The LEC MBA

The Entrepreneur Bootcamp is tailored for passionate and determined individuals who want to see their ambition turned into measurable goals. There is no such thing as a bad idea and we welcome anyone with the drive to see their creativity bloom into a profitable business.

Step one explores your vision, goals and reasons for getting into business in the first place. By delving into what motivates you as an entrepreneur and why you want to create a certain product/service, we gain the opportunity to create a unique profile that will help feed into the curation of your unique brand and selling point!

Success assumes many forms and will look different to you than it will to others. This section of Enterprise Planner Bootcamp will see you focus on the important questions that will help you to understand the reasons for going into business and what sort of career you want to lead.

A SWOT analysis is a tool used by businesses to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that surround a company. By exploring these elements, business owners are in a better position to adapt their strategies and tactics to compensate for their weaknesses, while also being able to take advantage of new opportunities and ward off issues that may arise down the road.

Everyone has a reason for going into business. For some, it’s all about changing their life and generating wealth, and for others it is the pursuit of a remedy for an issue that is affecting parts of the world. This section of the Planner allows you to explore your motivations and what inspired you to go into business and become an entrepreneur, so dig deep and be honest!

A business cannot operate without a directive; a mission and overarching goal that governs their every step towards a desired result. Whether it’s changing the world through the revolution of outdated transactional systems or simply providing a better quality of graphics for small businesses, this part of the Planner allows you to define who you are and what your customers can expect from your company.

This section of the Planner allows you to explore where you see your business and career going and what direction you want it to take as it begins to grow and expand. A vision is like a dream, one that inspires you to undertake certain actions or work towards a certain goal with your business. This is where you must look to the future and imagine where you will be in 5, 10, 15, 20 and so months from this exact point.

Inspiration comes in many forms and from a multitude of sources, most of which are the leaders of our industry who pave the way for smaller businesses with their success and affluence. They needn't be the biggest brands, but they are certainly your favourite, and this section of the Planner will see you explore what makes them successful and how your brand can follow their example.

Step Two is also about providing yourself with honest feedback and self-assessment. We will be drawing on both practical and academic sources for analysing the traits of your business, with models such as Clifton’s Strength Finder, The 5 Languages of Love, your associative colours and what they mean, followed by a personality assessment to discover what kind of entrepreneur you really are!

This section of the Planner is designed to test your ability to be objectively self-critical and create an honest profile of who you are, how you operate, and how well you get along with others. By determining your business personality, you will be in a better position to adapt your approach to others and build better leadership skills for when you reach the point of hiring your first employee.

This section of the Planner is all about the popular Colour Energy test where you find which colours are associated with your personality type. For instance, red is the colour of passion, strength, vigor, assertiveness, dominance and aggression, whereas blue reflects contemplation, calm, tranquility, logic and reasoning.

The Five Languages of Love is a system adapted from The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, a book by Gary Chapman. Business analysts use the Five Languages to help leaders become better at working with their team. The ‘Five Languages’ are as follows: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch. In a professional environment, physical touch governs handshakes, handling material goods, preferring the analogue to digital and enjoying socialising outside of work.

Clifton Strengths Finder is a tool used by business owners to measure your specific talent DNA by explaining the unique ways in which you accomplish your goals by building relationships, thinking strategically, executing plans and influencing others. Similar to a SWOT analysis, this model focuses on turning weaknesses into strengths and working with others.

Following Step Two’s self-assessment period, we will now be in a unique position to review your results and put into place some actionable goals, feeding into the creation of 5 unique SMART objectives to focus on in the near future. Here’s a list of the assessment results we will compile together to build your entrepreneur profile

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-Based

Failure is merely a stepping stone towards success; it is the ultimate teacher and everyone encounters it at some point in their personal lives and career. Merely a setback, failure defines how well we recover and make the best of our situation, and this section of the Planner will allow you to record your mistakes and the actions you took to resolve them.

