classroom.

One common thread that all good games share is that their rules are straight-forward, logical, and easy to follow. Another common thread of all good games is that the way you play the game is set out from the first roll of the dice, or click of the mouse.

It’s important for your learners to understand how they can earn points and merit through their participation in the course; if they don’t then they’ll be confused and quickly turn away. And this is easy enough to do. Before the start of any course, offer a quick introduction to the points-based process, how they can earn achievements and the awards on offer when each achievement is accomplished.

Games with really complicated rules are never fun to play – make yours simple and accessible.

Remember that though the introduction of gamification into your course is intended to make the learning process more entertaining and immersive, your intention is still to teach that outcome. Among the fun and frolics of gamification, this core need can sometimes be forgotten.

The most effective method to reach this desired learning outcome is to reward good behaviors and punish mistakes.

An example of this is that students could earn points for correctly remembering the last lesson’s takeaway. And points should mean prizes. They could unlock special badges to add to their resume or another small but inviting offer.

Punishments should not be excessive, but students should not be allowed to pass a stage of the course until they have satisfied learning criteria. Perhaps they could be given a certain amount of “lives” and they must return to the start of the stage if they run out.

The point is this: reward the exhibiting of desired learning outcomes. This way, students will both enjoy and learn.

Everyone enjoys heightening the stakes, making things a little more interesting. Use colleague’s natural competitiveness to your advantage – they’ll learn more and have fun doing it.

One way to do this is to create a mini league and award points based on results in the course each student is taking. The leagues can be split between department, course subject, or simply a group of friends who want some friendly competition.

It’s important for participants to know the criteria before they embark, so give them a rundown of how they’ll earn points and what the rewards and consequences will be for those who finish top and bottom.

Always remember to keep students learning objectives in mind so that no one strays off the path, but with a well-constructed league, your students should be chomping at the bit to earn some points and beat their colleagues!

Like video games, your course can offer a variety of skills, badges or honors to constantly promote the search for more knowledge (and points) for the effort of the student’s endeavors.

These badges can be given out at specific intervals, after student’s exhibit and carry out a desired learning outcome. So if, for example, you’ve been teaching a stage on licensing and permit compliance, then the students can sit a quiz or small exam to show their understanding of the knowledge acquired. If they do well then they’re given the “Compliance Rock Star” badge.

There are many ways to implement this for whichever course is being taught, but the important point is that the students who have completed sections of the course well are identified through these badges, skills or honors. This way, students can be proud of what they have done.

And if you wanted to really make it worth their while, students could receive real-life bonuses for every badge they receive. Maybe an extra day of paid vacation, or vouchers for a local restaurant. Make sure their hard work is rewarded.

For any gamer worth their salt, the progress tracker is a vital tool in easily seeing their personal progress in-game. Best sellers like Call of Duty use the progress tracker as a way of encouraging players to continue playing and achieving the goals that they work towards. And so can you. With a visual reminded, learners can see how close they are to unlocking that next badge, or acquiring those precious points!

The progress tracker is easy enough to include in your course and can be used in two ways. Firstly, each stage of the course can have a small progress “live” progress bar so that learners can see their points racking up as they progress. This can be as simple as an empty bar that fills as points are collected. Once the bar is full, bang, you win a badge!

The second use is for a macro impression of the course, used to give students a general impression of where they are in the course and how much is still left to do. Here you can offer the badges that will give real-life awards.

The intention of the tracker is to encourage students to continue learning. Make sure the work is worth their while!

Are you thinking about starting a new business? Getting a new business off the ground is always a very exciting experience, but it can also be quite challenging. Fortunately, these days you don’t need to have a college degree to be a successful business owner. There are plenty of online courses available that can help you get your business up and running.

From registering your business name to basic accounting skills, online courses can help you launch your business and give it the best chance of success. Once you’ve successfully launched, you’ll also need to make sure you stay in business – eLearning courses will provide you with the knowledge and skills to do that too!

