Maybe you’ve been mastering a new hobby or relentlessly organizing everything in your house during the coronavirus pandemic. But what about finally starting your own business?
“There’s no better time than now to go start something,” says Matt Armstead, partner at Horizon Two Labs. “If you’re unfortunately unemployed or you’re struggling to make ends meet, you’ve got nothing to lose in terms of trying to figure it out. And rather than depended on someone hiring you, hire yourself.”
Now Go Start wants to help. The series of online business-building sessions is organized by startup and entrepreneurial studio Horizon Two Labs.
With staggering unemployment claims that have topped 30 million nationally as of April 30, the experienced entrepreneurs wanted to find a way to close the gap between folks that want to turn their ideas into a business, and resources reasonably available with stay-at-home orders and a pandemic.
Now Go Start has organized a series of three sessions that kick off on Thursday, May 14.
Session one, ‘The Success in Failure: Is Entrepreneurship Right for Me?’, will give the inside scoop on what entrepreneurship really entails, Armstead says. From dealing with lawyers and listening to data, to ensuring you have a passion, the initial session will help entrepreneurs enter the process with “eyes wide open.”
Session two, ‘How Do I Get Started?’ is slated for Thursday, May 21. The second session will dig into the tools and resources available for entrepreneurs, touching on market intelligence to how to build a business model.
Session three will be held on Thursday, May 28 and cover the ‘Business Model Canvas.’ Armstead says this session will be more tactical and cover the step-by-step building blocks of creating a business plan, including identifying the problem and solution, how to take the product to market, how to price it and more.
Armstead says the lessons will be broad enough that they can generally apply to any type of business. Entrepreneurs will also find the most value in participating in the three sessions sequentially.
The team will look to learn from participants in the first round to see how they might segment groups in the future. Horizon Two Labs is producing the content for now, but they are open to other entrepreneurs getting involved to fill expert knowledge gaps, especially if they see interest clustered in certain industries.
For more information and to register, visit nowgostart.com.