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Business Strategy

• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Business Strategy →

Key Concepts

Who will benefit, mid-career professionals, general managers, consultants and investors.

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of strategy

Earn by: completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Creating Value for Customers

• An Introduction to Value-Based Strategy
• Sales Success and Willingness to Pay
• Near-Customers

Featured Exercises

Adding value through complements.

• Understanding Complements
• Shifting Value
• Navigating the Frenemy Relationship
• Discerning Complements from Substitutes

Competing with Network Effects

• Understanding Network Effects
• Which Markets Will Tip
• Strategies for Underdogs
• Digital Platforms and Innovation

Creating Value for Talent

• Linking Productivity and Customer Delight
• Competing on Flexibility
• Compensation Policy

Mastering Productivity

• Measuring Productivity
• Economies of Scale
• Teaching and Learning
• Good Management

Implementing Strategy

• Evolving Your Value Proposition
• Connecting Strategy, Activities, and KPIs
• Execution Challenges

How to Formulate a Successful Business Strategy

Our difference, about the professor.

Felix Oberholzer-Gee Business Strategy

Dates & eligibility.

No current course offerings for this selection.

All learners must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization .

Learner Stories

Business Strategy FAQs

What are the learning requirements in order to successfully complete the course, and how are grades assigned.

Participants in Business Strategy are eligible for a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Business School Online.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein. This helps ensure your cohort proceeds through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect participation in the social learning elements of the course by offering feedback on others’ reflections and contributing to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Business Strategy. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

What materials will I have access to after completing Business Strategy?

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

How should I list my certificate on my resume?

Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, list it on your resume along with the date of completion:

Harvard Business School Online Certificate in Business Strategy [Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program] Degree: Other; Certificate in Business Strategy Field of Study: Leave blank Grade: "Complete" Activities and Societies: Leave blank

Description: Business Strategy is a 6-week, 30-35 hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Business Strategy equips professionals with a simplified framework they can immediately apply to create value for customers, employees, and suppliers while maximizing returns and an organization’s competitive edge. Participants learn to evaluate trade-offs and align, prioritize, and formulate strategic initiatives for the greatest business impact.

Related Program

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Small Business Management Courses and Certifications

Learn Small Business Management, earn certificates with paid and free online courses from University of Illinois, The Open University, Deakin University, Cornell University and other top universities around the world. Read reviews to decide if a class is right for you.

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Business 321: Small Business Management

Master small business management in an 18-hour course, covering entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, and more. Earn 3 transferrable semester hours.

• 19 hours 4 minutes
• Paid Course

Strategic Human Resources

Find out how to attract, retain, and develop people within your small business.

• LinkedIn Learning
• Free Trial Available

BUS305: Small Business Management

This course covers the elements of entrepreneurship, building the right team, creating a business plan, developing a marketing strategy, and financing a new venture. Students will learn how to effectively manage a small business, including essential skil…

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Increasing Trust in Your Online Business with Kiffanie Stahle

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25 Ways to Jumpstart Your Business

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• 10 hours 12 minutes

Entrepreneuriaeth Gwledig yng Nghymru

Beth yw'r materion pwysig i'w hystyried wrth ddechrau neu redeg busnes bach mewn amgylchedd gwledig? Bydd yr uned astudio hon yn eich cyflwyno i rai syniadau a modelau a fydd yn eich helpu i ...

Fundamentals of Accounting Capstone

A 6-week capstone project from the University of Illinois, applying accounting concepts in a realistic small-business context. Completion of prior courses required.

• 1 day 14 hours 20 minutes
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Structuring Business Agreements for Success

Learn to structure effective agreements with Cornell University's 5-week course. Gain insights from law professors and practicing attorneys, enhancing your legal knowledge for successful deals.

• 5 weeks, 2-3 hours a week

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Operations Management in small businesses: key techniques

Learn to apply operations management techniques to small businesses for efficiency and effectiveness in this 4-5 hour course. Ideal for owners, managers, and business students.

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Learn to design a custom Filemaker database system for your business in this 1-2 hour course, including creating tables, layouts, and centralizing data. Ideal for small business owners.

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Get more leads and attract more clients within 60 days without spending a ton on advertising and without cold calling.

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11 Free Courses and Learning Resources for Small Business Owners Big businesses have a wealth of expertise, and the ones on our Champions of Small Business list want to make their know-how available to you.

By Dan Bova Sep 22, 2023

Key Takeaways

• The 2023 Champions of Small Business is our first-annual list of big businesses that are helping entrepreneurs with grants, accelerators, and free resources.
• Below find great learning resources and free online courses.

Program: Amazon's Small Business Academy

Launched in 2019, this free program gives early-stage entrepreneurs and small business owners a suite of tools, resources, and networking opportunities. The curriculum was designed in partnership with the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization and offers three educational tracks: "Start," "Build," and "Launch."

Program: Small Business Resources

The small business resources page offers free expert webinars and educational series from business mentors like Barbara Corcoran. They also offer free "playbooks" for business concerns like going virtual or cybersecurity and protections, along with phone and Wi-Fi deals tailored to small business needs.

Bank of America

This part of Bank of America's website offers small business owners insights and resources for managing money, applying for funding, improving credit, planning for retirement, and tracking industry trends, as well as operational assistance with HR and customer relations, and strategizing for small businesses.

Program: Cisco Small Business Resource Center

This site publishes news and technology advice to help small and medium business owners build their knowledge around security, networking, and collaboration.

Program: FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a platform that provides accounting services tailored to the needs of many industries and company sizes. Its blog offers tips and insights for small business owners looking for guidance at different stages of growth.

Program: Google for Startups

Google for Startups offers a range of resources to help small businesses grow. It provides guides and insights for startups at all stages of the journey, along with mentorship and funding opportunities including the Founders Academy, Accelerator, Cloud Program, Black Founders Fund, and Latino Founders Fund.

Program: Mailchimp Marketing Library

Mailchimp provides an information resource for small businesses wanting to learn more about starting, running, and marketing their businesses. Browse straightforward articles like "Email Marketing 101: A Beginner's Guide for Small Businesses."

Program: Shopify Blog

The commerce company offers tools to help merchants start, scale, market, and run a retail business of any size. It has a robust blog with advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on everything from sourcing products to marketing, customer management, and more. Shopify also pledged $130 million to support the 1 Million Black Businesses initiative.

Program: Small Business Digital Ready

This platform gives small business owners access to free courses and educational materials, as well as live events, mentorship, peer networking, and grant opportunities. The courses support small business owners across the entirety of their business, with a specific focus on helping diverse and under-resourced business owners. Resources are also available in Spanish.

Program: Visa Small Business Hub

This landing page on the Visa website gives small businesses opportunities to read about trending topics that are relevant to their industries, along with tools and resources to manage their finances, grow their audiences, take advantage of analytics, optimize their online presence, and more.

Wells Fargo

Program: Wells Fargo Small Business Resources

On its "Small Business Resources" page, the bank provides articles on optimizing day-to-day operations, securing financing, leveraging credit, and paying down debt, as well as networking, sales, and marketing.

See more Champions of Small Business resources:

16 Accelerators Designed to Fast-Track Small Business Founder Success

13 Grant Programs Being Offered by Big Businesses

10 Discounted (and Free!) Tech, Finance and Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses

Entrepreneur Staff

VP of Special Projects

Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids  include  This Day in History , Car and Driver's Trivia Zone ,  Road & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars , The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff , and  Wendell the Werewolf . 

Read his humor column This Should Be Fun  if you want to feel better about yourself.

