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University of Leeds

Starting a Business 1: Vision and Opportunity

University of Leeds via FutureLearn

Best Course of All Time
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Overview

A successful business starts with a clear vision and a thorough understanding of the opportunities available to turn that vision into a reality. Whether you have an idea for a future venture or you already have a side-line business whilst studying, this course will help you consider your vision and explore the opportunities available. It will give you the time to plan and help you to start documenting your thoughts in a structured business plan while allowing you to share your ideas with others.

This course is the first in a series of six about ‘starting a business’.

This course is part of the Going to University collection which has been specifically designed for students at schools and colleges. They provide a taster of undergraduate study at the University of Leeds and help students to decide which subject to study at university.

Completion of the courses will also enhance students’ university applications.

The courses can also be used as a teachers’ classroom enrichment resource.

Courses in this collection are also great for people that want an introduction in the specific subjects discussed in each course.

Syllabus

  • Vision and opportunity
    • Welcome
    • Discovering and creating opportunities
    • Emma's business challenge
    • Summary
  • Realising your vision
    • About Week 2
    • Your turn
    • Your business plan
    • What next?

Taught by

Nigel Lockett

Tags

Reviews

4.6 rating, based on 85 Class Central reviews

4.5 rating at FutureLearn based on 90 ratings

Start your review of Starting a Business 1: Vision and Opportunity

  • Profile image for Keren Rodriguez
    Keren Rodriguez @KerenR
    this course was very helpful, it gives a lot of insight, tips and things you should look out for but is a bit repetitive, and if you don't pay the premium it isn't that great. It's not very engaging so if you aren't super interested it gets boring after a while but overall it does give very helpful advice.
  • Profile image for Jade Smith
    Jade Smith @Jadeams

    Jade Smith completed this course, spending 6 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.

    This course is Amazing. I learned so much and it helped me structure my thoughts and complete them for a real business idea. Defiantly recommenced. Will be taking all the rest of the classes!
  • Ashley Eidler

    Ashley Eidler completed this course, spending 1 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.

    This six-course series is extremely well-produced and well-organized, and FutureLearn itself makes it easy to navigate through the lessons. Each course is broken up into two weeks of study - the first week focuses on one of the core aspects of starting...
  • Profile image for Naing Linn Aung
    Naing Linn Aung @NAING
    The course helps me up the knowledge about how to start small business vision and opportunity. The course was received what I expected. Thank you so much.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    The course is very good. It helped me to gain focus and clearly define my objectives. The less in and explained clearly, to the point and easy to understand and the templates really help to clarify our goals.
  • Mohamed Kamal Ali
    Thank you very much. I learnt a lot from this short course. Especially, when we talk about finding the opportunity and how we can start a business by solving a problem in our society or filling a gap or starting something new that can make people's lives easier and make them happier.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    This is a really good free course for starting to think about a new business venture. It inspired us with new ideas for our business. We also liked to hear other people's ideas of what they were doing too. Indeed it is good that we were able to connect with others in this way. We also felt reassured that not everyone knows what they want to do yet as we are still deciding more things about our business. We also liked the business plan to help build a strong foundation for a good business. Highly recommend this short course! We would definitely like to do part 2 of the course but not straightaway as there are other things we want to do in relation to our business idea.
  • Profile image for San Kimsorng
    San Kimsorng
    This course provides me more detail of business opportunities model with practical exercises. Good course!
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous is taking this course right now.

    Some useful content in here, but seems to want to sell Leeds University! Last video on week one has nothing to do with the course at all so skipped that bit.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous is taking this course right now.

    This course was well planned and it has helped me understand the nuances of starting a business. It is split in to small parts and really useful to learn the whole picture.The lecture videos by Nigel were very well made and made concepts easier to understand,The case study made us think on our own,read up many articles about the subject. It also dealt with current scenarios faced by businesses in the real world.Overall it was a good learning experience.
  • Harrison Ajiamah

    Harrison Ajiamah is taking this course right now.

    The course was very educative, interactive, informative. I has helped me gain focus and clearly define my objectives & opened my eyes to the business world as well as inspired me to take step by step plans to bringing my business ideas to life.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    It was a great course that teaches you many ideas of starting a business. Doing it with other learners can give one the chance to improve and change your ideas and thoughts about a specific aspect.
  • Nosaiba Aouam

    Nosaiba Aouam completed this course.

    This course is very hepful to anyone interested in working in a business, studying business or making their own business. It provides the information you need to make a successful business and teaches you how to think like an entrepreneur, how entrepreneurs...
  • Anonymous
    The course takes you step by step and introduce you to the world of starting a business. The case study creates the opportunity for further understanding of the entrepreneurial cycle. Case studies reinforce learning and were a practical lens to starting a business. Exercises were also given to engage learning.

    A very good short course for persons interested or starting a business.
  • Anonymous
    This course provides an opportunity for young entrepreneurs like me to get aware of the business. By teaching about the business plan and providing materials in the form of pdf and Word forms, the course creators have motivated me to start writing a business plan and how to execute it in future. Thank You soo much Future Learn and the University of Leeds.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    This was a really good beginners course to starting a business. Whether you are doing it as an interest or wanting to take initial steps, its really useful. I really like the forums and pin boards for this course. It allows you to read about others business ideas and their opinions on given topics.

    Really good start to helping envision my business ideals and final goal. Going to start the next phase tomorrow. Great videos and looking at case studies. Nice to research potential competitors. Gets you thinking outside the box. Case studies show you numbers of ways to start developing a business. Like starting with a blog, a YouTube Channel, An online magazine, A website, A shop etc.

    Step by step guide. Great. :)
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    This is a really good free course for starting to think about a new business venture. It inspired us with new ideas for our business. We also liked to hear other people's ideas of what they were doing too. Indeed it is good that we were able to connect with others in this way. We also felt reassured that not everyone knows what they want to do yet as we are still deciding more things about our business. We also liked the business plan to help build a strong foundation for a good business. Highly recommend this short course! We would definitely like to do part 2 of the course but not straightaway as there are other things we want to do in relation to our business idea.
  • Anonymous
    This course was a great way to develop and understand more clearly, the vision to push a business idea. The tools provided were of high quality, and I personally like how interactive it was. The activities provided gave an opportunity to personalize the study. Kudos Leeds!
  • Anonymous
    The course is a very useful introduction into the entrepreneurial world. Presented in a very simple and easy to understand manner, it gives you the necessary ingredient required to provoke deep thoughts about your business idea(s).

  • Princess Goodness
    Am so much privilege to be here and my being here have greatly improved my business mindset. The exercises, the discussion and contributions from other students really helped me to learn faster.

    Thank you so much
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