Have you been thinking about starting a side hustle or launching your own business? Maybe you already have a business idea that excites you—or you’re still searching for that spark of inspiration. Whether you're dreaming big or just getting started, this course will help you take your first confident steps as a founder. In this course, you’ll learn how to identify real-world problems that people face every day, and how to turn those frustrations into business opportunities. You’ll use empathy, creativity, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to explore, shape, and validate your ideas. Along the way, you'll conduct market research to define your target audience, analyze competitors, and create an actionable market research brief to guide your strategy. You’ll also keep an AI-enhanced planning journal to track how AI supports your thinking, productivity, and decision-making. Through hands-on activities, customer interviews, and minimum viable product (MVP) testing, you’ll build a business foundation that solves meaningful problems for real people.

If you’ve discovered a real problem that excites you, explored who it affects, and started testing your idea, you’re already thinking like a founder. Now, it’s time to shift gears from ideas to action. In this course, you’ll take the next big step in your entrepreneurial journey: transforming your early-stage idea into a focused, strategic business plan. This course will guide you through crafting the essential elements that bring your business to life. You’ll develop a clear brand and marketing strategy, learn how to attract and retain your ideal customers, and apply real-world tools like market segmentation and sales forecasting. You’ll also explore different legal structures, build a simple but strong financial plan, and create the organizational systems that will support your business as it grows. To help you think like a founder, you’ll practice using powerful decision-making tools—like SWOT analysis and the 5 Whys technique—to solve real business challenges. Whether you’re building a side hustle or preparing to launch something full-time, this course will empower you with the strategy, structure, and confidence to move from idea to action.