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Here to help you grow

Whether you're looking to build your business, develop your career, or learn new AI skills, we can help you get started.

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And what would you like to do?

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Learn online, at your own pace, with a library of training made to help strengthen your business with digital skills.

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Helpful tools for small business owners

Google Business Profile

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Market Finder

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About Grow with Google

Grow with Google is a programme that helps people to grow their careers or businesses by learning new skills and making the most of digital tools. We partner with governments and local organisations to develop digital skills and tools where they are needed most.

2024 Best Online Small Business Management Certificates

A small business management certificate may be your next step if you want to improve or develop essential business skills.

Whether you are an experienced business owner or just entering the entrepreneurial world of small business, taking small business management courses online could be beneficial.

Editorial Listing ShortCode:

Earning a small business certificate can also be useful for a number of other career paths. You might apply your knowledge to advance or change your career.

Universities Offering Online Certificates in Small Business Management Degree Programs

Methodology: The following school list is in alphabetical order. To be included, a college or university must be regionally accredited and offer degree programs online or in a hybrid format.

Ferris State University

Ferris State University offers a Small Business Management Certificate that can be earned online. The program requires the completion of four courses. Potential courses include Growing the Small Business, Management Metrics and Decision Making, and Small Business Systems and Operations.

Ferris State University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

Fox Valley Technical College

Fox Valley Technical College offers a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management that can be earned online. The program requires the completion of 17 credit hours. It aims to teach students how to start their own businesses. The curriculum covers how to design a business model, market products and services, and keep track of financial information.

Fox Valley Technical College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

Monroe Community College

Monroe Community College offers an online Certificate in Small Business Management program. This program requires the completion of 31 to 32 credit hours and can typically be completed in 2 semesters. Potential courses in the curriculum include Introductory Accounting and Financial Analysis, Applied Business Applications, and Dynamics of Selling. Credits may be applied to an AAS in Entrepreneurship.

MCC is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Tidewater Community College

Tidewater Community College offers a Career Studies Certificate in Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship that can be taken online and at the Chesapeake campus. The program is often a good fit for students who can multitask and who have strong interpersonal skills. The curriculum explores how to launch and expand small businesses.

Tidewater Community College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

University of California – Los Angeles

The University of California – Los Angeles offers a Certificate in Small Business Management and Technology that can be earned on campus or through its online extension school. The program requires the completion of six courses. Potential courses in the curriculum include Developing a Business Plan, Financial Tools for Business Growth, and Marketing and Sales Strategies for Entrepreneurial Business.

UCLA is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission.

Small Business Management Certificate Online Programs

A small business certificate program can be beneficial for various professionals, including entrepreneurs starting a business, current business owners, and those managing businesses.

Professionals in other careers—including those in healthcare, finance, and various management roles—can also benefit from the knowledge taught in small business management courses online. Skills gained include managing finances, promoting your business, and understanding legal requirements, regulations, and compliance, including taxes.

Topics covered in small business management certificate programs online include:

• Legal compliance
• Negotiating
• Tax requirements
• Business administration
• Financial tools
• Customer service
• Establishing a business
• Business plan development
• Profit management
• Online presence

Many graduates have prior business or management experience and are ready to open their own businesses and develop skills for success. These in-demand skills are also ones that many employers look for when hiring, so this certificate program is not just for those who want to become business owners.

Graduates can find opportunities in various industries, especially in management and administration positions where these skills are extremely valuable. Many small business management certificate programs online can be completed in less than 1 year, allowing you to quickly gain knowledge and put it to use.

Small Business Management Careers & Salaries

Professionals with a small business certificate can find numerous opportunities to use the skills gained in this program.

While many graduates are entrepreneurs looking to start their businesses, others seek opportunities to advance their careers or change career paths completely. Professionals with a valuable combination of management, finance, marketing, and sales skills can find opportunities in any of those areas.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics , listed below are potential careers, along with their median salaries, that could benefit from a small business administration certificate.

Those interested in marketing may seek opportunities as advertising, marketing, and promotions managers or public relations specialists. Individuals interested in operations can explore opportunities as project management specialists, management analysts, and operations research analysts.

Graduates looking for careers in finance may find opportunities as financial examiners, budget analysts, and cost estimators. The range of potential career paths for graduates with a small business certificate is as varied as the topics covered in the program.

Small Business Management Certificate Curriculum

While courses will vary by program, listed below are some courses you may take to earn your small business certificate:

• Developing a Business Plan : You’ll learn key components of drafting business plans, including customer analysis, revenue forecasting, and competitor assessment.
• Planning for Success : This course introduces you to the financial, strategic, and operational planning needed to launch a small business successfully.
• Fundamentals of Business Administration and Management : You’ll learn how to systemize, manage, and structure a business for success from the beginning.
• Establishing a Successful Business : This course examines key elements of successful businesses, including unique selling propositions and customer identification.
• Market Research : Students in this course will examine the benefits and types of market research and learn how to discover and assess target markets.
• Legal Requirements and Resources : This course gives you a basic understanding of legal and tax requirements that business owners need to know.
• Financial Tools for Business Growth : This course introduces essential financial management topics, including credit management, receivables, and inventory.
• Preparing a Budget : You’ll learn essential budget and financial skills, including creating financial statements, making financial projections, and setting prices and costs.
• Reaching Your Customers : This course examines strategies for marketing, advertising, and promoting your business, including developing an online presence.
• Managing Your Profits : This course provides fundamental procedures small business owners need for budgeting, profit planning, and managing tax systems.

The number and type of courses will vary by certificate program, so it’s beneficial to look over a program’s curriculum to ensure it aligns with your goals and needs.

Admissions Requirements

Admissions requirements will vary by program, but listed below are some common requirements for taking small business management courses online:

• High school diploma . Many undergraduate certificate programs require you to have a high school diploma or GED equivalent.
• Online application . Most programs require you to complete an online application, including answering specific questions.
• Official transcripts . Most programs request copies of your official transcripts from high school, college, and any other courses you have taken.

In addition, some programs require a fee when you submit your application.

Accreditation

As you explore options for small business management certificate programs online, a key consideration is the school’s accreditation status.

The accreditation process verifies that a school meets agreed-upon educational standards, with regional accreditation being the most widely accepted form. Accreditation is important since it can potentially affect your eligibility for business school online programs, such as an online business management degree , credit transfers, and job opportunities.

To learn more about the accreditation process, you can visit the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) website.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

When looking into options for your small business certificate or small business management degree online , you may also look into various resources that can help with the cost of your program. You may find scholarships offered directly through your school or public and private institutions. Some schools also offer payment plans for tuition.

If you are currently employed, you can explore potential options offered through your employer in the form of tuition reimbursement or discounted tuition. You can also explore financial aid through the federal and state governments, including loans, grants, and work-study programs.

You can visit the Federal Student Aid website to learn more about government assistance options that may be available to you.

What Is a Small Business Management Certificate?

A small business management certificate is a non-degree program that helps prepare students to successfully run and manage a small business.

Students can develop skills in finance, marketing, leadership, management, customer service, and business development and planning. Graduates of small business management certificate programs online may launch their own business, open a store, or better understand how to successfully manage an existing business.

Current business owners can also complete a certificate program to develop new skills to keep up with changing technologies, such as learning how to get their business online or market online.

What Can You Do with a Small Business Management Certificate?

Gained expertise through a small business management class can help prepare you for a variety of opportunities and career paths.

Many graduates seek to become entrepreneurs, while others are experienced business owners looking to enhance their skills. Others find opportunities managing small businesses or using their skills in niche management positions, including in marketing, advertising, promotions, and sales management.