Your purpose in life does not need to be the same as that of your business, but exploring your reasons for being can help to build your confidence, bring clarity and remove stress from the process of building a company. This section poses a number of challenging questions that will require complete honesty and introspection.

What lies around the corner is often uncertain, but with the right planning you are better equipped to manage the growth and expansion of your business. This section of the Planner is dedicated to looking forward and creating strategies for how to manage your business across the coming years, while identifying future opportunities and barriers.

Credibility is the lifeforce of a business, for without it, one is surely doomed to fail. The section of the Planner is dedicated to exploring what makes you a credible business owner, be it your certifications/qualifications, brand, authority on a subject or ability to influence others. This space is also useful for noting down the areas that you need to work on in order to build the credibility factors you will need for success as an entrepreneur. Remember, what you write comes true! So use this space to note it all down (even that PhD you secretly wish you had) because this is the first step to becoming the new you!

A perception of your business and yourself is created by what others think of you. This image is often recorded and observed through the reception of feedback for your work, product or conduct and governs your reputation and credibility. This section is dedicated to exploring the feedback you have received in the past how it can be used to grow and adapt.

Previous sections of the Planner saw you explore what colours reflect your personality, and now is the time to analyse the results and what they mean in relation to your traits as a business leader.

This section of the Planner provides you with time to reflect on how you deal with others and like to be dealt with in regards to your professional relationships. There are no wrong answers here for everyone is different, but exploring the questions below will help you to better influence others in a positive and productive manner.

Following your Gallop Strength test, this section of the Planner allows you to correlate and analyse the results in order to determine your best qualities as a business leader as well as the areas in which you need to improve. On this page, you will also think about how your results can be applied to your business overall and perhaps even feed into your company’s brand.

This section of the Planner provides you with time to really think about the scope of your business and what industries you wish to operate it. Be it purely online, a mix of digital and analogue, or just a local store, now is the time to decide how and where your products will be delivered to by answering the important questions seen below.

A product is a solution to a problem; a pain remedy that can be something as simple as a magazine that cures someone’s problem of not knowing what to wear this winter. This page is designed to have you think about what problem your product is solving and ways in which you can understand your customer’s issues by interviewing them and reading reviews of similar products.

Now that you understand the problem your customers want resolved, it is time to consider the remedy you are going to be selling them. This page will require you to consider what makes your product different from the competition and its unique selling point (USP).

The growth of a business can often rely on solid partnerships and collaborations in order to break into new markets, and this page will have you consider your potential relationships with other businesses, entrepreneurs and shareholders. Partners can have considerable sway over a business if their investment is big enough, so use this space to strategize and deliberate on the opportunities and threats they bring.

Every day, your business will be involved in various activities no matter its size or scope. Using this page, consider what you will do on a day-to-day basis in order to keep the cogs of your company turning smoothly and to avoid a backlog or build-up of essential tasks.

A unique value proposition, or ‘USP’, is what makes your business different from the rest. Using this section of the Planner, you can determine the benefits your company offers to customers and why they should come to you over your rivals by coming up with a value proposition that will entice new buyers.

This page is designed to have you consider the professional relationships with your customers and employees; a vital bond that must be maintained with regular nurturing across multiple channels and modes of communication. You will have the opportunity to consider additional factors such as how to empower your employees and engage customers on a deeper level than just selling to them.

Maintaining a strong relationship with your stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders, followers) requires you to think about the communication channels you will be utilising to send your message and build those bonds. This page allows you to consider the various digital modes of communication such as social media and email.

This page has been designed for you to consider the various markets and areas in which you can sell your product, be it local, national, international or purely through word of mouth. Additionally, you will be able to determine whether your product is designed for a mass audience or a more niche market.

A minimum viable product is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development. Building an MPV comes with a number of important technical requirements that may seem stressful and confusing at first, but with the right amount of research into what customers are looking for, you can build a decent prototype.

Data is the lifeblood of any successful business; it informs every single decision big or small, drawing from multiple sources of research. Thusly, this page enables you to really consider the important research you need to conduct before your product goes live, such as the demand, industry, potential market share and demographics.

