TechAlliance Entrepreneur 1.0

I’ve decided that I need to understand the way that business works a little more. I understand the day-to-day of management and all that jazz, but there’s a lot of stuff about creating a business plan, and go-to-market tactics that could benefit me not only in my day job, but also in my side-businesses.

To that end, I decided to enroll in TechAlliance’s “Entrepreneur 1.0”, which to me looked like exactly what I wanted in terms of the basics of taking something to the next level.

It’s a pretty cool looking program, and the pedigree behind it is top notch. This is the description from the TechAlliance web site:

Presented by TechAlliance Venture Services and the Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Richard Ivey School of Business, E1.0 helps participants understand key issues surrounding planning for the success of a start-up or early-stage knowledge-based company.

In this newly revised intensive ten-week course, participants will acquire the practical tools and knowledge to manage business challenges and develop the support network that every entrepreneur needs.

New for 2009 is the addition of a tenth module and an increased focus on topics such as marketing, cash management and go-to-market tactics.

Entrepreneur 1.0 covers a wide range of topics related to entrepreneurship, with each module building on the last:

MODULE I      The Evolution of a Business and Your Plan
MODULE II     Team Building and Management
MODULE III    Communications and Networking
MODULE IV     Cash Flow Management
MODULE V      Operations
MODULE VI     Financial Management
MODULE VII    Market Strategy
MODULE VIII   Go-to-Market Tactics
MODULE IX     Technology Management
MODULE X      Strategy and the Business Plan (Final Reception to follow)

Sessions are offered once a week on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-9:30pm at the Richard Ivey School of Business (main campus, The University of Western Ontario) from October 6th to December 8th.