Graduates can also work in positions where a combination of skills is needed, from healthcare organizations to financial roles, including budget analysts and financial examiners.

How Long is a Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship Certificate Program Online?

The time needed to complete your small business administration program online will vary based on a few factors, including the program requirements and your schedule.

Many programs are self-paced, usually within parameters, but most programs can be completed in less than 1 year. Some programs offer fast-track options, allowing you to move more quickly and complete your program in as little as 6 months.

When choosing a program, you might consider the overall completion time and the schedule, ensuring both work for you.

Is a Small Business Management Certificate Worth It?

Yes, a small business management certificate is worth it for many students. This type of certificate program can help you improve your skills and knowledge in opening, running, and managing a small business.

You can develop diverse skills that you could use in running a small business as well as in other careers that value finance, marketing, sales, customer service, and leadership skills. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment for business and financial occupations is projected to grow 7% over the next ten years. Management occupations are expected to see 8% job growth over the same period.

Getting Your Certificate in Small Business Management Online

Earning a small business certificate can help you develop essential skills for opening or running your own business or advancing your career in numerous fields.

Whether you’re an experienced business owner or considering opening your own business, this certificate program can help you further your expertise. You can also use your skill set to help manage businesses in various roles and fields where business, finance, and leadership skills are in demand.

If you’re ready to take your business and management skills to the next level, you can start exploring online small business management certificate programs from accredited schools.

Grow Your Business

8 steps to building an online course business (+ business plan template), share this article.

There has never been a better time to build a business selling online courses . By 2027, the global e-learning market is estimated to reach an enormous $521.8 billion ( Research and Markets ), signalling an enormous potential.  Millions of people are purchasing online courses, inside and outside of the traditional education system, in order to upgrade their knowledge and skills.

Skip ahead:

Step 1: Decide what to teach

Step 2: create a business plan for your online training business, step 3: validate market demand, step 4: create a compelling and unique brand, step 5: build your audience, step 6: create an online course, step 7: focus on customer success, step 8: scale your business.

It comes as no surprise that in response to this demand, entrepreneurs and subject matter experts from all over the world have started creating and selling online courses to share their knowledge with others.

At Thinkific, we’ve felt the effects of this demand first hand as thousands of individuals and organizations have started using our platform to create online courses .

Creating an online course is just one part of building an online course business. Building a business is the other part.

But let’s be real here. If you ask ANY type of business owner if it was easy for them to build their business, they will tell you that it wasn’t.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is an online course business

At the beginning of 2017, I watched a close friend of mine open his own barbershop. It took him 3 months of renovations and tens of thousands of dollars just to get his barbershop ready for him to welcome his first customer through the front door. (I was his second customer, by the way. Someone else beat me to the grand opening by about 5 minutes!)

For my friend, those 3 months of preparation work was just the beginning. During the next 6 months after his grand opening, he worked 7 days per week to build up his clientele and recoup his startup costs before he started hiring more barbers. Why did he do this? Because that’s what it took to start his own barbershop. 

What does this have to do with building an online course business?

The point of this story is that it takes a lot of work upfront to build a business . It doesn’t happen overnight and building an online course business is no exception. There is a lot of work you will have to do, both before and after you create your course, in order to be successful.

Unfortunately, most course creators give up on their business before putting in the work required to ensure they will be successful. They stop digging for gold before they experience the big payoff that makes all the hard work worth it.

Even though it takes a lot of work to build a successful online course business, there are plenty of other people that have done it before (check out our customer stories to see some examples). 

With that in mind, we reached out to more than 40 successful entrepreneurs and online course creators. These people have literally built their careers by sharing their knowledge with others, many of them selling millions of dollars worth of training programs and online courses throughout their careers.

After reviewing all of the valuable insights these online course creation experts and entrepreneurs shared with us, we managed to distill the process of building a successful online course business into 8 specific steps (well, more like phases, since each one of these phases has several steps involved).

In this guide to building an online course business, we’ll be sharing these 8 steps with you.

8 Steps to Building a Successful Online Course Business

Before we jump into Step 1, there is something very important that you need to understand:

By itself, an online course is NOT a business

Without an online course to sell, you can’t exactly build an online course business. But creating your online course is just one part of building your business . Your online course is your product. It’s not your entire business.

As you can see from the graphic below, a typical online course business has many other parts as well:

This may surprise you, but creating an online course isn’t even the first step in the process of building an online course business. Out of the 8 steps we’re about to go through, creating a course is Step #6.

You’re welcome to skip steps 1-5 if you want to, but I would advise against it and here’s why:

If you jump straight to creating a course without strategically choosing a topic to teach (Step 1), creating a business model (Step 2), and validating demand for that topic (Step 3), you could end up creating a course that no one wants to sign up for.

Secondly, if you don’t build your brand (Step 4) and audience (Step 5) before you launch your course, you won’t have a way to stand out among your competition or have an audience to promote your course to.

Even if you have the “perfect” course created today, without a compelling brand and an audience to promote it to, it will be very difficult to generate sales. No sales = no business.

So to save yourself many hours of effort and (potentially) thousands of dollars in course creation and marketing costs, don’t skip these steps.

Okay, let’s dive in…

The first step in building an online course business is deciding what you will teach. What topic do you want to become known for? What topic are you expert enough to teach to others?

To be an expert at something, you just have to know more about your topic than the person you are teaching. That’s it. To that person, you’re an expert. Don’t overthink this.

Choose your course topic

Between the combination of your life experience and your professional experience, there are likely several topics that you know enough about to create a course on.

To help narrow down a specific course topic , we recommend completing the following exercise:

On a piece of paper, draw 2 vertical lines to create 3 columns. Label the first column Passions & Interests . Label the second column Skills . Label the third column Experience & Achievements .

Next, start adding as many things as you can think of to each column (aim for at least 20 per column).

Once you’ve done this, identify the top 2-3 topics where your passions/interests, your skills, and your experience/achievements intersect.

For example, if you like science fiction ( passion/interest ), you’re a great writer ( skill ), and you’ve written several science fiction novels ( experience/achievement ), then “how to write a science fiction novel” is a viable topic to consider teaching to others.

“You’ve been given a talent, you’ve been given a gift, you’ve been given experiences in your life that are here to serve others.” – Alexi Panos

Identify a specific target audience

Once you’ve identified a specific topic to teach, the next step is to identify a specific target audience (aka a target market) that is interested in that topic.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your topic (and therefore your course) will appeal to everyone. If you try to create a course that appeals to everyone, it will likely appeal to no one. I know it’s counter-intuitive, but trust me on this.

To give you an example, one of our customers ( Lizzie Lasater ) is a yoga practitioner and instructor. When she decided to create online courses , naturally, she decided to start teaching yoga online  

Instead of creating courses to teach people how to practice yoga (a very broad and highly competitive topic) she decided to narrow her target audience to other yoga instructors (more specific). With other yoga instructors as her target audience, she created courses that are specifically about how to become a better yoga teacher.

Once you have decided on what to teach and have sufficient clarity about your course topic, it is time to get your business plan ready. 

A business plan or business model is a formal blueprint describing how you will structure, manage and market your online course business. It is important to create one as it helps to ensure that your online course business will remain competitive and financially successful in the long term. 

You can choose one of the many software tools to create a standard business plan or use a regular spreadsheet or word processing software.

Now, as every business is different, their business models can vary drastically. However, certain aspects remain common to most companies. 

Here, we have laid out what you must include in your business plan:

Describe your business

A business description is needed to clearly state the purpose of your business, your target audience, and how you plan to deliver your products and services. 