As you advance in your research about your target audience and product, you will inevitably discover new problems and issues that your business can solve for your customers. Using this page, you will be able to consider 5 additional concerns to provide remedies for.

Your unique value proposition, also known as ‘USP’, is something you will determine using this section of the Planner. Here, you will be able to explore your business’ deliverable benefits, how it’s different to the competition and its overall relevance to the marketplace and potential customers.

Prior to making a finalised product, there is the drawing board, planning and the creation of a prototype. This section of the Planner is for considering the necessary components, elements, resources and production costs/requirements that go into manufacturing the first version of your product/service.

This page of the Planner gives you the opportunity to expand on the services your business provides and how they compare to your rivals and competitors. No matter how big or small the services are, this page is designed to get you thinking about their USP and the problem they are solving for your customers.

During Step 6, you will validate all of the ideas you have generated so far laying the foundations for data collection and harvesting by planning out surveys and focus groups as well as the necessary resources associated with quantitative and qualitative data gathering.

You will also have the opportunity to consider your business model and the places you can stress-test it, with a particular focus on using a compatibility matrix to ensure your ideas are in-touch with current trends and attitudes.

This section of the Planner is a space for you to consider what category your product falls into, as well as the components that go into the creation of your product and where you will source them from. Examples of what to consider include categories such as convenience products, speciality products, emergency products and shopping products.

Every product has a story and this is the space to begin tailoring it in order to entice and persuade customers to make a purchase. Consider the art of copywriting and how flavourful text can enhance the buyer experience while being clear and concise in what issues your product is solving for the customers. Get creative!

Stress-testing your business model requires you to consider the platforms in which to do so, such as industry events, surveys, forums and blog posts. Using this page, you are able to consider the various methods in which to test your business model with the general public who are ultimately the deciding factor in whether they will turn into a customer or another person of value to your business.

Surveys allow you to gather important data on opinions and societal trends, and this page will let you plan out where your surveys will be delivered to, who will be surveyed and what questions you will be asking in order to paint a picture on the perception of your product and business.

A focus group is a small collection of individuals from a diverse background, and most importantly, completely random members of the public. Using this page, you will be able to consider which stakeholder groups your focus groups will hone in on as well as its composition and the questions that will be asked during the session.

This page is designed to have you consider the resources that go into crafting an effective focus group, such as who will be involved, the location, venue, travel cost, incentives and time frame for the session. You may wish to consider how to incentivise people to attend the focus group and make it worth their time and how to encourage their participation.

No focus group is the same and they take on many forms depending on the context of your business, product and the questions you require the answers to. Extra things to consider for an effective focus group depends largely on your imagination and the scope of your research, but this page will give the opportunity to note down anything else you can think of that might be important for hosting your first session.

Validating your products and services is done through the collection and analysis of hard data gathered from the various research methods at your disposal in the digital world. This section of the Planner gives you time to think about the feedback you have received for prototypes/mock-ups and from focus groups, allowing you to make the necessary changes to your product or service.

The Compatibility Matrix is a tool to determine the compatibility of two or more entities to find the most logical and realistic outcome. In the context of running a business, the Compatibility Matrix allows you to analyse how well your product/service fits into the current market while considering the financial requirements of distribution and supply.

Following the research methods covered previously in the Planner, this page allows you to build a business case outlining all of the validated facts you have gathered so far in order to bring more clarity to your venture. This is also an excellent opportunity to review the reasons for starting your business and the solution is selling to your prospective customers.

A carefully-crafted product that is validated by data from your research now requires proper marketing! Step Seven will see you explore the many facets of promoting your product, starting with identifying its market, key audience, who is the most likely to buy, your competitors and ways in which you can join the conversation. All this will lead into creating a customer persona; a reflection of the ideal buyer of your product!

This section of the Planner provides you with a great opportunity to really hone in on your target market by determining the ideal demographic of who would be interested in your product or service. Additionally, you can use this space to determine what type of person your typical customer is, such as their background, location, buying habits, hobbies and careers to provide more accuracy to your future marketing.

