WORKSHOP ONE

Logistics & Legalities

With your business model clearly identified it’s time to face the sticky red tape topics that most creative entrepreneurs would rather ignore. Get to grips with registration, licenses, permits, regulations and more. By the end of this session you’ll know all you to need to know about becoming a legitimate business.

WORKSHOP TWO

Understanding Your Offer and Pricing It

This session is designed to help you grasp the value of your product or service in order to cost, price and sell it effectively. Mastering the art of pricing is an imperative step to building a solid finance model and creating a brand that speaks to your audience at the appropriate level.

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

The Great Startup Challenge

Join staff, students and alumni as we scour the city in teams in search of clues and locations using our entrepreneurial skills and sense of humour. This scavenger hunt will end in a warm pub for additional networking and merriment. You do not want to miss this S4CS adventure.

WORKSHOP THREE

Bootstrap Budgeting, Cash Flow Planning & Financial Forecasting

While it may not be the sexy part of running your own business, mastering your finances is crucial. Now that you’ve learnt how to price your product or service, we’ll apply that knowledge to understanding net and gross, incomings and outgoings, necessary spending and alternative methods. Learning how to decipher spreadsheets will help you build and apply them to your business so you can manage your money better. Bring your calculator and get ready to overcome your maths fears.

WORKSHOP FOUR

Communicating Your Business

This session is broken into three equally important sections: Branding, Marketing and Public Relations. Throughout the day you’ll develop key skills such as creating your businesses story, building your brand, communicating effectively to your audience, utilising affordable marketing techniques, identifying your newsworthy stories, working with press, and more.

WORKSHOP FIVE

Web Fuelled Business

In today’s world it’s imperative that new businesses understand how to utilise the web to communicate and reach new audiences. In this session you’ll apply what you’ve learnt about your brand and marketing strategy, and start leveraging the web and social media to raise brand awareness. During this session you’ll master driving traffic through social media, how to use search engine optimisation to get your site to the top of a search, understanding Google analytics, and writing for the web to build a strong online presence.

WORKSHOP SIX

Money, Money Money

In the age of Dragon’s Den every entrepreneur believes that they need external funding to get started. In the last workshop you’ll learn how to identify if or when you really need additional capital, understand what kind of funding best fits your need and demystify the intricacies of accessing it- whether it be from investors, loans, crowd funding or grants. As well as an overview of funding opportunities, you’ll hear from successful entrepreneurs about their real life investment experiences.

BOOTCAMP TWO

Pitching, Negotiation and Show & Sell

In the final bootcamp you’ll learn how to perfect your pitching skills, get the most out of 10 minute meetings, become a master negotiator who can close a deal in record time and perfect the art of showcasing and selling your business. Discover how to make the most of sales meetings, press pitches, tradeshows, fairs and Makegood Festival to maximise exposure to your customers and ensuring you put your best foot forward every time.

MAKEGOOD FESTIVAL

The end of the school year culminates with Makegood Festival - a multi-day creative festival celebrating the work of our entrepreneurs in a truly unique pop-up marketplace that runs alongside a series of professional development seminars and creative skills workshops. Throughout the event, students have the opportunity to showcase their goods and services to press, VIPs, investors, buyers and the general public, putting everything they’ve learned across the year into practice.

Makegood Festival is not an end; it’s just a new chapter worth celebrating. Following your departure from the programme, you’ll continue to maintain access to the community site as an alumni, where you can continue to benefit from the extensive library, e-learning, discussion boards, peer and staff support, as well as being the first to find out about upcoming events and discounted access.

SURGERY SESSIONS

Throughout the year we’ll host a series of live business analysis sessions or ‘surgeries.’ You’ll be invited to 1:1 sessions in front of a small audience of peers to have your business analysed by guest surgeons including Doug Richard, guest entrepreneurs, and angel investors, who will look over your business plan and discuss challenges and next steps.

GROUP CRITS

In addition to surgeries you have the opportunity to drop in to regular small group crits led by your peers and supported by S4CS staff around themes selected by the group. These sessions provide a relaxed environment to work through ideas or call on your peers for support or feedback.