This deck is a part of an eight-day introductory course that I originally designed for the residents of Inle Lake (Nyang Shwe), Myanmar during my volunteer work with Partnership for Change org. This is a basic introductory course for those who wish to start a businesses but aren't sure where to begin or what would be an effective way to run and operate a company geared for Western customers. This deck is free for anyone to modify and use, but please keep in mind that I do not own copyrights for most of the images on those slides (with some exceptions).

1. Online resources.
Internet is an incredibly powerful tool that lets you promote, learn and track your
business. Today we’ll learn some basics of how we can use it to move your
business forward.

2. Mini-assignment.
❶ Throughout this lecture, think
of at least one question to ask
me at the end of this class.

3. Review.

4. ❶ What is the
competition?
❷ What is the demand?
❸ What are the costs?
❹ What is the ROI?

5. What tools can you use to
research your decisions?

6. What is
diversification?

8. Experiments.
• Try your ideas on small scale
before going big.
• Learn from those test runs
whether it is a good idea.
• Not the same as market
research, your own opinion or
prediction about what would
happen. Experiments are
actually you conducting the
business on a small scale.

9. Things you can measure:
• Income.
• Costs.
• Amount of work required.

10. Collect & synthesize.
• Collect a good sample of
feedback (at least 10 people).
• Sort your feedback based on
opinions and suggestions.
• Think how it could apply to
your business.

11. Applying feedback.
Evaluate each customer
complaint, praise or suggesting:
• Is it feasible to make the
changes?
• Does it align with your
business objectives?
• Learn about your
business from the
customers’ perspective.

12. Empathy exercises.
• Create a customer story for
your business or product.
• Be your own customer. If you
hate your product, your
customer probably does too.

13. Kinds of information.
• Data about the market:
competition, demand.
• Operational data: costs,
potential revenues, ROI.
• Customer data: feedback,
average & ideal customer
traits.

14. Google Sheets.
Can I see your graphs that you have been tracking so
far?

15. Collaboration.
• A team of like-minded small
businesses have a potential to
change attitudes and even laws.
• Together, small businesses might
negotiate better prices from the
suppliers.
• When businesses get together
they can have a larger buying
power to advertise, thus bringing
more customers to their sector.
• It’s very common for businesses
to partner with governments to
mutually benefit each other.

16. Disruption.
• Disruption means finding new ways of
conducting a business.
• This method can “disrupt” or “break”
the existing market or industry. The
“old” way of doing things is no longer
good enough.
• Companies who can achieve this often
become very prosperous very quickly.
• Alternatively, those companies benefit
or change the marketplace and are
often good for the customer.
• Most often “disruption” is referred to in
online business but there are
examples in the real-world as well.

17. Environment Market
• Resources.
• Security.
• Stability.
• Customers.
• Diversity.
• Monopoly-free.
• Local
population
well-being.

18. Environmental and market
management.
• Understanding & continuously
researching offensive impacts (not
always obvious).
• Government laws and initiatives.
• Social attitudes (media,
advertising).
• Business prerogatives
(collaborations with clear
objectives).
• Personal conservation planning.
• Measurement and standard setting.

19. The list.
• Research.
• Diversify.
• Manage feedback.
• Apply empathy.
• Track everything.
• Collaborate.
• Disrupt*.
• Practice market & environment
sustainability.
*Depends on your business objectives.

20. Online resources.
One of the driving forces of Western economy: the
Internet.

21. Everyday people use
Internet for:
• Banking, payments, shopping.
• Work. What kind of jobs do
you think you can do online?
Let’s list at lest 5.
• Games.
• Education.
• Navigation.
• Research.

22. Your customers —
— user Internet to research your business.

23. If you are in a tourism-related business —
— TripAdvisor is one of the most popular tools used by
visitors world-wide.

24. So I did some
research…
…And found those videos for you on how to do business
with TripAdvisor. I found them all on YouTube.

25. How to get listed on
TripAdvisor.

26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEu_dvSdfcU

27. How to market your
property on TripAdvisor.

28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU5VbOOE1DI

29. How to improve your
popularity ranking.

30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zaytwjxd1Y8

31. How to get more
reviews.

32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeg6LIIc9fM

33. How to earn
TripAdvisor awards.

34. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ai5e0ZDbhY

35. Myths about
TripAdvisor.

36. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qel-I1utSs

37. What does “great
service” means to
Western travellers?

38. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItYyXMkynRs

39. Although TripAdvisor is the most popular choice,
remember there are a lot of other tools that your
customers might be using.

40. You can learn them all.

41. Assignment.Use Internet to answer the following questions (and tell me how you did it):
❶ How many tourists come every
year to Myanmar?
❷ What are the top 3
nationalities visiting Myanmar?
❸ Which country has the fastest
Internet speeds in the world?
❹ Find me a picture of a cat
playing with wool.
❺ Which university did I study
at? “Dmitri Tcherbadji”

42. Mini-assignment.
❶ Your questions, please :)

43. Thank you!
• Thank you for being such
great students :)
• I will have the slides posted on
IS Facebook page and on
SlideShare.
• If you have any questions,
email me d@artsocket.com
I used to have hair :p