Identifying the deeper psychology behind the mind of a consumer is the purpose of this page, allowing you to delve into the societal attitudes that drive trends and dictate what products are successful. In this section of the Planner, you will also have the opportunity to further refine the solutions your business is solving for prospective customers.

Timing the release of your product is a key strategy that is easy to learn but hard to master. This page of the Planner is dedicated to planning and scheduling the release of your product and service, and deciding whether you want something seasonal, constant or a one-time release. In addition, you can use this section to consider how to track website traffic.

Using this page, you can explore your competition and discover their strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities as well their conduct in the industry. In addition, you will have the opportunity to analyse your rivals’ customers to determine why they shop with your competition, enabling you to better strategise and adapt your tactics when marketing the final version of your product.

Communication is a vital element in keeping a business alive, and the conversation surrounding your product ultimately leads to creating a perception, thereby forming a reputation and adding validity to your brand. Using this section of the Planner, you can plan how to join and lead the conversation across multiple channels and platforms of media.

This section of the Planner is designed for you to consider the various methods in which potential customers, clients and other stakeholders can contact you, be it via the phone, social media, email or instant chat feature found on your website. Additionally, you can use this to consider how to call your potential clients/customers to action on your website or social media.

Considering the right channels to communicate with is a vital element in connecting with key prospects, be they clients, customers, press or potential partners. Using this page, you can strategize on the core principles of marketing, otherwise known as the ‘4 Ps’, which are: price, place, product and promotion.

A stakeholder is someone who has a stake in your business, such as a customer, client, shareholder, social media follower, journalists and employees. This section of the Planner gives you some time to think about who your stakeholders are and then build a persona based on how you think they will interact with your business as well as their thoughts and feelings regarding your products and conduct.

Now it’s time to determine who you are going up against in the marketplace! Within Step Eight of the Bootcamp, we will cover how to identify your rivals and figure what they do best and why customers are buying from them, enabling you to benchmark your product to meet industry standards, and then eventually exceed them! We will be considering your competitor’s social media, advertising campaign, content, value proposition, events, their community and their customer profiles.

This section of the Planner is all about coming up with a battle plan to combat the competition by considering how they operate online, their communication techniques, marketing strategies, promotional content, product performance, reviews and relevancy as a merchant. On this page, you will have space to consider your top 20 competitors and analyse why they’re so popular.

A solid brand requires nurturing, care and regular maintenance to remain relevant and in the minds of your customers, so this page is designed for you to consider the platforms you can use to house your brand. In addition, you will have the chance to consider promotional material for your brand such as business cards, logos, online content and any merchandise you might want to start selling further down the road.

Every business needs to boast its unique value in order to bring in customers and beat the competition, so this page is designed for you to start building on your elevator pitch and being able to sell your business in under two minutes. You will also have the chance to explore your brand narrative and the markets it will be most successful in, be that local, national or global.

Promoting your business’ products and services requires fresh, original content that is both engaging and interactive in order to enhance the buyer experience. Using this page, you will be able to consider what type of material you think would best reflect your brand as well as the tone you will employ to engage with your target audience.

A strong social media presence requires you to strategize on various important elements such as the best platform, when to post, influencers/conversation leaders, metric tracking software and other analytical tools. This page is also for noting the ways in which your rivals operate on social media and the types of followers they attract with their content.

Keywords feed into something called search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO. SEO governs what results a customer receives when searching for particular things online, so this page is designed for you to consider the keywords associated with your product and what your potential customers are searching for when trying to find a solution to their problem.

Like marketing, advertising is a form of product/service promotion that is designed to generate sales and revenue, rather than engagement and brand credibility that a public relations campaign would bring. Using this page, you are able to consider the platforms, message, format and budget for your advertising, as well the goals you wish to accomplish with your promotional content.

