How do I launch my E-training business?
E-Learning Industry is projected to grow to close to $300 Billion in the next 4 years. With the increase in internet connectivity and the growing millennial workforce in emerging markets, the business climate is extremely promising for high-quality content creators.
- Decide the Companies and functions where your expertise is valuable. Your target segment, should be focused, do not try to cover every type of Company. e.g: If you are an expert in Labor law, you should target Legal and Compliance teams in Manufacturing/Capital Goods companies.
- Create an e-course using SaaS LMS: SaaS LMS allows free trial periods. Test the LMS’s and pick the one that best fits your requirement. Consider the following criteria while shortlisting your LMS – a) Easy to create content across multiple formats, b) Price, c) Mobile friendly, d) Game-based compatible. Create a library of content including videos, presentations, documents, learning games and assessments for a few of the courses. You will have to showcase these in all your interactions with prospective customers.
- Online Marketing: While you will reach out to your existing contacts, online marketing is a very powerful and affordable tool to increase leads. Upload some of your content on your website, Social media pages, YouTube channel and post it on relevant online forums. Setup ads on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites to generate traffic on your website.
Which Learning Management Systems (LMS) are easiest and most affordable for a small company to utilize?
QuoDeck is a game based mobile learning management system. It is designed specifically for corporate learning and priced at a level that makes it particularly suitable for small businesses and startups. We have focused on making it easy for non-instructional designers to get started with team training in 10 minutes flat with your existing content.
That being said, it is powering team trainings in large Fortune 500 companies, so it’s not skimpy on features either.
Do give it a spin and tell us what you think of it…
And if you are looking for a larger alternative, you should look no further than Moodle. Just get a cpanel based hosting solution and you would get a one-click deployment option embedded within. Cost wise this should not exceed $100 a year, but it is a complex to configure and manage the system.
What are the advantages of SaaS LMS?
Software as a service (SaaS) LMS is hosted on a cloud, requiring no installation on the customer’s end saving space and infrastructure. The payment is on a subscription model which can be chosen as per the customer’s need, which is more fungible compared to traditional LMS.
- Cost Effective: You can choose your plan based on a number of users, term of subscription and usage and requires no capex.
- Short Implementation time: SaaS LMS’ are plug and play which do not require any significant time in deployment and since they are cloud-based, do not require multiple stakeholder approvals.
- Offer Free Trails: Unlike full-fledged LMS’, the SaaS counterparts offer free trial periods. This time can be used to evaluate them and gather feedback from the actual users, helping you decide the LMS best fit for your organization.
- Access Courses remotely via multiple devices including mobiles: As all data is stored securely on the cloud, your team can access it across geographies with content rendered for the device they are using.
- Regular Updates and No maintenance: Your LMS will be regularly updated with all the new features added by the developer. In addition, you will not have any maintenance as the LMS is maintained by the technology provider.
What is the right Equity sharing for a startup?
If anything, it is low. The key promoter should typically be holding 60-70% prior to external equity infusion. A 40% stake will dilute him down to indifference levels with any kind of funding coming in.
Let me also make a thought clear on this. The key promoter is not one who gets his position for coming up with an idea. He had to be taking maximum risk in the business. In terms of lower salary, efforts put on a daily basis, leading fund raising efforts, ability to do multiple roles and above all promoter responsibilities including being responsible for statutory risks like being legally accountable for things like permissions and liabilities. Ideas are cheap, living them expensive.
Advice aside, here is some hard number feedback for you. The employee pool at 20% is high. The norm is 6-9% typically. Also, 10% is too high or too low for business alliances, depending on what kind of alliances you are talking about. Provide for a 15% investor pool instead for some angels, if you are looking to tap them.
Typically, such complicated equity distributions are done once you have a business which is operational so my advice would be to not burn much additional time on iterating it. Rather think about the business. If it succeeds, 5% is a huge amount to own.
How do I use Technology to make learning interesting in the classroom?
Technology will help you enhance the learning experience of your students, let them assimilate in a more self-paced manner and help in social learning.
- Use AR to make learning more immersive and fun. You can turn your classroom or the school into Virtual trips across space and time.
- Leverage on Mobile phones to disseminate your course and promote learning even outside your classroom.
- Use technology to encourage social learning, where kids learn by themselves and from each other.
- Use short videos and games to teach kids.
- Setup regular short online assessments and surveys.
Insights on Corporate Training, Mobile learning, Game-based learning, eLearning, edtech, Employee Engagement & Learning Management System
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