Business hacks, tactics and tricks - practical guide

Course details

What is the aim of this course?

The success of many companies depends on figuring out a clever way to grow, earn or operate that will change drastically change the game, stack the cards in their favor. One of the ways to learn those hacks, tactics and tricks is by trial and error. The other, more efficient one boils down to observing the successes and failures of other companies and applying the learning in your business and industry. I will show you plenty examples of how other did it so you can save time and money on hurting yourself and your business

In this course I will show the most useful business hacks, tactics and tricks that have been used by well-known companies as well others, not that famous but very innovative. The course is based on my 12 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting companies and owner of small consulting company (the last 7 years). I have been also CEO, Board Member responsible for strategy, improvement and turn-arounds in biggest companies from FMCG, SMG, and B2B in Poland so I know the implications of what I will be talking about inside-out.

As a preparation, we have gone through 200 case studies of companies - some of them well known, others less popular yet very interesting from tactics and strategy point of view.  I tried to get the best most useful things and grouped them into section for easier consumption. In this course you will definitely find inspiration how to crush it with your own business.

I do not like to over-complicate things, so in every lecture I will be quite straightforward. Most lectures will have also a lot of additional resources: links to important lectures, detailed data, examples.  Every lecture is a separate example of how to use a specific tactic / hack in real life. I will show how specific company has used this hack in practice. The idea is to have everything that you need for creative thinking in one place. If you don't find something that you need let me know - I will try to prepare something and I will added to the course

Why I decided to create this course?

For our teams we have created courses that help you understand and analyze business. We have started to use them extensively also with customers that we work with and their teams. Since we made them available to a wider public we got many request, especially on Quora to share more examples of applications, case studies. We try to minimize repetitive work so we decided to make this course in order to cut down on the questions we are getting.

This course is based on our extensive experience in supporting and running different businesses.

In what way will you benefit from this course?

The course is a practical, step by step guide loaded with tones of, tricks, hints, examples that will show we where you can go with your business. There is little theory - mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that thanks to the course you will know:

• How business hacks, tactics and tricks you can try in your business?
• How to estimate the potential of such hacks and tactics on your business?
• How to build a coherent strategy and set of tactics?
• Why some companies are successful in their industry?

You can also ask me any question either through the discussion mode or by messaging me directly.

I will produce the necessary content and

How the course is organized?

The course is divided currently in 5 sections and will be adding new section to address other important issues. Currently you will find the following sections:

• Introduction. We begin with little intro into the course  and consulting
• Behavioral contracts - motivate desired behavior. In the second section I will show you how you can motivate others to do what you want them to do. By building proper referral program, loyalty scheme or customer on-boarding you can change totally your business
• Low Cost Model. In the third section I will discuss the details of low cost model and when it makes sense. I will also show you execution of this model in airlines and retail.
• Non-standard advertising space. Next section will show you how, in innovative way, you can promote your business without spending much on advertising
• Stand on the shoulder of a giant - how to use 3rd party platforms. In fifth section you will learn how to leverage 3-rd party platforms to get fast and cheap access to crucial resources (i.e. market)
• Remove barriers. You can grow your customer base or increase retention of current ones by removing barriers between you and the customer. I will show you on examples how you can remove those barriers
• Create barrier of entry. One of the most important things is to create barriers between your customer and potential competitors. I will show you with examples how to do that.
• Community. We have a separate section on community and its role for business. In many business models (esp. on-line business) customer come for the product but they stay for the community.
• Innovative selling. In this section we will talk about how you can change your business by changing the model in which you claim the money from the customer. The choice of revenue streams also defines the selling model
• Start from a niche. Most businesses that are successful start in a small niche where they can in peace work on product-market fit and on their business models. I will show you examples of very successful companies that have applied this hack in practice
• Strategic Partner. By getting a strategic partner you may change your odds of success. I will discuss here what are the pros and cons of strategic partners' deals. We will show some known examples  and their implications.
• Create much higher standard. 10x the standard can help you build a drastically growing business
• New revenue streams. At some point it makes a lot of sense to create new revenue streams on top of what you already have. I will discuss how other have achieved this
• Do things that do not scale. As a startup at the beginning you will be forced to do things that don't scale. I will discuss here the implication of this strategy
• Create sales first. You don't have to rush into production. Sometimes it makes much more sense to start with simply creating the sales / distribution machine and only after that jumping into producing /sourcing the product / service that you want to offer.
• Others

We will be adding new sections in the coming months and expanding existing ones

You will be also have access to many additional resources

• Links to interviews and presentation with more detailed data
• Data showing the impact of some of the hacks on the business
• Links to books worth reading

So enjoy the course and if you have any questions let me know

At the end of my course, students will be able to…

Understand the business hacks, tactics and tricks used by other

Choose the right business hack, tactic that can change your business

You will be to estimate the impact of a specific hack / tactic on your business

Who should take this course? Who should not?

Entrepreneurs

Business analysts

Consultants

Startups founders

Freelancers

What will students need to know or do before starting this course?

Basic knowledge of economics

Some common sense and logic