A marketing, advertising or PR campaign is a necessary component to increasing the popularity and profits of your business, and using this page, you will be given the chance to plan your own campaign. This section of the Planner is also a great space to consider the buyer experience and how to close the sale by putting yourself in the shoes of an average customer.

To build credibility and popularity, businesses host online and offline events that carry various themes and purposes, such as fundraising, drawing attention to an issue, celebrating an achievement and so on. Using this page, you can come up with some event ideas and the necessary elements that go into making a successful session, such as cost, resources and attendants.

A powerful public relations tool is community engagement; a strategy in which a business seeks to reach out and connect with their stakeholders in a meaningful way to make them feel involved or to simply give something back. This page is designed for you to consider different tactics to engage your community, and the actions you will take to make the experience a positive one.

Building and marketing a product requires your business to have a consistent image, otherwise known as a ‘brand’. During Step Nine, you will learn all about how to create a brand that reflects your values and mission statement, while also exploring the best channels to communicate your brand across.

If you haven’t already, it is now time to really finalise the name of your company. This section of the Planner will let you think about themes and connotations surrounding different names, such as whether or not you wish to opt for something more humorous in nature or strictly corporate and no-nonsense. Be creative!

A business needs a face, one that must be simple yet memorable to your customers, clients and other stakeholders. Using this section of the Planner, you will be able to plan out the surrounding elements of what makes a great logo, such as its design, composition, balance, colours and format.

The first and major milestone of any new business is the acquisition of your first three customers, and this section of the Planner allows you to visualise who they are, their personas, reasons for buying from you and the value they provide to your brand and business overall. You will also be able to analyse their current suppliers and benchmark your product based on what makes them so popular.

Profiling your competitor is an important aspect of gaining a better understanding of how they think, feel, operate and persuade customers to buy their products over those of their rivals. Using this section of the Planner, you will be able to analyse the position of your competitor and discover ways in which you can be as popular as they are.

Using this section of the Planner, you will be able to segment your market in order to provide better accuracy in the marketing and sales of your product by considering elements such as market size, location, value and the needs, wants and desires of your potential customers.

PESTLE is the abbreviation for political, economic, societal, technological, legal and environmental impacts that surrounds your business. Using this page, you will be able to consider those very factors and how they will impact your dayto-day operations and relationships with your stakeholders.

Every business needs a home; a store front to welcome shoppers and display everything you have on offer. Step Ten takes you on a comprehensive exploration of what is required to craft an effective website by planning the layout, design, text and other elements that go into a domain.

Using this section of the Planner you will be given a chance to plan the creation of an effective web page by planning the necessary elements such as the name of the site, the overall theme, design of the pages and the type of content you want to publish on the page. Additionally, you can use this space to review different website builders such as WordPress and Wix.

Every business has to hone in on a target market to sell to, and this page allows you to further explore the people and locations you are trying to reach with your product/service. Additionally, you will have the chance to bring greater detail to miscellaneous entities such as how to find leads, your promoters, review sites, influencers and bloggers.

Adhering to the highest quality standards is what benchmarking is all about, and this page will allow you to begin planning the ways in which to optimise your product, services, promotional content and communication techniques. In doing so, you will have the ability to reach the standards of your most popular rivals.

Blogging is an essential tool used by businesses to show the world that they have expertise and authority on a particular subject matter, one often surrounding their industry or sector of operations. Using this page, you will have the chance to determine the goals you wish to accomplish by blogging, but also the resources and personnel who will go into making it engaging and popular.

This section of the Planner has been designed to provide you with a space to begin planning the launch of your product and the actions you will be taking during the first three to twelve months. Also, this page is a good place for jotting down any additional notes on where your business will be and look like depending on the actions you take during the early stages of production.

This section of the Planner is designed for you to explore the methods in which you will accumulate your first 100 subscribers/followers on a single social media channel, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. In addition, you will have the chance to categorise your followers and provide more detail to your client profiles with elements such as digital trends, who they follow and what they like to do online.

