Being able to manage cash flow, that is, the balance between what comes in and what goes out, is fundamental to keeping your company running and with profit potential.

Sell online courses: 6 tips to control cash flow

To create and sell online courses is a business that many professionals are currently investing in.

The growth of the elearning market and the opportunities it generates do not go unnoticed by those who want to invest in having their own business.

– E-learning market: trends, data and future prospects

With the help of emerging technologies, such as AI tools and accessible Learning Management Systems (LMS), like Coursify.me, the number of online courses available on the internet continues to grow, becoming the main source of income for committed breeders.

However, while creating and selling online courses is becoming easier, many entrepreneurs still make bad cash management, which ends up throwing the balance off and causing losses.

To help with this issue, we’ve prepared six tips on how to avoid surprises and keep your business in the market.

– 7 AI tools for creating online courses

1. Start by calculating the break-even point

The break-even point is the point at which revenue and expenses are equal.

This is the first goal of a startup, balancing expenses with revenue, in other words, making the company pay for itself. After that point, your business starts to generate profit.

A well-structured financial plan helps you know when that moment will arrive, which doesn’t impact your cash flow but offers guidance on how to manage your budget until you reach it.

The basic formula for making the break-even calculation is:

Break-Even Point = Total Costs ÷ Profit per Sale

Detailed example of how to calculate the break-even point

First, add up all the costs involved in creating and marketing the course, such as:

• content production
• recording
• edition
• hosting platform
• advertisements
• commissions

Next, calculate the net profit per sale, deducting fees and variable costs from the course price.

For example, imagine that you have:

• Cost of producing the course: $ 8,000
• Marketing expenses: $ 2,000
• Other fixed costs: $ 1,000

Total costs = $ 11,000

The course is sold for $ 297, and there are $ 47 in fees and commissions per sale.

Net profit per sale = $ 297 – $ 47 = $ 250

Applying the formula:

Break Even = $ 11.000 ÷ $ 250 = 44 sales

In this case, you will need to sell approximately 44 courses to recover the entire initial investment.

How to calculate how long it will take to reach break-even

After determining the required number of sales, estimate your average monthly sales.

For example:

• Break even: 44 sales
• Average sales: 11 courses per month

Time to reach break-even = 44 ÷ 11 = 4 months

Therefore, maintaining this pace, the investment will be recovered in about four months.

This analysis is very important for you to know exactly where you stand and to work with realistic expectations.

Based on this data, you can also adjust expenses, if necessary, and have a better understanding of how much you will need to charge and sell in order to obtain the desired profit.

– How to price online courses

2. Review your cash flow frequently

New entrepreneurs tend to focus too much on selling online courses and the profit generated, which ends up diverting their attention from cash flow.

Looking at profit and breakeven is a way to gain motivation, but you still need to focus on cash flow to act cautiously.

Follow along:

• Total revenue
• Total expenses
• Net cash flow
• Available balance

Frequent reviews allow for quick adjustments and greater financial control.

“Every month isn’t enough,” says Derek Flanzraich of Greatist. “I review my personal and business finances almost every week.”

– Google Ads: How to reduce costs with Google Ads 

3. Maintain an emergency fund

The world of new businesses is unpredictable, and to avoid wasting your time and investment and having to abandon your project in a short time, ensure you have an emergency fund, a startup survival kit.

In addition to saving your business, having this reserve will also benefit you as it gives you security and helps you stay calmer and more focused to sell online courses and continue with your growth plan.

Many experts recommend keeping a sufficient reserve to cover between three and six months of operating expenses.

4. Offer a variety of purchase options

If you’re starting out with little money, in addition to being able to sell online courses, you’ll have to learn to manage every penny you earn with discipline, because you know when the money will go out, but you’ll hardly be sure when it will come in.

So, offering diverse options in terms of both plans and products is a great way to increase your profit opportunities.

You don’t need to sell your course as a one-time sale, for example. You can opt for a monthly subscription system if you plan a course with extensive content.

With a platform like Coursify.me, which offers various payment methods and an easy billing system, recurring payment it’s the best way to reduce expenses and increase profits.

Another excellent solution for those seeking recurring income is to expand their product catalog.

You can create new modules for your course, new lessons, or vary the way you deliver the content by creating more info products, such as:

• Advanced courses
• Subscription-based communities
• Group mentoring programs
• Digital materials available for download
• Certification programs

Having multiple revenue streams helps reduce cash flow fluctuations and increases financial stability.