Here are 5 of the best online courses for starting a new business. These eLearning courses will provide you with the practical knowledge you need to get your new business started, and help existing businesses grow to new heights.

How to Setup Your New Business From Scratch

The best place to start? From scratch, with this practical step-by-step course that takes you through everything you need to know about setting up a new business. If you’re looking for clear, basic guidelines on how to turn your business idea into an actual company – this is the course for you.

You won’t find information or guidance on things like management styles, or growing your business, but that’s okay – there are plenty of other online courses that are specifically focused on those skills. This is the course you need first, that will show you how to:

Set up your business technology, such as email, phone, files

Plan, organize and keep your business running smoothly

Understand the different types of marketing available

Understand and start building your social media presence

This course is also great for anyone who is looking for guidelines on setting up a new business, but focuses more on the ‘business models’ side of things, rather than those practical first steps. It provides plenty of information on essential topics related to entrepreneurship, while helping you to develop your business idea.

Through descriptive examples and exercises, you’ll gain an introductory understanding of the knowledge and skills required in the entrepreneurial journey. In the last two sessions, you’ll be given the resources you need to design your first plan and important information on business laws and raising capital.

How to Prospect and find New Business & Clients

As we said before, it’s not just about getting your business up and running – you also need the skills and knowledge to stay in business. And to do that, you’ll need to know how to attract and retain clients or customers.

Prospecting, referral and networking skills have more to do with the success of any small business than any other skill. This online course will provide you with a deeper understanding of how different prospecting strategies work to produce results. Through a mix of video, audio and practical exercises, you’ll learn how to increase your client or customer base – and ultimately increase profits.

Throughout the eLearning course, you’ll be given a toolkit of ideas, scripts and practical tips that will help put you in front of the right potential clients. Learn how to develop a constant prospecting awareness, with the skills to deliver a great elevator speech, work a room, network successfully, and get appointments through phone calls.

To be successful in running your new business, you’re going to need to get your head around the numbers. This can be very daunting for many small business owners, but it’s vital that you take the time to understand the financials of your business if you want to avoid failure.

As this course acknowledges, in the first year of business, it’s quite difficult to plan. Financials can be all over the place, including some months where there is no income at all. In these early days, how do you budget for expenses, salary, and projected growth?

That's exactly what this course helps you to do. You’ll gain an understanding of the ebbs and flows of your company finances and learn how to stabilize first year income, take an appropriate salary, and create realistic financial income projections.

The Cost of Capital: The Key To Attract Venture Capitalists

This last course takes things one step further, helping you to find and attract venture capitalists to invest in your business. The eLearning course is for small business owners who want to understand the meaning of the cost of capital and its applications in corporate finance.

Through this eLearning course, you’ll learn to speak the same language of advisors and venture capitalists. You’ll be able to recognize if a new project will create value for shareholders and if it has chances to be financed by venture capitalists. You’ll also gain the skills and knowledge to:

Use the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to work out the cost of equity

Calculate the yield-to-maturity for corporate bonds

Use the y-t-m to calculate the pre-tax cost of debt

Calculate the weighted average cost of debt for projects

Hopefully these online courses will help you to overcome some of the challenges in starting your own business. By taking the time to develop your basic business skills, you'll have far greater chance of being a successful business owner.

5 online courses to help you start your new business

HR managers understand that people are vital to the success of an organisation. In today’s competitive workforce, attracting and retaining the right talent—with the right skill set—is crucial for long-term industry growth. 

This is why it’s so essential to invest in suitable technology for your human resources department. With the appropriate technological tools, your HR team will ultimately be able to improve the way they hire, onboard, train and manage your employees.

In addition, a commitment to technology shows a commitment to professional development. When your organisation demonstrates a willingness to invest in tech, your company proves it’s devoted to the overall development of your staff. Having relevant, up-to-date technology solutions that are easily accessible is critical for onsite workers. It’s also an essential part of attracting dependable candidates (i.e., competent employees who are willing to remain loyal to your organisation) and in encouraging a high level of performance.

