Learn how to start a new business! Dory Wang will teach you everything from creating a business plan to designing a logo, making a website, marketing your business, and more.
1. Creating a Business Plan
This is a five-part course, so feel free to skip straight to the chapter that you find most interesting:
What You'll Learn
- How to create a business plan
- How to design a logo for your new business
- How to design a website
- How to make a promo video
- How to market your new business
About Your Instructor
Dory Wang
I am Dory, Melbourne based with international roots. I am a mother possessed of child-like wonder, a curiosity-driven visionary, and a former TV presenter turned brand storyteller.
1.1 Introduction to the Course
Let's start by talking about the course and what it will cover.
"The purpose of this course is to help you to set up a holistic and coherently styled online presence for your new business."
This holistic online presence will include at least five elements:
- a business plan
- a company logo
- a website
- a promo video
- a marketing plan
In this course, we'll look at all five elements in detail. This first part of the course focuses on making a business plan.
You can also download all the assets used in the course from this Envato Elements collection. Or you can download only the assets for Part 1, creating a business plan.
1.2 What Is a Business Plan?
Before we can create a business plan, we need to get clear on our business idea. A good business idea needs to be something that:
- Helps people get their jobs done or makes their lives easier or better
- Enables you to make a profit from it
Find out more about coming up with business ideas in these tutorials:
-
How to Come Up With Startup Ideas Worth Pursuing
-
Startup Idea Qualification and Risk Elimination in the Early Days -
How to Simplify Your Business Ideas
When you're clear about your idea, you can start making a business plan. But what is a business plan?
A business plan is a formal written document containing the goals of a business, the methods for attaining those goals, and the time-frame for the achievement of those goals.
Follow my simplified process for creating a business plan using this five-step process:
You can learn more about writing a business plan in this tutorial:
1.3 What Is Visual Branding?
Next, let's look at visual branding. It's a simple concept that just means that our business has a coherent visual style. And that style should represent something about who we are and what we do.
You can find out more about visual branding by watching the video. I'll also introduce you to a great shortcut for gathering the creative assets you need to build your brand identity: Envato Elements.
Download Unlimited Creative Assets
1.4 How to Create a Business Plan
Watch video lesson (10 mins) ↗
So now it's time to create our business plan. Here are the five important questions to ask yourself:
How to Create a Business Plan
What is the problem?
Give a clear definition of the problem your business solves.
Who might face the same problem?
This will be the target audience for your business.
What is my solution to this problem?
Show how your business will solve the problem you've identified.
Will it make people's lives easier/better?
If your business makes people's lives easier or better, you'll have plenty of customers. So how will it do that?
How can it generate profit?
Define how you will actually make money from your idea.
I'll go through these steps in more detail in the video, showing you the answers based on my own idea for a business called My Creative Handbook, which is designed to help people establish a better relationship with digital tools.
Creating a mood board is also a great way to get clearer on your business idea. Here's one I created for my business:
1.5 How to Create a Brand Identity Card
Before showing you how to create a mood board, I'd like to introduce you to one more thing: a brand identity card. This is a way to summarize your brand identity, based on some information you should already have in your business plan. It's based on six categories:
- Business name
- Brand keyword
- Brand color
- Brand story
- Target group
- Others
In the video, I'll take you through what all these categories mean, with examples from my business.
1.6 How to Create a Mood Board
OK, now you're ready to make a mood board for your business. Start by doing some research to find inspiration. I like to use Coolors to find great color palettes and Pinterest for visual inspiration and imagery that fits my business.
Next, start gathering the elements you'll use to make your mood board. Here are the key elements to include:
- fonts
- colors
- images
- graphics
Now, jump into Adobe Illustrator and start making the mood board.
I'll also show you how to make simple modifications like changing sizes and colors in the video. And don't forget to visit Envato Elements to download all the creative assets you need for your mood board!
