Are you an expert of a specific topic and people keep asking your advice all the time? Do you want to monetize your knowledge and make a business out of it while solving a bigger problem by sharing your expertise with people? Creating eLearning courses can be your way to go.
Because of budget-friendly authoring tools (e.g. check Adobe Captivate pricing), absolutely anyone can start creating their own eLearning courses with a very minimal investment. So if you are wondering how to start a business out of it, here are the basic steps!
Goals
Before starting out with your online course business, it is important to plan and decide your objectives and goals. By deciding the goals that you would want to achieve with your courses, you will get a sense of direction while designing your courses and finding an audience for them.
Creating a plan
Create a rough plan of your courses. Outline the main elements that you are going to cover. As you have already decided on the learning goals, now you can draw the paths to achieve those goals.
What to teach
The next thing you need to do is to decide what exactly you want to teach. Start with thinking about a specific problem that you want to solve with your eLearning courses with the level of expertise and knowledge you have in that arena. Then come up with a plan to actually make it happen. As you are done with the planning and you have something substantial in your hand, introduce the plan to a portion of your target audience. If the reception seems positive, you can start with creating a mini course and pre-sell it. Take feedbacks through surveys and emails to make sure that you have chosen to do that right thing.
Choosing a subject
Everyone is good at something and as you have decided to start your own eLearning course business, you must already know what it is that you specialize in. The main idea of starting an eLearning course business is to better use your knowledge and expertise and monetize it to make a tangible business out of it. Thus, while choosing a subject, make sure you are choosing the one that you are passionate about and the one that is also a valuable subject for people so that they actually the course.
If you are exceptionally knowledgeable about the subject you are choosing, just carry on with sharing your knowledge. If you still are on the path of finding out the best subject for you, think about the topics that people keep asking you about. Try to understand more about the problems people face in the area of that particular subject.
See what’s up with the competition
As you are starting out with your business, you will face competition from the pre-existing, established businesses. Take advantage of your competitors. Research their existing content and see what are they upto. Understand what kind of trends they are following and what people are liking. Obviously, you have your unique business plan and you won’t be copying your competitors but this kind of collected information can help you give your business a sense of direction when you are just starting.
Decide target audience
As you start researching your competitors, you will also come across your target audience. As you go on with your audience research, you will understand what exactly people need, and using that information you can start creating content that will satiate the needs of your target audience.
Create your content accordingly and get ready for marketing.
Branding your business
Branding your business should ideally start even before you have started to sell your courses. Creating a unique brand for your business will help your stand out from your competitors and it will also ready people to look out for your product and buy it once you have officially launched it. Branding will help you get into the market and position your business in it faster.
Pricing
Decide the prices of the courses that you are going to offer. Calculate the price based on your involvement in creating the course, the difference it will make in the long term, and the amount of time you have worked on it.
Launching
Finally, as your courses are ready to be sold and you have a solid brand for your business, launch your courses.
Conclusion
These days, you can make a business out of anything and if you are an expert on a subject that people want to learn about more, why not help them out while you make some money out of it? Through the right kind of planning, research, and tools, you can easily start your eLearning course business from scratch.