– 7 Types of Infoproducts to Increase Your Online Sales

TIP: If you need to increase your profits quickly, offer discounts to students who enroll by day X, for example, creating a sense of urgency. 

Plans with different prices for those who refer friends or subscribe for a longer period are also good options to keep in mind.

– Benefits of Recurring Payments for Online Courses 

5. Separate your personal finances from your business finances

This is usually the last thing on the minds of those starting to sell online courses, but believe us, it’s very important.

Many course creators start their businesses using the same account for personal and professional expenses.

This quickly creates confusion and ends up being a lot of work to sort out.

Keeping separate accounts improves financial planning and avoids spending personal money using company resources.

This separation also provides a clearer view of the business’s financial situation.

6. Make revenue forecasts

Controlling cash flow means not only monitoring current figures, but also anticipating future possibilities.

It is very important to be aware of market fluctuations in order to take preventative measures and make decisions that ensure the financial health of your business.

Create monthly projections based on:

• Sales history
• Seasonal trends
• Upcoming releases
• Marketing campaigns
• Subscription renewal fees

With AI tools, gathering, organizing, and analyzing this data has become much easier.

Having this forward-looking perspective is useful to create strategies that help maintain sales in the event of a downturn, for example.

You can prepare by creating new content, promotions, loyalty programs, focusing your advertising budget on higher-converting networks, and so on.

The important thing is to have data that increases your chances of making the right decisions.

– How to forecast sales for your online business

Make your financial plan and start to sell online courses

Even if you’re not a math genius, remember that the internet offers a variety of tools to help those who want to organize and maintain a financial plan.

Effective cash flow management not only helps to weather periods of lower demand, but also creates a solid foundation for sustainable growth and long-term success.

So, make your plan, have a clear idea of ​​what you will need to invest and the time and effort required to recover and make a profit, and get to work.

Start to create and sell online courses and chase your dream of owning your own business. We’re here to help you!

– How to transform your offline job into an online business

Complete e-learning platform, Coursify.me it’s the ideal solution for those who want to create, sell, and promote courses online.

Serving businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, the platform is a dynamic and customizable Learning Management System.

– Learning Management System: What is it?

Coursify.me offers three plan options so you can decide which one best suits your needs.

Visit our website, try the platform and start to sell online courses now.

The post Sell online courses: how to manage your business cash flow appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

Sell goes far beyond just announce something, it is necessary that the product offered to stand in the midst of competition and that the customer is convinced to buy it. For this reason, there are some persuasion techniques that are applied with success in sales strategies.

Sell Online Courses: 6 Laws of Persuasion that you should apply

Sell online courses using persuasion techniques is to guide the consumer to think in a certain way, make the decision that you want to. After all, persuasion is nothing more than the ability to convince someone.

Many people think that being persuasive is a gift, but, on the contrary, this is a quality that can be developed, studying and realizing how the human mind works.

The psychologist Robert Cialdini has released a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

He explores what he described as the Six Laws of Persuasion, which would be the following:

1. Reciprocity

This principle defines that people are more willing to agree to a request when something have been “given” to them in the first place.

To sell online courses according to this law, you can offer special discounts on the first purchase, facilitate the payment conditions, offer interesting content such as ebooks, handouts with summary of what was taught, a first free module of the course, among others.

2. Commitment and Consistency

People are more willing to act in a certain way if seeing this as being consistent with their previous behavior. Once we commit ourselves publicly with something or someone, we are much more likely to comply with this commitment.

Ask your customer to commit to something small, without cost, like to fill out a form, answer a satisfaction survey, create an account, etc. This increases the likelihood that your visitors see themselves as customers and end up buying your course.

3. Authority

The authority or perceived expertise of the communicator is an important factor for people to feel willing to agree or do something.

When it comes to sell online courses, this strategy must be built before, through content that proves the seller knowledge on the subject. This can be done through posts in blog, websites, social networks and other communication channels.

4. Social Proof

The more “popular” is perceived to be a behavior, the greater the tendency for someone to behave the same way. This fill the need of the human being to know that he is not alone.

Show number of subscribers, number of visits to the site, students registered in the course, testimonies of students and any other data that helps to create credibility and trust.

5. Scarcity

The attractiveness of a product/service/situation is inversely proportional to their availability. Feeling that we are going to lose something leads us to act with more emotion than reason.

Make an offer for a limited time, or pointing out that there is only X number of vacancies available is a great strategy to sell online courses.

6. Liking

People are more willing to help or agree with those from whom they like, have a relationship of friendship, for whom they feel attracted or consider to be similar to themselves.