When drafting it, you must be as objective and concise as possible regarding the nature of your online course and how it intends to help the target audience. 

Make sure to highlight if you will deliver your courses only online or offline. It also helps to state if your courses will be instructor-led or delivered through other e-learning methods. 

Identify your marketing strategy

Once you describe the nature of your business, the next step is to put together a marketing and sales strategy. 

Describe the strategies you will use to market your online course and how you plan to implement your email marketing, social media marketing, and other organic methods. 

In addition, you need to plan to allocate a budget for your paid advertisements and online marketing if you decide to opt for pay-per-click ad programs. 

Hiring and team management

While many online course creators choose to run their own shows, many opt to hire virtual assistants or full-time employees for help. Others choose to delegate tasks to freelancers or third-party vendors. 

Make sure to describe how you plan to delegate the tasks you cannot do. It is always a good idea to outsource tasks that do not require your intervention to save time for those that require your expertise.

Business operations

This section of the b-plan states how your day-to-day business activities will be structured and managed. 

You can include your course content, operational hours, telecom and IT-related necessities, insurance, etc. The more concise your operations section, the better ground it makes for you to validate your plan later. 

Every business requires money to run, and online businesses are no exception. In addition to the marketing and advertising expenses mentioned above, you will also need to factor in infrastructure, technology, hiring, etc. Remember to also describe what you plan to sell and how you plan to monetize your business. 

With this, make sure to have a detailed budget plan and allocate your resources to different expenses fairly. However, be careful to ensure that your budget is within what you can commit to and it does not make you feel overstretched. 

Please note that in addition to your online business course, you may also add other income streams such as selling ebooks, offering paid talks, etc. 

Two financial calculations you should consider initially are:

Gross Profit Margin: This is the number of courses you sell minus the cost of running your online course. It can be represented as a percentage. 

Gross Profit Margin = (Net course sale revenues – cost of running your online course) / net course sales x 100

Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) Ratio : This figure tells you the percentage of your online course sales revenue used to cover your operational expenses. 

SGA = [Selling + General + Operational (Administrative) expenses] / Net online course sales revenue

While we have described the essential aspects of a business plan, it also helps to follow the structure of a formal Business Model Canvas .  This concept was popularized by Alexander Osterwalder in 2005 and consisted of nine building blocks. These include key partners, activities, resources, cost structure, revenue streams, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, and customer segments.

Once you’ve identified a specific topic to teach and have your basic business plan blueprint in place, the next step is to validate the demand for that topic.

As a course creator it sucks to spend several weeks, maybe even months (or years?!), creating an online course about a topic that you find out there is no demand for.

It’s a lot more efficient to validate demand for your course upfront before you invest time, effort and money creating a course.

Here are 2 ways you can validate the demand for your course topic:

Research your competition

See if you can find other people or companies that are selling courses and other forms of training about your topic (or a similar one), or who serve your target audience.

• Bestselling books on Amazon
• Other online courses
• Popular blogs and forums
• Top podcasts on iTunes
• In-person seminars, conferences, workshops
• Online events (virtual summits, webinars )
• Networking groups on Meetup
• Coaches and consultants

If you can’t find anyone that is profitably teaching your topic to others, that is a red flag that there isn’t enough market demand for that topic to justify creating an online course (or building a business). Competition is usually a proof of market demand.

What if there is no competition?!

On the rare occasion that you can’t find any competing products or services about your topic, that could mean one of two things:

• There is demand, but no one is serving that market yet (rare), or
• There is no demand, and you should pick a different topic

Either way, there are still two more steps you should take before you pull the trigger and decide to create (or not create) your course.

A great way to gauge demand for your topic is to use Google’s Keyword Planner to see how many people are searching for your topic per month. The higher the search volume, the higher the demand.

“Do not be afraid of competition. Their very existence validates that there is demand for the problem you’re trying to solve or for a solution to it.” – Greg Smith, CEO of Thinkific

Ask your target audience what they want to learn

If you have access to your target audience, whether online or offline, the best way to find out what they want to learn (and would be willing to pay to learn) is to ask them directly!

Here are a few ways you can ask your audience what they want to learn:

• Ask your list of email subscribers
• Ask your fans/followers on social media
• Ask your past and/or existing clients

With each of these options, you can send people a link to a survey, ask them open-ended questions directly, or ask them to have a quick call with you.

Another way is direct outreach (aka cold calling) to your target audience by phone, email or social media. Do this in a polite, non-spammy way of course.

See how many people are searching for your course idea on google

Engaging in keyword research is a great way to identify a course topic that can possibly sell like hotcakes, without directly asking your audience., keyword research essentially helps you to understand what people are looking for online by keying in terms on google or other search engines. , to conduct keyword research on topics that may interest your audience, you can use specialised tools such as semrush or ahrefs . , irrespective of the tool you choose to use, here is the basic framework to engage in keyword research:, identify your seed term, which would be an umbrella term for your course topic. , type in “course” + your seed term., get specific and find a niche area that has not been covered by other course creators but has a high search volume. check out this tool to identify search volume, continue to search and eliminate topics that are not feasible or interesting. , for example, if you wish to start an online course on gardening, type “gardening course” in the keyword search tool. you will see multiple results with different search volumes. these results will help you get more specific. for example, you may find that “gardening courses in semi-arid regions” is a possible course topic with a decent search volume. , alternatively, you can also use our search volume too l to discover popular course topic ideas. .

Remember: If you can’t find anyone that wants to learn the topic that you’re thinking of teaching, you should probably move on to another topic.

If you can’t find buyers before you create your course, you probably won’t find any after either!

The ideal scenario is you choose a topic that there is obviously a demand for (proven by competing products and services about that topic), but nothing that is for your specific target audience.

Facebook marketing , for example, is a broad topic with strong market demand (proven by all of the blogs, books, courses, consultants, seminars, etc. about this topic).

Now, assuming we want to create a course about Facebook marketing, let’s see what topics we come up with as we hone in on a specific target audience:

• Topic 1: Facebook marketing 101 (very broad)
• Topic 2: Facebook marketing for business owners (more specific, still pretty broad)
• Topic 3: Facebook marketing for local businesses (not bad)
• Topic 4: Facebook marketing for real estate agents (very specific)
• Topic 5: Facebook marketing strategies to get more listings (ding ding ding, we have a winner!)

If you are a real estate agent and you want to learn how to use Facebook to get more listings, which course topic is going to appeal to you the most? Which topic would you pay the most money for? Probably #5, because it is the most specific. It is exactly what you want to learn.

“The easiest way to know what to do is listen to what people are asking for and then give that to them.” – JJ Virgin , Celebrity Nutritionist & Fitness Expert

Once you’ve decided on a specific topic to teach, it’s time to start building your brand.

Don’t jump straight to getting your logo, website, and business cards designed. Those things do play a role in representing your brand, but they are not the starting point.

The starting point to creating a compelling and unique brand is making a conscious decision about how you want to be positioned in your industry. Branding is about positioning .

Your brand should position you as the go-to expert on your topic. Unless you’re positioned as an expert and a trusted authority on your topic, it will be hard to convince someone to buy a course (or any product or service) from you.

Even though we’re told not to, we do judge a book by its cover. Think of your brand as the “book cover” for your business.

Be strategic with your positioning

The biggest mistake that people (and organizations) make with their branding is trying to appeal to everyone. Don’t do that. Be strategic with your positioning.

Build a brand that appeals to your specific target audience. Don’t try to appeal to everyone, because everyone is not your ideal customer/client.