Keeping this in mind, it may be time to rethink your chosen business techniques. What services are you and your HR managers using to hire, onboard and develop your staff members? How well are these tools working for you? Do you have a healthy employee retention rate? Do your employees feel they are given enough resources to function at full capacity? Do your staff members feel you maintain an active interest in their ongoing careers?

Let’s take a look at how proper technology can benefit your individual personnel as well as how it can positively affect your organisation as a whole.

When onboarding new hires, first impressions are key. After all, the way you introduce team members to their new business community says a lot about the culture of your organisation and will also be a determining factor in whether or not your new hires decide to stay.

The right onboarding technology can help with this transitional period. Carefully constructed, appealingly interactive systems with friendly user interfaces can likewise smooth and streamline the onboarding process for your valuable team members. Given these tremendous advantages, why not consider incorporating a learning management system (LMS) into your onboarding technique?

These days, the best HR teams are embracing technology to automate their recruitment. With an effective onboarding program, you can reduce staff turnover (read more here how this is possible with a good onboarding program) rates, increase employee engagement and allow new hires to reach full productivity at greater speeds. And, with 30% of companies reporting they need a year or more for new employees to reach peak production levels, an investment in an appropriate onboarding LMS program may be your best option for combatting waste (that is, wasted time, wasted money, etc.).

If you’re interested in an LMS, online courses such as those provided by Go1 are readily available. In addition, a reputable education company like Go1 can often customise these courses for you. Comprehensive catalogues should ideally include classes in:

• Workplace safety
• Codes of conduct
• Resilience
• Harassment training
• General compliance
• …And much more

As we’ve indicated above, many employees are looking for more from their jobs than just a good salary. Case in point: Team members are likely to be motivated by other additional factors such as company culture and the opportunity for professional development. Staff members need to know their employer is interested in their future growth, and an excellent way for employers to express such interest is through effective training methods and processes. A proper digital onboarding program can not only keep new hires feeling thoroughly prepared and appropriately well informed, it can also help employers to monitor employee progress with an eye towards harnessing talents to foster individual long-term success.

Bernard Marr, author of Big Data in Practice: How 45 Successful Companies Used Big Data Analytics to Deliver Extraordinary Results, provides organisations with expert advice on data, analytics, metrics and the improvement of business performance. “HR departments are generating more data than ever before but at the same time they often struggle to turn their data into valuable insights,” Mr. Marr wrote in Forbes® Magazine, adding, “The tricky part is establishing a system to track capacity without creating huge administrative burdens and without alienating employees with a ‘big-brother’ approach.”

The answer? A good LMS. A learning management system will help you gather valuable feedback and information from staff training, which can in turn be used to bolster levels of employee involvement and increase general performance. Your HR team will have the opportunity to identify the type of training necessary for individual staff members, and will then be able to work with employees to hone their personal skills and expand their list of qualifications. In this way, a LMS can play a critical role in enabling team members to reach company objectives that will lead to positive impacts for your organisation—all while facilitating personal growth and laying the foundation for each employee to enjoy upward mobility in the future.

Social media can also be a vital piece of your recruitment process. Your website, branding and social media channels are often the front line of your global communications outreach, capable of enticing (or repelling) talent with a single click. It’s quite normal these days for potential candidates to check out an organisation’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and/or LinkedIn accounts, and these platforms can signal whether or not your company is the best fit for a would-be employee (or vice versa). Glassdoor can also be a deal breaker for many potential employees.

Are you using social media tools in the most effective way possible? You should always make sure your social media channels aren’t outdated or poorly managed. And if you’re worried your social media skills aren’t up to par, you may wish to enroll in an online course to help get them there. Some quick tips include:

• Try to integrate current affairs into your Twitter and Facebook posts so visitors know your business is active and up to date
• Search for news items and articles that pertain directly to your industry and share them often; encourage a dialogue where appropriate
• Check your LinkedIn messaging and notifications frequently
• When possible, use pictures of onsite activities that have a personal touch for your Instagram account (stock images often read as though your business is too formal or detached)

As you can see, contemporary tech solutions are an important part of efficient HR management functions. If you’re a human resource professional, you should be constantly thinking about what avenues you could explore to improve the way you hire, onboard, train and manage staff. Hopefully this article has helped to point you in the right direction.