1.7 Conclusion
We've covered a lot of ground in this first part of the course, so now it's time to wrap everything up and recap what you've learned. I'll also give you a preview of what we'll cover in the next part of the course.
2. Designing a Logo
2.1 Introduction to Designing a Logo
In a survey we did before this course, designing a logo was one of the main concerns that people had about starting a business. So in this section of the course, I'm going to demystify the process for you.
"I think people are struggling to create a logo because we all agree that a logo is so important to our business, so we all want to create the perfect logo. Stop worrying about creating the perfect logo. What you need is the right logo."
By the end of this part of the course, you'll understand what the right logo is for your business, and you'll know how to create it in Adobe Illustrator—using some helpful shortcuts!
Remember, you can access more resources and links by downloading the accompanying eBook for this course:
You can also download all the assets used in the course from this Envato Elements collection. Or you can download only the assets for Part 2, creating a business logo.
2.2 What Is a Business Logo?
First, let's talk about what a business logo is. Essentially, it's a symbol made up of text and images that identifies a company. But more than that, your logo is what helps people to understand your brand and what it stands for. It's your chance to tell a story and symbolize your company's culture.
We'll start by looking at a real-world business logo example. I'll tell you the story of the NeXT logo and the Apple logo—two companies started by Steve Jobs, but with very different logo design processes and very different results. Watch the video to hear the whole story.
2.3 Dory's Business Logo
Let's jump into an example. I'll show you the logo I created for my small business, My Creative Handbook. I'll go through the reasons for my design choices, the way the logo evolved, and the characteristics that make it work.
2.4 How to Plan Your Logo Design
My 4-Step Logo-Making Process
Research & Inspiration
Look at logo trends and popular design styles, and see what kinds of logo designs you like.
Summary
Create a simple plan for your logo based on the research you've done.
Find Creative Assets
Download the graphics and imagery you'll be using in your logo.
Make the Logo
Jump into Adobe Illustrator and start designing. More on this in the next section...
In the video, I'll walk you through some great places to do research and get inspiration, such as Placeit's Logo Maker. Then I'll show you how to stay on top of logo trends with videos like this one:
Finally, I'll show you how to find and download all the creative assets you need from Envato Elements.
2.5 How to Make a Logo in Illustrator
Now that we've done our research and gathered our assets, it's time to make a logo in Illustrator. I'll show you how to create the brain logo we looked at before, in just ten simple steps:
- Open Adobe Illustrator.
- Create a new file and choose the Print preset.
- Place your creative assets into Illustrator (File > Place). We're using this set of infographics.
- Remove all the unwanted icons or images from your artboard, so that only the brain icon is left.
- Add rulers (Command-R) to help you line everything up correctly.
- Position the brain icon near the center of the artboard, slightly to the left.
- Make a black rectangle using the Rectangle Tool.
- Add your text.
- Color the brain icon.
- Save and export the file.
Simple, right? In the video, I show you all the details of each step, so that you can see exactly how to create the logo. I also highlight some common mistakes to watch out for.
2.6 Conclusion
Now let's recap everything we covered in this video and preview the next one, on creating a website. Take the time to get some practice in using Adobe Illustrator and exploring the creative assets on Envato Elements so that you can feel comfortable in creating your own business logo.
3. Designing a Website
3.1 Introduction to Designing a Website
In our market research, prospective business owners named the difficulty of designing a website as the #1 problem they faced.
So in this course, I'm going to break it down and make it simple for you to create a website for your business.
"The website that we're going to make here is what I call a functional website. We'll only focus on solving one single problem, which is making a good structure for our business."
Remember, you can access more resources and links by downloading the accompanying eBook for this course:
You can also download all the assets used in the course from this Envato Elements collection. Or you can download only the assets for Part 3, designing a website.
3.2 What Is a Business Website?
When we're talking about building a website, we often tend to prioritize how to make it look great or create the best user experience. Those things are important, but before we make our website sensational, we need to make it functional.