Here are some questions to consider as you create your brand:

How do you want to be positioned and perceived in your marketplace? What do you want people to think of when they think of you? Who do you want to attract? Who do you NOT want to attract? What do you stand for? What do you stand against? Why do you do what you do?

When your target audience is searching for information about your topic, you want them to find you and immediately feel like they’ve come to the right place. They should feel like they’ve found the exact person (or company) that can help them overcome a specific problem or achieve a specific outcome.

“A great brand starts with understanding who you are, what you stand for, understanding your marketplace and understanding your positioning.” – Re Perez, CEO of Branding For The People

Identify your Unique Value Proposition

An exercise that we recommend all course creators complete is creating a Unique Value Proposition (UVP). Your UVP is what will help you differentiate yourself from your competition.

To create your UVP, answer these questions:

• Who do you help?
• What do you help them do?
• Why is that beneficial for them?

Once you have the answers to these questions, tie them together in a single sentence.

To give you an example, one of our customers Ellie Diop aka Ellie Talks Money , is a business coach with a proven track record that helps you scale your business and have financial success. Pretty good UVP right?

Here is a screenshot of her website’s homepage:

As you can see, anyone who visits her website will be able to instantly figure out who she is, what she does, and who her target audience is. She has a clear and compelling personal brand . If you’re someone who wants to improve your business and reach financial success, it’s obvious you’ve come to the right place. 

Good branding makes your target audience feel like they’ve come to the right place.

Once you’ve decided how you want to be positioned in your market, it’s time to start building your audience.

Your audience is the sum total of all the people that you have the ability to communicate with through various distribution channels (your blog, social media, email list , personal network, etc.).

Why is it important to build an audience?

Without an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you, it will be very difficult to sell your course for the simple reason that you don’t have anyone to sell it to!

So the sooner you start building your audience, the better.

“Online courses are the wave of the future. They can help expand my content and message into places and countries that I have yet to physically visit. Online courses have boosted my income and helped me share my message with a much larger audience.” – Andrea Beaman , Health Educator & Author

Related: How to Create Epic Content Your Customers Will Love

How to define your target audience

It helps if you follow a systematic framework to define your target audience . Some useful steps to that end include: 

• Ask your current customers
• Get details on demographics like age, gender, location, etc.
•  Understand their needs and pain points
• Analyze the solution they’re hoping for
• Create a customer avatar

Download our detailed step-by-step guide for audience research

Size is important (but not the most important)

The size of your audience is important, but not as important as you might think. The obvious benefit of having a large audience is the ability to reach more people. If you have 10,000 fans on Facebook, for example, your posts will probably be seen by more people than if you had 1,000 fans (all else being equal).

But the size of your audience is not as important as the relationship you build with your audience.

It’s more valuable to have 100 people on your email list that open and read every email you send them than it is to have 1,000 followers on Twitter who rarely see your Tweets or engage with you in any way.

When it comes to building an audience, loyalty and engagement are the most important.

Here are some of the most common ways that online course creators are building their audience:

• Social media

Set up profiles and/or pages on the social network networks that your target audience spends time on. You don’t need a presence on every social media network. Choose the top 2-3 that make the most sense for you and focus your efforts there. Share your content, join relevant groups, start your own Facebook group , and engage in conversations. The goal here is to build real relationships with other people that are interested in your course topic.

Read More: Social Media Marketing Guide: Uncracking the Code for Course Creators

• Content marketing

Publish free content about your course topic as often as you can. Free content helps you build trust and authority in your industry. Common types of content that you can create are articles, videos, podcast episodes, images, and infographics. All of these help to increase traffic to your website and exposure for your business.

The more content you publish on your website and other platforms (like YouTube ), the more likely your target audience will find you as they are searching for information about your topic.

• How To Generate Leads With Content Marketing (6 Simple Steps)
• The Complete Content Marketing Guide: Organic Growth Toolkit
• Publicity & PR

One of the quickest ways to build your audience is to get in front of existing audiences. Writing articles for popular publications in your industry, getting interviewed on podcasts , and getting featured in traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers, print magazines, etc.) are all great ways to increase your exposure and build authority in your industry.

• Networking & joint ventures

Build relationships with other experts and influencers in your industry. It doesn’t happen overnight, but building mutually beneficial relationships with others can lead to a number of opportunities including guest blogging, interviews, joint ventures , partnerships, and customer referrals.

• Public speaking

Reach out to event hosts and organizers of conferences and seminars that your target audience attends. Offer to give a presentation on your topic. Some events will even let you sell your course directly to their audience, in exchange for a percentage of your sales. A major advantage of public speaking is you have the undivided attention of everyone in the room during your presentation, and that can be very hard to get online.

• Email marketing

When it comes to marketing your online course (or any product or service online for that matter), email marketing is hands down the most effective way to generate sales. An email list of people that have expressed interest in your course topic and have given you permission to communicate with them will likely be your most valuable asset as an online course creator.

Start building your email list as soon as possible. Stay in touch with your subscribers by sending them helpful emails and links to your content on a regular basis. This is a great way to earn their trust before you ask them to buy from you.

• Paid advertising

Even with a modest budget, paid advertising can be a great way to grow your audience. By utilizing advertising platforms such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can target people based on specific criteria including demographics, interests, search terms, job titles, and more. In fact, many of Thinkific’s most successful customers have been using Facebook ads to grow their audience and generate consistent leads and sales for their online courses.

“Consistency is what did it for us. Doing something every week, at least once a week, helped us get better really, really fast because we were putting in the time and putting in the practice.”

– Jordan Harbinger , Author & Podcast Host

Creating an online course is definitely one of the more exciting steps in this entire process, but it can also be the most time consuming one if you’re not careful.

Most people spend several weeks (or months, depending on the course) creating their online course. Other, more experienced course creators have perfected this process and can create an entire online course in one weekend .

But regardless of how long it takes you to create your course, the process that you go through will most likely look a lot like this:

• Choose your course title and subtitle. 
• Ensure that your topic has high demand in the market
• Ensure that the learning outcomes are stellar
• Gather material for your online course content
• Create a lesson plan (aka course outline) and choose your lesson types (audio, video, text, etc.)
• Identify the best ways to deliver each of your course modules
• Film, record, and edit your online course
• Set up your online course, including a website
• Choose a price for your course
• Create a sales page and focus on marketing your course

Instead of going through each of these steps in more detail right here in this article (which would make it way longer than it already is!), I’m going to share a few of the most important lessons we’ve learned about course creation from the experts we interviewed.

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Create a “Minimum Viable Course”

A concept that has been popularized by American writer and entrepreneur Eric Ries in his book Lean Startup is the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) .

An MVP is a development technique used by organizations (especially startups) in which a new product is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product’s initial users.

Applying this concept to creating online courses, that means that you should not try to create the perfect course the first time. Instead, create a Minimum Viable Course (MVC).

Here’s why…

The problem with trying to create the “perfect” course before you show it or sell it to anyone is that “perfect” is a very subjective term. What you think is perfect is probably not the same as what your customers/students think is perfect. Even if it is, your course does not have to be perfect in order to be valuable .

Perfectionism has stopped more people from creating and launching their online courses than anything else. Don’t let this happen to you. If your course (imperfect as it may be) is good enough to help someone, then it is good enough to publish. Done is better than perfect.

Create your MVC as quickly as possible so you can publish it and get real feedback from real students. Based on their feedback and other important data (such as course completion and engagement rates ) you can remove training, add training, and make revisions to your course to make it better.