Step Eleven takes you on an introspective journey where we will be conducting research into the day-to-day operational impacts on your business, such as the key drivers of your business, sustainability, risks and cost management and competencies and cultural significance.

A strategy cascade is the process in which you disseminate your organization’s overarching strategy, and using this page you can develop supporting tactics such as: planning your growth and expansion, conquering the market, configuring your business to adapt to big changes and how you will invest in the business and how to manage priorities and risks.

The Boston Consulting Group’s product portfolio matrix (BCG matrix) is designed to help with long-term strategic planning by considering growth opportunities and reviewing your portfolio of products to decide where to invest, to discontinue or develop additional products.

Using this section of the Planner, you can explore your primary sources of income by determining which products/services make the money and their respective costs. This is also a space to differentiate income, profits and revenue in order to better manage your finances and resources, especially if you plan to hire employees.

Your suppliers are one of your key stakeholders and must be paid on time and your relationship with them nurtured in order to get the best deals and perks from the arrangement. Using this page, you can explore the best options out there when it comes to who can supply materials for your product so you can minimise the outgoing monthly costs and maximise profits.

Any product, big or small, has a production cost, and this section of the Planner has been designed for you to consider every facet and element that goes into the daily costs associated with getting your product onto the market and into the hands of your customers.

Using this section of the Planner, you can determine how much it costs to keep the business running on a daily basis and what entities are the biggest contributors to the outgoing flow of cash. This is also a good space to consider the scope of your business and to plan for eventual growth and the corresponding operational costs that come with expanding into new markets.

Resource allocation is the vital component to running a successful business, and this page will allow you to think about all the elements that will go into running your company, even if you are likely starting small and working your way up. Factors to consider include the financial, physical, digital and human resources along with their associated costs.

You either love it or probably hate it: it’s the legal stuff! From patenting, copyright law and trademarking to employee contracts, every company must follow the laws of business to the letter, but luckily Step Thirteen will cover everything you need to know, such as: how to officially form your company, registration, tax, insurance, hiring staff and business banking.

Officially forming your company will require you to think about the less flavourful and engaging elements of running a business such as tax, registration, insurance, hiring and firing, banking for your business and anything else you think might be uniquely associated with your business. This page is also a good space to start thinking about whether or not you need help from an accountant or solicitor.

Copyright laws govern your intellectual property and who can use your brand/idea to trade with and generate income. Using this section of the Planner, you will have the chance to explore whether or not you need to copyright one of your products and the ways in which you will monitor compliance to ensure you remain within the boundaries of the law.

A patent is a government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention. Using this page, you will be able to consider what elements in your business should be patented and licensed.

Getting your first client and then hiring employees is the first milestone in the growth of a business, and this section of the Planner will enable you to plan out the elements required for building client and staff contracts. Things we will cover include how to create an official contract and the surrounding laws.

Suppliers and their terms change frequently as new laws and regulations are relaxed. Using this section of the Planner, you will be able to research and consider the terms of agreement with your suppliers and how to remain up to date with any important changes that could affect your business dealings.

Setting goals for the expansion of your business is often done in what is called a ‘quarterly preview’ where you review and analyse the progression of your business every month. Using this page, you can think about where you want to be within a month’s time, while also reviewing everything you have achieved, big or small, within the last 30 days.

Using this section of the Planner, consider the day-to-day, essential priorities that need to be handled to keep the business running to a high standard, in addition to considering how you will delegate and issue tasks once you employ a team. This space can also be used to draw up a day planner or think about whether or not you need to hire a secretary/assistant.

Every business, big or small, has to break down their tasks based on how urgent or important they are in order to keep the cogs turning and everything running smoothly. Using this page, you will be able to think about the most urgent things you need to get a handle on before even launching a business.

And finally, with everything else planned and organised, all that’s left is to get your message out there and start marketing your product/service. Using this page, you can plan your daily social media posts and how to make them as engaging as possible in order to generate interest in your brand and entice new customers into making a purchase. Elements to consider include tone, monitoring engagement and the available platforms.