Are you eager to launch your own business and fulfill your dream of being your own boss? You fantasize about an entrepreneurial safety net if job security falters, but the logistics of juggling a business and a full-time job confound you. Starting a business seems difficult, costly, and risky, so you repeatedly push those first essential steps down the road.

Welcome to a course that transforms these dreams into achievable goals. We will give you a step-by-step guide to quickly build your own business, that will only require a few hours per week of your time to launch and manage, using free or low-cost tools, and the power of ChatGPT mega-prompts.

No more deferring your dream! Join me in the next cohort to start your business journey today!

What you’ll get out of this course

Practical Entrepreneurial Skills

Through live workshops and hands-on projects, participants will learn practical skills for starting a business, from finding the best business idea to planning the business launch.

Experience with Innovative Tools

Participants will gain firsthand experience using innovative tools like ChatGPT to help build and manage their business.

Understanding of Key Business Components

The course will provide a deep understanding of essential business components like market research, business modeling, market tactics, sales funnels and financial planning.

Creating the Key Business Components

During this course participants will adapt or create each of the Key Business Components, by following clear, step-by-step instructions to leverage the power of ChatGPT and free or low-cost tools.

Completed Business Operating Plan

By the end of the course participants will have a fully fleshed-out business operating manual, describing what needs to be done to run the business and achieve profitability.

Your Instructor

Antonio Lucena de Faria started his first business when he was 15 years old. His only job started in 1985 and lasted less than two years during which he was a Consultant working on Artificial Intelligence for Arthur Andersen & Co. in the Minneapolis, USA office.  In 1987 he founded Methodus, a consulting and software development company, and has been the President of the Board since then. In 1999 he started PortalFinanceiro.com S.A. and MTDS, SGPS. S.A. and was the President of both companies. In 2000 he was one of the founders and the CEO of forumB2B.com, a partnership between Methodus, EDP and GALP. In 2002 António was one of the three founders of Selplus S.A. In 2008 he created FundManager Lda, a software company specialized in Real Estate Funds Management. In 2010 he was the founder of ActionFlow.com and was the first Portuguese invited to pitch a project at DEMO in Silicon Valley, California. In 2012 he was the founder of Fábrica de Startups and is currently the President and CEO of this startup accelerator. In 2016 he started with other partners an Investment Vehicle, named Startup Discoveries.  António was also the organizer of the Energia de Portugal project, a partnership between Expresso, Fábrica de Startups, EDP, CGD and SAGE, Ideation Week for Tourism, Ideation for Health and Ideation Week for Retail, in partnership with NOS and TourismExplorers in partnership with Turismo de Portugal and Ideation Week for FinTech in partnership with NOS and BPI. António is also member and coordinator of the Conselho Nacional de Empreendedorismo e Inovação (CNEI) and board member at Associação Portuguesa de Business Angels (APBA). Antonio has a degree in Economics from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a MBA from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, USA. During his thirty years of professional experience, António participated in several management courses including at HEC, Jouy-en-Josas, France, London Business School, London, UK, Babson College,  Wellesley, USA and Harvard Business School, Boston, USA. He is the author of the Startup Operating System, which identifies the 20 key components of any digital business. Most of these components can be created using ChatGPT prompts that will be made available to students in this course. Other components can be built using free or low-cost web-based tools. António also teaches Entrepreneurship for international Master students at a Top 25 Financial Times Business School.

alucenafaria@methodus.com

Topics

Market Research
Customer Persona
Competition

Making a Difference

Slides from Session nº2

(Click in the picture bellow to have access to this session slides)

Do you have what it takes?

Go to http://www.get2test.net/ and answer all questions.  Create a PDF with the results of the GET Survey

Making a Difference

The world premiere of "I Was Here" Filmed in front of a live audience at the UN General Assembly
 for World Humanitarian Day.

The 10 Myths of Entrepreneurship Video

This video talks about the ten myths of entrepreneurship and shows how one can create a successful
 start-up business without money, business plan or even an idea.

Chris Guillebeau with 4 Minute Masters

Chris Guillebeau joins 4 Minute Masters to discuss his brand new book 'Side Hustle - From Idea to
Income in 27 Days' Earn more money!

Readings

How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend

“12 Months to $1 Million”, Ryan D Moran, Pages 1 to 21

Other Videos

The 10 Myths of Entrepreneurship

Chris Guillebeau with 4 Minute Masters

Session Slides

Click the picture above to see the slides.

Assemble Your Business

Creating a Digital Product using Glide and OpenAI

Click the picture above to watch the video.

Suggested Readings

“Million Dollar Weekend” by Noah Kagan

“Hypothesis-Driven Entrepreneurship", Harvard Business School

“Testing Business Ideas” by David J. Bland and Alex Osterwalder