“Don’t be a perfectionist because the world can’t wait for perfect. Get it done, get it out and get it sold. It’s not a book so you can always revisit it periodically but your number one priority is creating a transformation in your clients, so keep your focus there.” – Shazzie Love , Business Strategist

Course length ≠ course value

Read More: How to decide on the ideal course length ?

Another big mistake to avoid is trying to teach everything that you know about your topic in a single course. Doing this will most likely result in a super long course that your students won’t complete and that takes a ridiculous amount of time to create in the first place. Wrong approach!!

Your online course is the shortcut

The purpose of your course is to teach your student how to get from Point A to Point B as quickly and as efficiently as possible. It’s the shortcut.

Your online course is the shortcut. Help your students get from A to B as quickly as possible.

You absolutely should not overwhelm your students by brain-dumping everything that you know about your topic into your course. Your course should be as short as possible without sacrificing the key concepts in your training.

Don’t create 8 hours of training if you can teach your students what they need to know with 3 hours of training. As long as they learn what you promised to teach them, they won’t complain that your course was “too short”. Instead, they’ll probably thank you for not wasting their time with fluff or filler content.

Launch to a small test group first

Another important lesson we learned from the experts we interviewed is not to launch the first version of your course (your MVC!) to your entire audience.

Instead, you should promote your course to a small segment of your audience at a lower price than what you eventually want to charge for your course. If you do promote your course to your entire audience, consider imposing a limit on the number of students that can enroll in it. Once you hit your goal, you temporarily close enrollment for your course.

This strategy is often called a beta launch (similar to pre-selling ). The goal of this type of launch is to get your course into the hands of a small number of students who will “test” your course. In exchange for accessing your course at a reduced price, you ask your students to provide you with feedback to help you improve the course and testimonials to use in your future marketing.

Based on the feedback from your students, you can make changes to improve your course. When you have a revised version of your course that is better than the first and positive student testimonials to use in your marketing, you re-open enrollment for your course and sell it a higher price.

If you’re ready to start marketing your course, check out these 55 online course marketing ideas here .

Okay, let’s pretend that you’ve already completed Steps 1 to 5.

• You’ve decided what topic you’re going to teach. It’s not too broad, and it appeals to a specific target audience.
• You’ve validated market demand for your topic. Thousands of people around the world are interested in it, and they’re already spending money to learn it.
• You’ve crafted a compelling brand. You are known in your industry as an expert on your topic. When your target audience finds you, they trust that you can help them.
• You’ve built an audience. You have followers on social media. You have people on your email list. You have relationships with other experts in your industry. You’ve been featured in other publications, podcasts, and media outlets.
• You’ve created an online course. And after promoting your course to your audience, you are proud to say that you have customers. Your business is generating revenue.

Even though it is a HUGE accomplishment to get this far (and yes, you deserve to celebrate at this point!), there is still work to be done.

Acquiring customers is just the beginning. Now your job is to deliver on the promise you made to your customers.

Think of any local business you are a customer of. A restaurant. A nail salon. A coffee shop. A convenience store.

These businesses don’t stay in business because they are constantly attracting new customers. They stay in business because their existing customers come back more than once, often bringing their friends and family with them. This same rule applies to your online course business.

“We’re not in this business just to get people to buy our stuff. We want them to see the change and the impact and create the success stories.” – Nick Unsworth, CEO of Life on Fire

It’s a lot cheaper to keep a customer than acquire a new one

If you are constantly investing in marketing and promotion to attract new customers, but you’re doing nothing to ensure the success of those customers, it will be very difficult (and expensive!) for you to build a profitable and sustainable business.

When a customer purchases your online course, this should not be the end of your relationship with them. This should be the beginning.

Your customers should be so thrilled with the training and overall experience that you provide to them that they purchase additional courses from you in the future, and they tell others about your courses too.

Related: The Top Customer Success Strategies Used By Successful Companies

Here are a few ways you can increase your student engagement and retention rates:

• Gamify the learning experience

Create incentives and offer rewards to your students for achieving specific milestones in your course.

Related: Gamification in Training: The Complete Guide to E-Learning Gamification [2022]

• Help your students be accountable

Pair them up with an accountability partner, offer 1-on-1 or group coaching calls with your students, or create a private group or discussion board for them to interact with each other.

• Appeal to different learning styles

Don’t create training that appeals to just one learning style. Utilize different media types to deliver your content (text, video, audio, worksheets, quizzes, etc.).

• Create small, bite-sized lessons

Shorter lessons are more likely to be completed by students than longer ones. If it takes you a while to teach a specific concept, try breaking up the concept into several shorter lessons.

• Bite Sized Learning: A New Strategy For Teaching (How It Works & Tips)
• What Is Microlearning? The Case For Shorter, Bite Sized Learning
• Send reminder emails to your students

If you notice that a student isn’t accessing or completing the training in your course, send them a polite reminder email to re-engage them. Show them that you care.

The final step in building a successful online course business is to scale your business by creating systems and/or hiring people to ensure that it continues to grow.

According to Greg Smith, CEO of Thinkific , you should only scale something that works.

The 76 steps that came before this one are your chance to do just that. To prove that your online course business works. Once you have a business that works, it’s time to shift from spending the majority of your time working in your business to working on it.

This is accomplished by creating systems and hiring people to handle the repetitive, day-to-day tasks involved in running your business. The goal is to free yourself up to focus the majority of your time on activities that move your business forward, such as:

• Building your audience
• Building your network
• Creating sales funnels to acquire new customers
• Creating additional courses and/or services to sell to your customers

Here are a few of the key lessons we learned about scaling an online course business from the expert we interviewed:

1. Automate repetitive tasks

Identify the tasks in your business that are highly repetitive and not the best use of your time as an entrepreneur. Document the process for those tasks and delegate them to someone else, or use technology/software to automate that task for you. Every repetitive task that you automate today buys you more time to focus on other activities tomorrow.

“The way you multiply time is by spending time on things today that give you more time tomorrow.” – Rory Vaden, Southwestern Consulting

2. Build a team as early as possible

To grow an online course business to 6 or even 7 figures in annual revenue and beyond, you’re going to need some help. Very few entrepreneurs are able to build successful and sustainable businesses without a team of people to help them make it happen. There is simply too much to learn and do, and not enough hours in the day for one person to do it all.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb

Hiring a virtual assistant or a personal assistant is a great starting point. From there, consider hiring help for other areas of your business including content creation and editing, marketing and advertising, branding, accounting, etc. These do not have to be full-time employees. Many course creators have teams that consist of freelancers and independent contractors from around the world.

Related: How to Hire a Virtual Assistant (An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Outsourcing)

3. Tie your business to a greater purpose

Sharing your knowledge by creating online courses is a great way to empower others through education and move humanity forward. But creating online courses is certainly not the only way to make a positive impact in the world.

There are countless organizations that are doing incredible things to make the world a better place. By partnering with other organizations and tying your business to a greater purpose, you ensure that as your business grows, so does the impact you make in the world.

“Whether you’re in the non-profit structure or the for-profit structure, you have a tremendous opportunity to use business as a force for good.” – Adam Braun, Founder of Pencils of Promise

This article was originally published May 2018, and refreshed with new information in February, 2024. 

As the Content Marketing Manager at Thinkific (2016-2019), Tyler Basu helped to create, publish, and promote content to help thousands of entrepreneurs learn how to create and sell online courses . Today, he works directly with entrepreneurs to help them create content that attracts and converts their ideal clients.

• 10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course
• How to Price Your Online Course (Complete Guide to Course Pricing)
• The Ultimate Online Course Launch Checklist (Free Guide + Templates)
• Best Equipment & Software For Creating Online Courses
• The Best Online Course Platforms in 2024

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Join our mailing list to receive the latest Main Street America stories, news, events, and opportunities directly in your inbox.

