Creating courses: launching online training for entrepreneurs in the EdTech platform – “The Man Who Sewing”

How do I create and run online courses? How does a modern EdTech platform work? What is important for online training for entrepreneurs in the clothing business and other niches?

EdTech is a niche of technological solutions for the education sector. It includes the creation of equipment and gadgets, software development and online learning. Do not equate EdTech with the info business. Infobusiness products are useful information in the form of books, presentations, webinars. A person buys materials and this is where the interaction with the expert ends.

EdTech platforms offer content, methods and ways to organize the online learning process. Conditions for obtaining a practical result are created for students. When creating new online courses, feedback from users is taken into account, so EdTech projects are constantly updated and improved.

Setting up a business in the light industry is an area of ​​knowledge that is poorly represented in the educational services market. So, Anton Gureev was one of the first to launch a training course for entrepreneurs and created a club for owners of clothing brands and clothing industries.

What has been done, how much it costs to succeed, how to increase profits by 2-3 times in an incomplete year of work – we will tell in the article.

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Creating an online course: choosing an idea

For several years, Anton himself produced clothes. After leaving the case, he took up consulting. People came to him who wanted to establish a business in this area. At the start, the same questions and problems arose. Then the idea came up to train entrepreneurs en masse and create an online course, as well as a whole EdTech platform for comfortable development and communication with like-minded people. Entrepreneurship training has become affordable so that everyone can afford it.

The Man Who Sewing Club is built in such a way that a person receives a clear and consistent pattern of actions on how to build a sewing business.

Lessons are hosted on the GetCourse platform. Small videos for 15-20 minutes contain a concentrate of knowledge in the areas of the clothing business.

How to launch an online course: the main steps

• Concept development
• Preparing specifications for launch.
• GetCourse account creation;
• ensure minimal technical settings;
• Telegram chat connection;
• setting up a payment system and integrating payment services.
• Launch sales. From September 6 to September 21, 2020, we launched sales on Instagram. 178 people became members of the Club at the start.

Creating courses: what makes up the budget

Anton Gureev, founder of the Man Who Sewing Club:

“The budget for the first launch was 70,000, earned 409,000 rubles. It should be noted that the launch was for a “warm” audience. Those who followed me on Instagram and knew what I was doing came to the Club. The price of advertising for such an audience is much lower.”

Today, the cost of the Club is many times higher.

• Ad budget — 100,000 — 250,000 rubles per month.
• Education — more than 500,000 rubles have been spent on training Anton and his team since the start of the project.
• CPM integration from December 2020 — 600,000 rubles.
• Payroll — 300,000 rubles per month.
• Money to test a dozen hypotheses that didn’t work for our project.

Figures for May 2021. Income — 2,250,000 rubles. Expenses – about a million (advertising, team salaries, office rent and other expenses).

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Launching an online course: attracting the target audience

There are 2 categories of people in the “Man who sews” Club:

• Those just starting out in the clothing business.
• Those who already have a light industry business.

For beginners, training for entrepreneurs helps save money and time. For the experienced, lessons have been prepared on product certification, promotion rules and working with marketplaces. Useful information will help club members correct mistakes and set up work in a new way.

How to start an online course: content creation

It all started with two cycles of Anton Gureev’s lessons for owners of clothing brands and clothing industries.

“It is not enough to talk about how to develop a clothing brand or open a garment factory. Along the way, a large number of parallel questions and tasks arise. All these issues also need to be addressed.”

This is how speakers began to appear in the Club. Experts from related fields recorded lessons and shared knowledge. The first blocks included:

• “Psychology of Entrepreneurship” by Valeria Yermolina.
• “Certification” from Ekaterina Arsentieva.
• “Working with Wildberries” by Anna Gerashchenko.

The knowledge base for training entrepreneurs was replenished every month, there were more speakers.

Now the Club has lectures and webinars from 20 experts. All areas for the development of the clothing business are taken into account:

• targeting and advertising;
• accounting;
• financial and managerial accounting;
• selling on Instagram and much more.

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Launching a training course for entrepreneurs: building a community on the Edtech platform

In addition to online training for entrepreneurs, one of the main goals of launching the course and the Club is to create a community in the field of light industry.

All Club members get access to a private chat. There people communicate with each other, share successes and tasks, support each other.

Communication with like-minded people, with people from the same industry helps a person feel like part of a team. Everyone sews clothes, works for the benefit of customers. Everyone develops their sewing business in a large light industry.

Thanks to the Club, many participants build business relationships and find partners.

So far, the community in the clothing business is just being formed. But over time, opinion leaders and “stars” in the clothing business will appear. There will be more competent managers in production, more entrepreneurs will build a healthy business.

Launching an Online Course: Mission Statement

Project mission: online training for entrepreneurs from all over the world, support in making money and creating a healthy sewing business.

Project goal: 10,000 functioning and successful businesses in the light industry.

In less than a year of work, more than 1500 students have passed through the Club.

Course Launch: Team Building

Anton Gureev:

“At the start of the project, there were 2 people in the team. One of them, Olya Oreshkina, has been working with me since 2013. Since then, Olya has helped with 4-5 projects. And the Club became another initiative where I needed a team.

The rest of the guys appeared gradually. Since the team is remote, it’s easier to delegate small functions. I hired a person for a certain function. But with the growth of the project, many tasks accumulate on one person. And then again you need to look for new employees, expand.

The main growth of the team happened after March 2021. At the same time, they began to introduce the service of curators.

In June 2021, the Club employs 17 people. Now we are preparing a springboard for further growth of the project. The team has become larger, we are working to increase the number of Club residents.

Launching an online course: common mistakes

Despite the fact that an educational project is an online business, the working mechanisms are applicable to any other enterprise. The manager makes plans for the development and scaling of the business. And reality shows what will work and what will not.

Anton voiced the main mistakes in business:

• Abandon non-working models for a long time.
• Slowly test new hypotheses.

“For example, those things that are done in 2 days stretched over 2 weeks. There is no result, time and resources are wasted. You have to start over.”

In business, it’s important to be flexible, try new things, and let go of what doesn’t work anymore.

GetCourse Course Creation – Run Results

More than 200 lessons on the GetCourse platform.

685 Club members in June 2021.

“Participant feedback is an indicator of performance. Dozens of real stories that changed a person’s life. The client came with a problem, solved it and got the result. This is what we are working for.”

When planning the creation and launch of an online course, it is important to take care not only of the content, but also of promotion. Comprehensive marketing from the Exiterra agency will help to demonstrate expertise and attract new students.

Anton Gureev is the owner of the largest industry channels in Telegram: “The Man Who Sews”, “Catalogue of Garment Industries”, speaker of industry events, organizer of industry events.