Are you interested in developing a new business idea or exploring the possibility of starting your own business?

We - Lee Crumbaugh of Forrest Consulting and Sumair Abro of Inner Gauge Consulting - are prepared to deliver insights, strategies and resources that will help you develop your business idea and get down the road to a successful start-up.

Read on to learn why starting a new business may be a smart response to the current crisis. And how our $199 Start [it] Up – COVID 19 Edition four-session online program will equip you with the necessary tools to succeed and focus you on what’s most important for a successful start-up: The big idea. Your strategy. Branding, marketing and sales. Funding. And great execution.

A smart response to these challenging times may be starting a new business.

Many innovative and notable companies were born during downturns, Airbnb, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Slack and Uber, to name a few.

Challenging times can be a good time to start a business. Here’s why:

• Change creates new customer needs and start-ups tend to be much faster at adapting and filling needs than established companies.

• Competition for start-up resources ebbs.

• Large organizations are shedding talented employees, who may start businesses or become great new business partners or employees.

• Would-be entrepreneurs have time to do research and think.

• And, in a time of uncertainty, ironically, we have greater clarity in terms of priorities and vision.

“If there’s ever a benefit from a pandemic, it’s that there will be people who have a new vision for the future. I call it America 2.0. I think this is a phenomenal time to create new opportunities in business. I don’t think there’s a better time ever to start a company.” - Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban

You may also be motivated to start your own business because the Pandemic has shown the fallacy of thinking that a company will take care of you and offer ongoing employment.

Even if your new venture is a side business, it can offer you another income stream that can help you shape the future that you most want.

“Doing something from scratch, particularly when your alternative is being unemployed for a little while, seems to me more reasonable.” - Skybox Imaging founder John Fenwick

Indeed, people are starting businesses now at a more rapid pace. In the US, 67,160 applications were filed to set up new companies in the last week of May alone. That’s 21% more than over the same seven days in 2019.

“Since the pandemic lockdown began, I have seen dozens of new businesses launch, from takeout restaurants and wine delivery services to online camps for kids and virtual tutoring to interior design firms and gardening companies.” - Business writer David Sax

We are highly experienced business coaches and strategy and marketing consultants who have worked with scores of entrepreneurs. And we know what it takes: Between us, we have personally launched six businesses.

Here’s how we can help. Our four-session course will focus you on what’s most important for a successful start-up: The big idea. Your strategy. Branding, marketing and sales. Funding. And great execution.

Over four weeks, we will offer these 90-minute online sessions:

We’ll ask you questions and provide answers

Before each session you will receive a thought-provoking questionnaire designed to ready you (and us) for the upcoming session and to help you develop your business idea, step-by-step. You will leave each session with critical start-up business resources and references, dramatically short-cutting the time and effort that you otherwise would have to expend to get the down the road to start-up.

Start [it] Up – COVID 19 Edition will give you the tools to get going!

After 4 weeks, you will :

• Know how to develop and assess your “BIG IDEA” for a successful new business.

• Have a clear roadmap for creating key strategies and tactics to convert your “BIG IDEA” into a growing business during the current pandemic.

• Know the importance of brand positioning for business success and have a branding process designed for start-up businesses at your fingertips.

• Understand how to find your target market and the relevant marketing and sales channels to use for your product or service, and how to develop customers.

• Have insight on what your business plan should address, for you, for potential customers and for potential investors.

• Recognize and have tips on the successfully navigating the biggest challenges faced by start-up entrepreneurs. (Hint: Time even more than money is what is in short-supply for most entrepreneurs.)

Great value at an affordable cost

We wanted to develop a useful start-up course that anyone thinking about launching a new business in the time COVID-19 could afford. We think we have succeeded!

Using Zoom allows us to reach a wide range of current and potential entrepreneurs at once. That’s how we can offer six jam-packed hours of learning and guidance, plus learning questionnaires and take-away resources, for the special introductory price of $199! (Register today to assure the lowest price!)

Pick when you want to start

We know our Start [it] UP four-session webinar series will be popular. And we want you give the choice of when to begin the series. Here’s our 2020 schedule for you to pick from. All sessions run from 11:30 am to 1 pm, U.S. Eastern time.

Option 1: 10/13/ 10/20 10/27 11/3.

Option 2: 11/10 11/17 11/24 12/1.

Thought-provoking questionnaires

1. Your idea

2. Your strategies

3. Your market and customers

4. Your plan

Guidance-filled handouts

1. Ways to formulate and test a new business idea.

2. Developing strategies for new business success.

3. Branding, marketing and selling approaches for start-ups.

4. Best practices in funding and implementing a new business start-up plan.

We are qualified to teach this course!