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Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

Skills

Validating a market and building a business model

Before creating an offer, you must establish that somebody will pay to have the problem solved. Market research, customer interviews, first offer, pricing, cash forecast: five steps turn an idea into a business that balances its books.

From the problem to the first paying customer

An idea becomes a business the day a customer settles an invoice. Everything before that serves to bring that day closer: identify a real and frequent problem, talk to the people who live it, frame a narrow offer, set its price and check that cash in covers cash out. The programme follows exactly that order over eighteen months, through to incorporation under the OHADA framework and an entrepreneurial project run on a real activity.

  • Frame a customer problem and verify its frequency through interviews
  • Build a business model and test its revenue assumptions
  • Set a price consistent with perceived value and unit cost
  • Draw up a twelve-month launch cash flow forecast

The exact measure

You take a venture from idea to its first formalised sales, with its accounts and its legal framework in place. Volumes, credits and certified outlets, recomputed from the official catalogue.

teaching blocks
5

Catalogue rule: one credit is twenty-five hours of work, ten of them taught.

of taught instruction
640 h
credits in total
64
professional qualifications concerned
3
Entrepreneurship
420 (66 %)
Digital Marketing
220 (34 %)
Total: 640 taught hours

The blocks that build it

The skill is built block after block, in the order of the years. You see here exactly where it is taught, and for how many taught hours.

Teaching blockProgrammeTaught hoursYear
From idea to problemEntrepreneurship120 hYear 1
Business modelEntrepreneurship120 hYear 1
Prototype and first offerEntrepreneurship100 hYear 1
Financial management of the launchEntrepreneurship80 hYear 1
Marketing fundamentals and the customer journeyDigital Marketing220 hYear 1

What you can aim for with it

Each row opens a qualification page: blocks, volume, duration and entry requirements.

Professional qualificationTarget occupationLevelTaught volume
SME Chief Executiveowner-manager, SME chief executive7 · Expert and executive700 h
Business Development Manageraccount manager, senior salesperson5 · Senior technician and supervisor700 h
Digital Product Ownerproduct owner, digital project officer5 · Senior technician and supervisor700 h

Durations, volumes and fees

Everything is shown here, with no quote and no prior call. The amount you read is the amount you pay.

ProgrammeLevelDurationFees
EntrepreneurshipBachelor's degree18 months4 400 000 GNF per year
Digital MarketingBachelor's degree2 years4 600 000 GNF per year
Validating a market and building a business model — Skills | IHETC — IHETC