Ultimately, after all, a business website is about telling people who you are and what you do. It's about helping people to understand your business and become customers. So before you start thinking about beautiful design elements, it's important to get clear on the content and structure of your site.
3.3 Dory's Business Website
We're going to continue looking at the example new business I'm creating in this course, called My Creative Handbook. Now it's time to take a look at the company website.
As you can see, the design incorporates the logo we designed in the last part of the course, as well as the colors and design styles from the brand identity we created earlier. It has five main pages:
- Home: the landing page, where I put my core statement about the business's purpose.
- Theory: explaining more about the business's principles and who the founder is.
- Service: telling people what the company offers and what customers can buy.
- Course: education is a big part of what the company offers, so there's a separate page for courses.
- Contact: how people can contact the business if they want to know more.
Watch the video to learn more about this structure and the thinking behind some of the design choices.
3.4 Planning Your Website
My 4-Step Website Design Process
Planning
Define who your site is for and what you want to show.
Research
Look for inspiration and creative assets.
Make Your WordPress Website
Make your site the easy way—using the Elementor drag-and-drop builder with the help of templates from Envato Elements.
User Experience
Ask people to use your site and give feedback.
3.5 How to Make a Website Step by Step
Watch video lesson (13 mins) ↗
Now I'm going to show you the nuts and bolts of building a website.
First, you'll need a web host—somewhere to store your website and make it available to the public. I'll show you how to sign up for a basic plan with HostGator and install WordPress so that you're ready to start designing.
Then we'll choose a theme and add a couple of plugins to give us a head start with creating our site: Elementor and the Envato Elements plugin. I'll show you how to get everything set up, and how to choose and install Elementor template kits.
With these template kits, you'll have almost the whole website built for you!
Then you just have to edit the text and images to add your own content, and do a few things like customizing the menu. I'll show you exactly how to do all of that. You can also refer to the eBook for more details.
3.6 Conclusion
Now that we have a business plan, a logo, and a website, we've gone a long way towards being able to launch our new business. In this quick video, we'll go over what we've learned so far and preview the next section, which is all about making a promo video for your business.
4. Making a Promo Video
4.1 Introduction to Making a Promo Video
A promo video is a great way to introduce your business to prospective customers. So in this section of the course, we're going to look at how to create a promo video. As before, we'll be keeping it simple and easy, so you don't need to be a video expert to follow along.
Remember, you can access more resources and links by downloading the accompanying eBook for this course:
You can also download all the assets used in the course from this Envato Elements collection. Or you can download only the assets for Part 4, creating a promo video.
4.2 What Is a Promo Video?
Let's start by getting clear on what a promo video is exactly.
"A promotional video is a marketing video designed to promote a business's products and services to potential customers."
A good promo video allows you to communicate effectively with your audience and help people to see what your business offers quickly and easily. You can tell your story in any way you want.
4.3 Three Types of Promo Video
Watch video lesson (13 mins) ↗
Although a promo video can take many different forms, I think it's helpful to think about three main types of promo video:
- Directly introduce the product or service and its features.
- Explore stories based on the founder or the team.
- Talk about brand stories or share brand values.
Feature-Based Promo Videos
This type of promo video is very information-based, but be careful not to throw too much detail at your viewers. Keep it short and sharp, highly focused on what the problem is and how to solve it.
People-Based Promo Videos
This is a great opportunity to tell human stories and help people connect with your company. Make sure they are interesting stories, with ups and downs, drama, turning points, etc. And make sure to link them to the company and show how they're relevant to your customers.
Brand-Based Promo Videos
With this type of promo video, you can get very creative and conceptual. You're not talking about what your company does, but what it stands for. You'll need to get very clear about what your brand values are before attempting this kind of video—if you need help with that, check out this tutorial:
4.4 How to Gather and Install Our Creative Assets
So now let's start putting our video together. I'll show you an example video I made using Final Cut Pro templates and other creative assets from Envato Elements, such as stock video and background music.