Create a relationship with your audience. There are several ways to do this, like by having chats to talk with your audience, to find common ground between you and exploit them to gain attention and generate trust and affection.

Anyway, these are some techniques that you can apply to sell online courses and attract more students to your course.

To help you can count with the Coursify.me. Elearning platform  (LMS), Coursify.me has all the features you need to create and sell online courses with quality.

Please visit our website, learn more about the resources we offer, register your course and start profiting by doing what you like right now.

The post Persuasion techniques to sell online courses appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

This new reality puts distance education in focus, both as a learning opportunity as business opportunity. In addition to individuals interested in a more practical way to learn, companies are using online courses as a way to train employees and professionals as form of entrepreneurship, transforming knowledge in a new business.

Trends on distance education in Brazil

For you to have a concrete idea on the growth of distance education market in Brazil, we have made an analysis of the evolution of the number of courses, registrations and investments in the sector. The source of this research is the Distance Education 2014/2015 Census, where were analyzed 226 institutions exclusively educational and 15 educational and suppliers.

Distance education courses

In 2014 were offered 25.166 courses (between the institutions analyzed). In this case, the free courses were the most traded, with a total of 19.873, being 12.475 corporates and 7.398 not corporates. Then we have the regulated courses blended or online disciplines, which totaled 3.453 online courses, in addition to 1.840 regulated distance courses. Check out the percentage data in the following chart:

Registrations in distance education courses

The total number of registrations is to convince those who was still undecided. Only in 2014, the online courses totaled 3.868.706 new registrations, being 519.839 (13%) in the regulated distance courses, 476.484 (12%) in the regulated blended courses or online disciplines of regular courses and 2.872.383 (75%) in free courses, with an average of 154 registrations per course.

Investments in distance education

As regards investment performed in the sector, 51% of the institutions that operate in the sector have increased the resources directed to improvements and/or implementation of the distance learning modality in compare to the previous year.

With relation to the type of course that was the focus of investment, the majority of institutions worked with regulated fully online courses, with 36% of the total, as the following graph:

The investments of 66% of the institutions with focus in the area of technology and innovation, such as the quest for a eLearning professional platform. See in the graph the proportion of institutions in relation to the area of greatest relevance in terms of investment in distance education in 2014:

All these data show that the market of distance education in Brazil experience constant growth, constituting a great option of investment for companies, teachers and students.

Aware of this reality and confident in a future where access to quality education, independent of factors such as location and time, is increasingly easy, Coursify.me is working to provide to our users the best and most complete platform for online education of the market.

Our team provides support and ongoing updates for teachers and students to have a great experience and easily reach their goals. If you are interested in knowing our platform give a hello through the e-mail hello@coursify.me. It will be a pleasure to have you with us.

The post Distance education market in Brazil appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

In four days of much reflection on the challenges of education, the Bett Brasil Educar 2016 brought thousands of visitors, from Mary 18 to 21, in São Paulo. Both the congress and the fair had as tonic the impact of new technologies in teaching institutions – whether in the pedagogical area, whether in administrative management.

In an area of the fair dedicated only to exposure of startups of the education and technology segment, the Coursify.me have marked presence among the most innovative and impactful startups in the Brazilian scenario and had obtained excellent results.

During the four days of the event our team participated with interactive exhibitions and product demonstrations, and had the opportunity to talk with professionals of education throughout the country.

The results exceeded expectations and between the main benefits earned with our participation we can highlight:

• Users positive feedback;
• Interaction with professionals of the area and networking construction;
• Updates about the practices and news of the educational market;
• Capture of potential customers and mailing construction.

About to launch the official test version of the Coursify.me, our staff could not be more satisfied with the feedback received.

Coursify.me launch

After the feedback and requests of users who tested the product, our development team prepares the latest software updates for its official launching this week.

In this first moment all users may include an online course on the platform for free, without any charge of plans or fees.

To improve, all the system features are available for all our customers, regardless of the plan they choose.

It is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to launch their online school in a complete platform, with friendly interface, safe and efficient.

If you want to know more about everything that Coursify.me is ready to offer to our customers, please contact us by e-mail hello@coursify.me. Before the launch of our brand new site you can also check all of the system functions by clicking here.

We thank Bett Brazil Educar for organizing an event focused on debating a subject as important as the education in our country and still on top create a space in which new companies that invest in this area can interact, show their work and exchange information.

The fair was very important to check the adhesion of Coursify.me and the potential of the market that we want to enter. We can only say that we leave the event confident and ready to launch a product developed with much work and desire to make a difference.

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