Marion, Iowa © Tasha Sams

We work in collaboration with thousands of local partners and grassroots leaders across the nation who share our commitment to advancing shared prosperity, creating resilient economies, and improving quality of life.

Emporia, Kansas © Emporia Main Street

Made up of small towns, mid-sized communities, and urban commercial districts, the thousands of organizations, individuals, volunteers, and local leaders that make up Main Street America™ represent the broad diversity that makes this country so unique.

Chicago, Illinois © Main Street America

Looking for strategies and tools to support you in your work? Delve into the Main Street Resource Center and explore a wide range of resources including our extensive Knowledge Hub, professional development opportunities, field service offerings, advocacy support, and more!

Waterloo, Iowa © Main Street Waterloo

Your one-stop-shop for all the latest stories, news, events, and opportunities – including grants and funding programs – across Main Street.

Kendall Whittier — Tulsa, Oklahoma © Kendall Whittier Main Street

Join us in our work to advance shared prosperity, create strong economies, and improve quality of life in downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.

New Special Course: Supporting Small Businesses on Main Street

Crema Brew Coffee is a locally-owned coffee shop in New Bern, North Carolina. © Swiss Bear

The Main Street America Institute is excited to offer the Supporting Small Businesses on Main Street course! Generously sponsored by U.S. Bank, this three-week live, online course will prepare local leaders to uplift small businesses in their communities. Through learning how to identify place-based assets and resources for small businesses, participants will better understand how to collaboratively build a strong community support network that centers economic vitality. Combining interactive classroom sessions and a hands-on course project, participants will gain new skills and develop a distribution-ready small business guide for the local Main Street. Keep reading and visit main​street​.org for details, or register now to secure your seat at this invaluable special course!

Member discounts and registration scholarships are available.

When: September 5 , 12 , and 19 ,  2024  

• September 5 : 2 : 00 p.m.- 4 : 30 p.m.  CDT  
• September 12 : 2 : 00 p.m.- 4 : 00 p.m.  CDT
• September 19 : 2 : 00 p.m.- 4 : 00 p.m.  CDT  

Format: Live online sessions – one per week for three weeks – plus independent course work, approximately three hours per week. Participants will also spend an average of three hours outside of class each week learning foundational concepts and working on the overarching course project.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of transformation strategies within the framework of the Main Street Approach 
• Learn market analysis techniques using data, surveys, and district investigation 
• Practice transformation strategy development techniques through hands-on exercises using data from two communities — the host city and your own!

Instructors: This course is led by Main Street America’s Senior Manager of Education, Tasha Sams , and features instruction from expert guest speakers and Main Street America staff. Meet the instructors here >

Pricing : $ 275 members | $ 350 non-members Who Should Participate: This course is ideal for revitalization professionals and leaders in management positions at the local, city-wide, or state level in organizations engaged in the fields of community revitalization and economic development.

Registration: Registration is open through Friday, August 30 . Register > Scholarships: As part of U.S. Bank’s sponsorship, a limited number of scholarships providing registration at a reduced rate of $ 100 are available to participants serving communities located within U.S. Bank markets. Communities must be located within 20  miles of a U.S. Bank location to be considered, with special priority given to participants serving districts located in the states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. Learn more >

Credit: Completion of the 2024 Supporting Small Businesses on Main Street course counts toward MSAI ’s new certification pathway; both new and current MSAI participants can receive credit toward certification. Learn more > Full Details: Complete course description, policies, and more are available here >

Questions? Email msai@​mainstreet.​org

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Camden,  AR  © Kimberly Moore Davis

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Tulsa, OK  © Kendall Whittier Main Street

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Memphis, TN  © Four Way

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Biddeford, ME  © Heart of Biddeford

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Jump off the Business Recruitment Train: The Real Returns are in Cultivating Local Entrepreneurship

New research by Main Street America suggests greater returns on our missions and resources can be had by transitioning to more deliberate economic vitality work centered on cultivating new business development from within our own communities and neighborhoods.

Community Spotlight: Storefront Activation Through Storytelling in Fredericksburg, VA

Fredericksburg Virginia Main Street (FVMS) is taking storefront activation to a new level with their new initiative, the Scan & Love Project, which tells the stories of business owners through personal and engaging videos.

Fredericksburg, VA  © Dan Craddock, Metro Nova Creative

HartBeat of Main Street Grant Program: Spotlighting Tina’s Timeless Threads

Meet a recipient of the HartBeat of Main Street Grant Program

HartBeat of Main Street Grant Program: Center of the Yarniverse

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Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance explores how they redesigned their Bricks & Clicks Business Retention Program during the pandemic.

Business Spotlight: Women-Owned Businesses on Main Street (Part  3 )

Meet some amazing women business owners!

Community Spotlight: Rainbow Flags on Main Street: Attracting LGBTQIA Businesses and Customers

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Small Business Saturday® is more than a day to shop. It’s a nationwide movement that shines a spotlight on the importance of supporting small businesses in communities across America.

Community Spotlight: Benson, North Carolina

The Town of Benson started a special project to highlight their downtown businesses.

Community Spotlight: Berkley, Michigan

The Berkley Downtown Development Authority (DDA) proudly debuted its Downtown Berkley Shopping Bag for a Cause through a partnership between Better Life Bags.

Main Spotlight: Learnings from the ESHIP Summit

Supporting new and existing small businesses, and the entrepreneurs who run them, represents a vital aspect of the revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood business districts.

Creating Equitable, Inclusive and Transparent Cities: A Year in Review

The Equitable Economic Development Fellowship is a two-year, one million-dollar effort funded by the Surdna Foundation and the Open Society Foundations to help equity, transparency, sustainability and community engagement become driving forces in local economic development efforts.

Community Spotlight: Mini-Grants Offered to Small Businesses in Jefferson, Iowa

The Jefferson Rotary Club partnered with Jefferson Matters: Main Street to offer mini-grants for building facades and storefront signage to two dozen businesses for up to $500 each.

A Memorable Makeover on Main Street

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) partnered with Retailworks, Inc., a commercial interior design, display and branding firm headquartered in Milwaukee, to launch Wisconsin’s Main Street Makeover Contest.

Creative Discovery on the Maker Trail in Enid, Oklahoma

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City Sidewalks, Dressed in Holiday Style

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Community Spotlight: #ShopSmall in Goldsboro, North Carolina

Small Business Saturday promo pic from Downtown Goldsboro, North Carolina, showing all the folks who took the pledge support a small business in their community.

Using Local Search Trends to Attract More Customers to Your Main Street

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Network Spotlight: Main Street Iowa Restaurant Week

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Fab Lab Sparks Rural Opportunities

Located in southeast Kansas, Independence (pop.8,799) is home to Fab Lab ICC, which is on track to be the world’s leading innovator in combining entrepreneurial mindset education with a fab lab maker space.

Community Spotlight: Morganton, North Carolina

The craft beer industry is playing a key role in the rebirth of Main Streets and neighborhood commercial districts across the county.

Rethink Storefront Accessibility to Rethink Community Viability

Appealing to mobility-challenged shoppers yields benefits beyond the store.

Sparking a Movement in Small Business and Small Towns

Being the only person in the know can be fun, exhilarating even. Except when you are the one person out of 600+ in a room and you know bad news is coming.

The Lowdown in Downtown LaBelle

Fritz the dog has made his way into the hearts of the residents of LaBelle, Florida, and helped our Main Street Community find a way to make what we do more noticeable.