I'll show you the full process of searching and filtering on Envato Elements to find what we need, downloading the assets, and installing the video template in Final Cut Pro.
4.6 How to Put Together a Promo Video
When you've installed the template, just jump into Final Cut Pro and create a new library (File > New > Library) and a new event (File > New > Event). Then import all your media files by clicking the arrow shown here:
Now, you just need to drag the template into your timeline in Final Cut Pro, and then drag the background music and drop it under the template. Then you can use the preferences panel to customize the colors and other details.
I'll also show you how to make some more changes, like adding sound effects and stock footage to enhance our video and make it look and sound more professional.
That's all there is to it! Again, of course you can go into way more depth with video editing. This simple approach using templates is ideal for new business owners who don't want or need to become video experts, but if you are looking for more detail, check out this excellent course:
4.8 Conclusion
In this section, we've covered a quick and easy way to create a promo video. Check out the eBook for more tips and tricks, as well as exercises to help you master this topic. Now let's get ready for the final section of this course: marketing your business.
5. Marketing Your New Business
5.1 Introduction to Marketing Your Business
So now we've covered creating a business plan, designing a website and logo, and making a promo video. In this last section, we'll pull it all together by learning how to create a cohesive marketing plan for your new business.
Remember, you can access more resources and links by downloading the accompanying eBook for this course:
You can also download all the assets used in the course from this Envato Elements collection. Or you can download only the assets for Part 5, marketing your new business.
5.2 What Is Business Marketing?
Let's define business marketing by studying an old speech from one of the greatest marketers of all: Steve Jobs.
Here are the two main lessons from Steve Jobs:
- Marketing is about sharing a business's values.
- You have a limited opportunity to get people's attention, so you need to be very focused.
As we move through this tutorial on how to market a business, keep those two things in mind. You want to find the quickest, most focused way of sharing your business's values.
5.3 How to Create a Marketing Plan
Watch video lesson (14 mins) ↗
I'm going to show you how to create a marketing plan by following a simple journey. That journey looks like this:
Our plan is going to be based on content marketing.
"Think about content marketing as the process of creating different stories. Those stories are information-based, have an educational purpose, are fun to watch, and relate to the things you're selling. That's it!"
We can use several different methods for delivering our content to customers:
What they all have in common is:
- They provide content that is information-based, inspirational/educational, and relatable.
- Unlike random social media posts, they deliver content that is themed and packaged.
So what about the popular social media platforms, like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook?
5.4 An Example of How to Use Content Marketing
In this section of the course, I'll show you some examples of how I'm using content marketing for my startup business. I'll talk about why I'm focusing on producing online courses, and I'll show you the Instagram page I created:
I'll also introduce you to a great app called Milkshake, which you can use to make a quick website linking to your various online presences and projects.
5.5 How to Create an Instagram Content Plan
The best way to create great-looking Instagram content is to use a social media template from Envato Elements. That way, you get a head-start by using a well-designed template, and you can just customize the content using your favorite design software.
5.6 How to Use Milkshake
Now let me show you step by step how to use Milkshake.
How to Use Milkshake
Download the App
You'll also need to register (it's free!)
Select and Edit a Card
Premade cards help you get started quickly. Add your own details in the placeholders provided.
Shake It Up!
Shake your phone to try different styles.
Customize
You can change the colors, fonts, and other details to get your page looking just right.
Publish and Repeat
Publish your card, and then repeat the process to add more cards!
Once you've created your Milkshake website, you can just paste the link into your Instagram bio and you're ready to go!
5.7 Conclusion
We've reached the end of this video series! In this final section, I'll recap everything we've covered throughout all five parts of the series. I hope you now have some great ideas and inspiration for starting your own business.
Learn More About Starting Your Business
We have loads more business-focused videos for you on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel. Here are a few to try:
No comments:
Post a Comment