Creating a Business Roadmap Course – Uptima Business Bootcamp

Overview

In our Creating a Business Roadmap course, we guide you through a hands-on process for identifying the resources needed to grow the business, writing a business plan and creating a financial forecast. This course is 12-weeks long and is well suited for entrepreneurs looking to create plans to scale their small business or startup with positive community impact.

What members are saying...

What I Didn’t Know Before I Started

We learned that the business plan is a good way to guide growth and development, outline how you provide products and services, and ensure you are being strategic and intentional versus ad hoc. This course relieved our fears of the unknown by providing structure to guide us through creating a real business plan.

Brooke Staton & Julia Kong, Reflex Design Collective

What I Learned to Help Me Build a Business

Uptima helped me to define Common Compost’s mission, services, and products. It gave me the necessary tools to build a strong business model, clarify my finances, establish production and distribution channels, and reach my target audiences. I highly recommend enrolling in this program.

Kourtnii Brown, Common Compost

What I Accomplished in My Business

We've been in business for a while without a business plan. As a small business owner, creating a business plan is intimidating, especially when you're in it day to day. But through this course, I've been able to break it down into manageable chunks and start to implement it with guidance and peer support.

Ivellisse Morales, Bombilla Creative

What You Will Learn

Unit	Topics Covered
Introduction	Learn how a business plan serves as a roadmap on your business journey Identify your vision for a successful business journey Use the business model canvas to start creating a roadmap for your business journey
Purpose, Values & Goals	Gain an understanding of why clarifying purpose, values and goals are important in implementing business strategy Learn about key elements of a business’ mission, vision and values statements, as well as how to set clear goals for the business Develop mission, vision and values statements and goals for the next three years
Company Description	Gain an understanding of the importance of having a clear and concise company description Learn about the different elements of a company description Develop a description of the company
Products & Services	Gain an understanding of the importance of having detailed product and service descriptions to demonstrate what the business is creating Learn how to develop product and service descriptions that demonstrate the value proposition of the product or service Develop descriptions of the business’ products and services
Gaining Traction	Gain an understanding of strategies for building customer demand Learn about the resources needed to build marketing and sales channels for the product or service Identify and articulate marketing and sales channels for the business and plans for growing those channels
Operational Plan	Gain an understanding of how an operational plan is an action plan for executing the business’ vision Learn about resources needed to operate the business, including development, delivery and support of products and services Develop an operational plan for the business
Infrastructure	Gain an understanding of how infrastructure is needed to support ongoing development of a business Learn about administrative resources to support development of the business, including finance, legal, human resources and information technology functions Identify and articulate the infrastructure needed to support development of the business
Organizational Design	Gain an understanding of how to design an organization to optimize business development Learn about different organizational designs Identify and articulate an organizational design for the business
Numbers Demystified	Learn about the numbers behind an operating business Gain an understanding of how business and financial metrics tell a story about a business’ progress Identify and articulate the key business and financial metrics that tell the business’ story
Forecasting,  Part 1	Gain an understanding of the role financial statements play in a business and learn how to read a profit & loss statement Learn how to translate cost structure into an expense forecast Develop an expense forecast for the business
Forecasting,  Part 2	Learn how to translate revenue streams into a revenue forecast Develop a revenue forecast for the business Learn how to put together the revenue and expense forecasts into a summary for the business plan
Final Presentations	Present your business plan to your peers and mentors Receive constructive feedback from your peers and mentors to refine your business plan

Prerequisites

Must have a product/service being sold in the market or a market tested proof of concept. Must also have a basic website for the business.

Commit to Building Your Business

Average time commitment for our small business and startup courses is 10 hours / week dedicated to building your business, and includes the following weekly activities:

Title	Weekly  Activity	Weekly Commitment
Background Materials	Series of required background readings and videos on each unit to be completed online prior to the weekly in-person workshop Describes concepts and their applications in developing a business	1-2 hours / week
Workshops	Weekly in-person workshops led by an expert instructor Lecture and discussion on background materials, group activities, and reflection	3 hours / week
Business Development Activities	Weekly activities focused on your business development Apply concepts learned in background materials and workshops	2-10 hours / week
Peer Mentoring	Weekly phone meetings with small peer group of other business owners in your class Present weekly business development activities and receive constructive feedback from peers	1 hour / week
One-on-one Mentoring	Weekly one-on-one meetings with a mentor Discuss business progress, review weekly business development activity, and connect with resources to meet business needs	30 minutes / week

Meet Your Mentors

George Blount

Lead Instructor & Mentor

Boston

Lena Carew

Mentor

San Francisco

Sarita Evans

Mentor

Oakland

Rani Langer-Croager

Co-Founder, CEO & Lead Instructor, Mentor

San Francisco

Hope Lehman

Lead Instructor & Mentor

San Francisco

Sherina McKinley

Director, Lead Instructor & Mentor

Boston

Rachel O’Neil

Mentor

Boston

Thomas Rosenberg

Lead Instructor & Mentor

Oakland

Join an Upcoming Course

Our Creating a Business Roadmap course is offered at the following locations.

How Much It Costs

The cost of our Creating a Business Roadmap Course consists of a course fee of $400 / month over the 3-month course.

We charge a $50 deposit to reserve your space in the class. This deposit is credited against the payment of your course fee, where applicable.

Financial Assistance

Because we believe in entrepreneurship as a means to close the racial wealth gap, we offer financial assistance programs for entrepreneurs of color.

For entrepreneurs of color in Oakland, San Francisco and Boston, we offer financial assistance covering 100% of your course fee, regardless of your household income and the number of people in your household throughout 2020.