Starting a business accepting Bitcoin and I am interested in your opinions.

[glf]

Hey everyone!

I am setting up a online mentoring website for entrepreneurs, offering a class in business plan creation in exchange for Bitcoin. I am in the process of validating this idea as well as trying to calculate a fair and decent price for the service. So any input from you guys would be extremely valuable.

The team consists of two teachers from the University of Iceland, both having years of experience in writing business plans and starting companies. As of now we both teach two entrepreneurial classes at the university.

Johann has a BS-degree in math and physics and a PhD in computer science. He' worked at IBM, Apple Computers and Software AG to name a few companies, but for the last two decades he's been a professor at the University of Iceland. His latest startup to sell its products on international markets is the Tunerific guitar-tuner for smartphones. The Tunerific guitar-tuner and chord book have been downloaded by more than a million people in over 250 countries around the world.

Gudlaugur has a BS-degree in economics and MS-degree in computer science from the University of Iceland. He has worked as an economist and a software developer as well as creating two startup companies, one of which is a Bitcoin/Game currency exchange.

The course will be divided into 6-10 segments and in the end the entrepreneur will have written a  (hopefully) solid business plan.

• The mentoring itself is always one-on-one, so the entrepreneur himself can go through the course at his or hers own pace.
• Before each segment there would be a one-on-one meeting through Skype with either Johann or Gudlaugur. The entrepreneur then starts tackling the objectives for that segment.
• After the segment ends the entrepreneur hands in his writings and gets personal feedback from us in return.
• Before each segment starts we would also give the student valuable reading material (which is optional to read) as well as all templates and material needed to finish the current segment.
• We would also upload once or twice a week a micro-lecture, either from ourselves or other entrepreneurs/CEO's that we personally know. These lectures would cover topics relevant to the course.

So do you guys think this is a viable idea? What in your mind would, on average, an entrepreneur  wanting mentoring such as this be willing to pay for this service?

Also, if anyone here is interested in taking the class feel free to contact me and the first few will get a reasonable discount.

[countryfree]

In most cases, business plans must be local. You don't do business the same way in America or Europe. I've asked for help about a business plan a few times, and I don't think I would have done it over the Internet. I want to have someone in front of me.

[glf]

Hey countryfree, thanks for the reply.

We know that the most optimal thing when helping someone write a business plan is to help them face to face, so we will be have one-on-one meetings through Skype, as well as give them as much personal feedback as we can. What has always worked for me, and I've seen work very well in the class room, is to have access to good and solid feedback on your work. Telling someone what they should do, giving them material to read and templates to use can speed things up, but the most valuable thing you can give someone is constant feedback while they are writing their business plan. So we are aiming on building this online course on one-to-one tutoring and personal feedback.

As to local business plans, if you are aiming at applying for local grants then familiarity with local law and grants is always a plus. But a solid business plan is always solid, be it for a grant or investors. We are located in Iceland yet we have created or helped startups that have attracted investors from the US, Europe and Asia, the backbone always being a solid business plan.

You say you've been looking for some help regarding a business plan, give me a PM man I'll give you some advice if you want (free of charge of course  )