Pop-Up Altavista 2 . 0

Altavista On Track, the local Main Street organization, is working to cultivate and sustain local entrepreneurs with an educational business launch competition, Pop-Up Altavista 2.0.

The Bright Center: A Space for Winchester’s Bright Minds to Create, Innovate and Thrive

In Winchester, Virginia, one woman’s vision and commitment to downtown’s revitalization created an innovative community space for the Creative Class.

Why Business Retention and Expansion Plans are Important for Downtowns

A business retention and expansion plan, properly implemented, not only helps keep businesses open but possibly even helps them expand.

Business Investment Guides: ​ “ Think B.I.G.”

The first rule of conducting business is “make it simple.” The easier it is to pay for merchandise, get entertainment or obtain a service, the more likely it is that people will take advantage of those options.

Small Box – A Creative Retail Project

Main Street communities across the country are no stranger to seeking creative strategies to solve their most nagging issues – vacant buildings, marketing downtown, bolstering retail to name a few.

Supporting Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Heart of Boston’s Main Streets

To understand the role that immigrant business owners play in Boston’s small business ecosystem, you need only to walk through any Boston Main Streets district.

Measuring the Economic Impact of Storefront Improvements

Façade appearance is a critical aspect of the overall aesthetic appeal and unique character of downtown.

Sign Design Guidelines

A lot of signs are necessary to make a downtown work well, but not every community knows what a good sign system looks like, or how instrumental it can be to the creation of a successful downtown.

Improving Performance in Main Street Iowa Communities

Main Street Iowa, a program of the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center, created a one-of-a-kind three-year program to provide help for performance venues located in Main Street districts.

More From Forbes

Top nine cybersecurity mistakes small-business owners make.

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Vytautas Kaziukonis is Surfshark ’s Founder and CEO.

In today's digital age, ransomware, phishing and data breaches are becoming more frequent and intense than ever before. In 2023, cyberattacks significantly endangered 3 out of 4 U.S. companies . With reputational damage and financial losses expected to hit almost $452 billion in 2024 , small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) should prioritize improving their cybersecurity strategies. Many SMB owners unknowingly make critical mistakes in this area. What are the primary cybersecurity pitfalls they need to steer clear of?

1. Assuming They Won't Be Targeted

Many SMBs think they are too small to attract cybercriminals, which only makes them more vulnerable. Cybercriminals often see small businesses as easy prey due to their potentially limited resources or lack of defense expertise. Understanding that small businesses can also be targets is the first step in protecting themselves.

2. Not Keeping Their Software Up-To-Date

Software updates are essential for protecting systems from new threats, which is often an oversight of SMBs. Updating software is crucial for small businesses primarily for two reasons.

• Updates usually fix vulnerabilities, protecting against breaches and other threats that could lead to significant losses.

• Updates fix bugs, improve functionality and boost software performance, ensuring smooth business operations.

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Robert downey jr’s casting as doctor doom sparks backlash from fans, robert downey jr. to officially return to the mcu as doctor doom, 3. using weak passwords.

A Secops Software research report reveals that companies tend to use easily-guessable passwords for their accounts . The report emphasized that temporary passwords, like “user,” “temp” and “welcome,” lack sufficient security. Moreover, employees sometimes carelessly share their passwords in plaintext, violating recommended security practices. Encouraging strong and unique passwords can significantly improve a company's security.

4. Not Backing Up Data

Backing up data is a critical protective measure for businesses. It’s vital to prevent data loss from hardware failure, user error or cyberattacks. Backups can also help with fast recovery and minimal downtime after security incidents, keeping operations running smoothly to maintain customer trust and service reliability.

5. Not Using Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two-factor authentication offers enhanced security by introducing another layer of verification, preventing cybercriminals from accessing systems with only a password. This effectively reduces unauthorized access and fraud risks at a minimal cost, making it an economical choice for protecting sensitive information and financial resources.

6. Not Using Any Security Software

Small businesses typically don't have extensive internal security compared to large companies. But it's vital to adopt extra security software, such as antivirus and VPN solutions, for several reasons.

• To shield against cyber threats such as viruses, spyware, ransomware and hacking attempts.

• To safeguard sensitive data from unauthorized access and breaches, maintaining confidentiality and privacy.

7. Storing Too Much Data

Minimizing customer data collection reduces liability. Providing auto-delete options for unnecessary data, such as employee internal conversations, ensures the retention of only essential information. This approach not only enhances privacy but also reduces exposure to data breaches.

8. Not Having An Incident Response Plan

An incident response plan is critical for small businesses because it ensures a quick, efficient reaction to security breaches or data loss. Having one helps for several reasons.

• Reduces damage and downtime.

• Limits financial losses.

• Helps avoid legal matters following a security breach.

• Preserves customer trust and business reputation.

The Computer Security Incident Handling Guide provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology is an excellent starting point for developing an incident response plan for your company.

9. Neglecting Employee Training

Since human error is often the weakest link in cybersecurity, continuous employee training is crucial. It helps prevent breaches through awareness of phishing, unsafe downloads and poor password practices. Regular training sessions promote a culture of security awareness, making it a shared responsibility among staff. Comprehensive training also enables employees to react swiftly to security threats, limiting potential damage.

No One Too Small To Be Targeted By Cybercriminals

Cyber threats pose a big challenge, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses. Statista estimates that cybercrime will cost the U.S. $1.82 trillion by 2028 . However, knowing and fixing common security errors can significantly strengthen protection against cyberattacks. Companies can handle cyber threats better by implementing proactive and consistent security strategies, ensuring continuity in this digital landscape.

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Helping our customers through the CrowdStrike outage

Jul 20, 2024 | David Weston - Vice President, Enterprise and OS Security

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On July 18, CrowdStrike, an independent cybersecurity company, released a software update that began impacting IT systems globally. Although this was not a Microsoft incident, given it impacts our ecosystem, we want to provide an update on the steps we’ve taken with CrowdStrike and others to remediate and support our customers.  

Since this event began, we’ve maintained ongoing communication with our customers, CrowdStrike and external developers to collect information and expedite solutions. We recognize the disruption this problem has caused for businesses and in the daily routines of many individuals. Our focus is providing customers with technical guidance and support to safely bring disrupted systems back online. Steps taken have included:  

• Engaging with CrowdStrike to automate their work on developing a solution.   CrowdStrike has recommended a workaround to address this issue and has also issued a public statement. Instructions to remedy the situation on Windows endpoints were posted on the Windows Message Center .   
• Deploying hundreds of Microsoft engineers and experts to work directly with customers to restore services.   
• Collaborating with other cloud providers and stakeholders, including Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), to share awareness on the state of impact we are each seeing across the industry and inform ongoing conversations with CrowdStrike and customers.  
• Quickly posting manual remediation documentation and scripts found here .
• Keeping customers informed of the latest status on the incident through the Azure Status Dashboard here .  

We’re working around the clock and providing ongoing updates and support. Additionally, CrowdStrike has helped us develop a scalable solution that will help Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure accelerate a fix for CrowdStrike’s faulty update. We have also worked with both AWS and GCP to collaborate on the most effective approaches.    

While software updates may occasionally cause disturbances, significant incidents like the CrowdStrike event are infrequent. We currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines. While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.  

This incident demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem — global cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors, and customers. It’s also a reminder of how important it is for all of us across the tech ecosystem to prioritize operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using the mechanisms that exist. As we’ve seen over the last two days, we learn, recover and move forward most effectively when we collaborate and work together. We appreciate the cooperation and collaboration of our entire sector, and we will continue to update with learnings and next steps.  

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