Level Up: This slide deck is used as an overview for seminars on business skills. Many people are in the enviable position of having a start up that has figured out its product and market and now needs to scale, or are running a small business and want to be more professional about it, or they are hoping to start a business and want to start putting together the skill sets they will need, or they are climbing the corporate ladder and need to close the skills gap. Here is a primer on the different disciplines you need to know ASAP. It includes marketing, sales, accounting, finance, strategy, leadership, management and other skills.

1. MBA ASAP
Business Skills for Entrepreneurs and Corporate Climbers
www.mba-asap.com

2. Level Up
Discover the Skills you need to advance your career or
launch your start up
www.mba-asap.com

3. MBA-ASAP.com
• Seminars
• Training
• Book Series
– The Core Material
• Sign up for newsletter
• Free eBooks
• Blog
www.mba-asap.com

4. The Big Picture
• Create Value
• Marketing
• Sales
• Management
• Organizations
• Leadership
• Accounting
• Finance
• Economics
• Operations
• Strategy
www.mba-asap.com

5. Create Value
• Innovation & Experimentation
• Lean Start up
• Business Model Canvas
• Value Proposition
• Customer Discovery
• Customer Validation
• Monetization
• Search for
Sustainable/Replicable
Business Model
• Iterative Process
• Product/Market Fit
• Minimal Viable Product
• Feature Sets
www.mba-asap.com

6. Start Ups
• Not a mini version of a
company
• Temporary organization
in search of a
repeatable, sustainable,
scalable business model
• Opportunistic
• Different skill set than
growing and scaling an
organization
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7. Prepare for Success
Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty
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8. Technology
• Get versed in the
inevitable
• Futurism: skate to where
the puck will be
• Enabling technologies
• Converging technologies
• Rogue Waves
• Learn to code
• Rapid prototyping
• Agile Development
• AI, VR, CRISPR
www.mba-asap.com

9. Design
• Industrial
• Architectural
• Product
• Ergonomic
• GUIs
• Graphic
– Logos
• Branding
www.mba-asap.com

10. Intellectual Property
• Patents
• Trademarks
• Write and file your own
• Create Assets you can
fund around
• Competitive landscape
• Barriers to Entry
• Create a Monopoly
www.mba-asap.com

11. Nail it and Scale it!
• Success:
• Product/Market fit
• Initial sales
– Nothing happens until
something is sold
(Kaufman)
• Customer Segment
Validation
• What Next?
• Different set of skills,
knowledge and expertise
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12. MBA skills
www.mba-asap.com

13. Marketing
• Awareness Campaigns
• Segments
• Channels
• Pricing
• Branding
• Digital Marketing
– Permission and Content
Marketing
– Platforms
– SEO and Inbound
– Conversion Funnel
– Hub and outpost model
– Social Media
www.mba-asap.com

14. Sales
• Proof/Validation
• Pre-tail: gauge demand
– Tesla
– Kickstarter/Indiegogo
• Early adopters
• Crossing the Chasm
• Revenue
• Nothing happens until something
is sold (Kaufman series)
• Valuation
• Risk reduction
• Boot strap
www.mba-asap.com

15. Management and Leadership
• People
• HRM
• Culture
• Negotiation
• Communication
• Vision and Mission
• Presentation
• Organizational Structure
and Behavior
www.mba-asap.com

16. Operations
• People
• Process
• Technology
• Supply Chain
Management
• Manufacturing
• Inventory
– JIT
– Buffer or Suffer
• Quality Control
– Six Sigma
• Costs
www.mba-asap.com

17. Organization
• Legal
– Tax Consequence
– Liabilities
– Funding
• LLC
• Corporation
• Design & Structure
• Behavior
www.mba-asap.com

18. Accounting
• Financial Statements
• Performance
• Financial Projections
• Budgets
• Variances
• Taxes
• Payroll
• Costs
• The Art
– Recognition, Assumptions
& Estimates
www.mba-asap.com

19. Finance
• Performance
– Financial Statement Analysis
– Ratio Analysis
• Time Value of $
– NPV & IRR
• Financial Projections
• Debt/Equity
• Business Valuation
– Funding
– M&A
– Exit
• Spreadsheets
www.mba-asap.com

20. Economics
• Micro
– Theory of the Firm
– Supply and Demand
– Elasticity of Demand
– Market Structure
• Macro
– Interest Rates
– Employment
– GDP and Growth
– Financial Markets
• Managerial
– Optimizing the enterprise for:
minimum costs & maximum
revenue
www.mba-asap.com

21. Business Law
• Contracts
• Entity Structure
• Securities
– SEC
• Labor
• Conflict Resolution
– Law suits
– Mediation
– Negotiation
• Intellectual Property
– How to write a patent
www.mba-asap.com

22. Negotiation
• Deal Making
• Conflict Resolution
• People
• Interests & Issues
• Alternatives
• Options
• Communication
• Brainstorming
www.mba-asap.com

23. Strategy
• Putting it all together
• Competition
• Lean
• Emergent
• Blue Ocean
• Thinking
• Planning
• Execution/Tactics
www.mba-asap.com

24. Summary & Discussion
www.mba-asap.com

25. Business Skills Books
For a deeper dive on
various business skills,
check out my books
available in paperback or
for the Kindle on
Amazon:
• Managing and
Leading
• Accounting
• Negotiations
• Financial Statements
• Patents
• MBA ASAP

26. MBA ASAP
• Check out my website
www.mba-asap.com for
more business skills
information and
materials
• Sign up for my
newsletter
www.mba-asap.com

27. John Cousins
www.mba-asap.com

28. Available on Amazon
www.mba-asap.com

29. Available on Amazon
www.mba-asap.com

30. Available on Amazon
www.mba-asap.com