HR managers: what tools are you using to hire, onboard and develop your employees?

Video is the primary tool of learning and communication when it comes to eLearning these days. Of course, most courses do offer supplementary study books, audio, and reference sheets, but frequently the main driving force of an online course is video!

That’s why the ability to properly structure your videos is such an important concern. Your videos will be where students can see, as well as hear, what it is that they are trying to understand. Visual clues are vital for all types of learners.

In this article, we’ll offer some tips on structuring the video content of your course to make sure it is as engaging and effective as possible. If you’d like more tips about using technology for learning, then you can check them out here.

It’s important that your video lessons demonstrate the learning objectives that you are making. Rather than simply telling students, you need to show them too.

Demonstration through visual means is an important part of the learning process.

There are many ways to do this. Demonstrate what you’re trying to communicate through real-life examples that students can relate to well. Characters, stories, and life lessons are also entertaining ways to illustrate a learning objective, while analogies are vital and offer another perspective for understanding.

While simply telling some students a topic will be enough for them to grasp the point, this won’t be true for all. Ensure that as many students as possible can comprehend your lesson by demonstrating your learning objectives through a variety of means.

One of the best ways to demonstrate a learning objective is through the use of fictional stories. Characters that are relatable, stories that reference real-life and clear resolutions are all attractive to learners.

The classic story arc is perfectly set up to explain a learning objective. Its conflict – climax – resolution template offers the eLearning teacher a great way to represent what it is you’re trying to address. The conflict sets out the dilemma facing learners at work, the climax explains the realistic problem that the student may face, and the resolution shows the positive changes that result from the implementation of the course objectives.

Personification through stories is an extremely effective way to teach a lesson. There are reasons that stories – from Greek tragedy to morality play – have been a successful tool for teaching for thousands of years.

Thanks to shortening attention spans and easy access to the constant sources of stimulation available on the internet, being both concise and engaging in the structure of your videos make the difference between students watching it or not. Put simply, if a student gets bored they’ll go elsewhere.

Not only will sharp, direct videos decrease the likelihood of students drifting off, but small snippets of information more effectively plants itself in memory. While everyone loves learning, the amount of information that you include in your videos should not be overwhelming. For this reason, you should include key points, and always offer a recap and “takeaway” advice at each video lesson.

As videos are usually the main component of eLearning courses, they need to work to incorporate the other resources within the course package. Rather than a flat, one-dimensional learning experience, offer your students a rich learning environment by referencing other resources in your course pack.

Structuring your videos to refer to and include the course’s other resources will promote interactivity and engagement in the course. For example, the video can pose a question and then request that the student refers to their course study book to complete a task. Or students can be asked to refer to tables or charts that the video touches upon, for a fuller picture.

In promoting the use of your extra resources, the course is far more involving and exciting than when one learning resource is used. If students are more involved then they will learn and thus your course is far more likely to succeed in teaching its learning objectives.

The use of music that tugs at the heartstrings or images that bring a tear to the eye are great ways to really involve students in the videos they are watching.

Emotion heightens attention and through using a little dramatic license, students will be further engaged in what they are watching. An image that quickens the heartbeat or a piece of music that brings a tear to the eye will always catch the attention of students.  

It is important to remember that images and music selected should be suitable to what is being taught. This is a teaching environment, after all.

But if you use all the tools at your disposal, including music and images, capture the attention and focus of your student group, then learning objectives are likely to be achieved. If students are invested in the course then their performance can only get better.
So there we have it. With videos as the focal point most eLearning courses, it is important that they are structured properly. If you can include some of these tips to refine your videos then student engagement will surely rise, and with it, the success of your course as a whole.

Tips on structuring videos for your course

A helping hand from those who have been there and done it is never a bad idea. For entrepreneurs looking to get the next step up, there are many courses available to help in the department.

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