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The Online BTCA Business Plan Development Course

Rationale

As noted above, every young person who ever walks into a BTCA asks: “Why couldn’t I have gone to a school like this?!”   Though it is quite hard for a young person to set up a physical BTCA, it is very easy – and cheap! – to get all the advantages of BTCA training and mentorship online.  Many young people around the world, who cannot afford the fees of a formal Business School and who just want to get supported to complete a viable business plan, get it funded, and get mentored by competent professionals to make it a success – are well able to afford the $100 cost of the BTCA online training.  If you are not, we are hopeful that, within a very few months, we shall be able to offer online scholarships training.

How Will it work

As you know, the price of admission to a BTCA is the seed of a business idea. If you don’t have a business idea, review the Business Archive – and see what other young people have done. Choose one of the most successful plans and figure out how you can make that plan work in your community – your city – your nation.

STEP ONE: Click here to register your interest in the Online Course – and the outline of your business idea.

STEP TWO: Once registered, you can take your Free Trial Lesson ONE. If you like what you see and want to sign up for the whole course and the mentorship, move on to Step Three;

STEP THREE:  Complete the application, pay or apply for a scholarship Online Training;

STEP FOUR: Meet your Personal Trainer. S/he will guide you throughout your training. If your Business Plan is successful in securing loan funding, s/he can become your lead mentor should you choose to hire him/her.

STEP FIVE: Your Trainer will lead you through 15 x simple block-learning steps that will help you build a finished “VIABLE” Business Plan. Your Trainer will through a combination of e-mail comments and online Skype calls,  offer you guidance on your business plan as it grows and develops, offering personalized advice – things to look out for, potential pitfalls, contacts, case studies of people who have tried similar initiatives etc. 

You can move at your own pace – completing the training in a few days or a few months – as you wish.  You don’t have to report in to your trainer/mentor after every lesson, but you do have to after you have completed Lessons 5, 10 and 15. You do this by submitting your updated Business Plan showing evidence that they have learned and applied the lessons you have completed.

STEP SIX: After receiving your Lesson 15 submission, the Trainer / Mentor will carefully review your almost complete Business Plan, point out any remaining gaps or flaws, and give it a score out of ten.  The Trainee can then choose whether to carry on and implement the changes suggested by the mentor, or scrap the Business Plan – and apply again with a new one.

 It may be that the mentor will think that your business plan, though carefully worked out and well presented is not actually going to fly: going through the online course should reveal this early on – when there is still time to develop a new business idea. Online trainees are free to change their business plans right up to Lesson 15 – BUT – they must introduce the guidance of all previous lessons into the Final Business Plan – or else, go back and start the course again with a new business idea.

 Cost: The Online Training costs $100 per training. PCI will look for scholarships but these will be scaled from  25%, to 50% to 75% of the cost with only very few getting 100% scholarships. An entrepreneur has to be ready to pay for mentorship and skills training, other wise they are not serious entrepreneurs!

Loans: Every online trainee who completes their course will be eligible to enter the contest for an Online loan fulfilment through the Jatropha Online Youth Microfinance Bank. The Bank will draw up a separate loan agreement with every successful loan applicant and they will then manage the loan.  If the loanee requires or wants the continuing services of their online trainer as mentor, they can do this, at an agreed hourly rate.