John Colley • Investment Banking Practitioner Series

Mini MBA: Business Strategy 2 Business Plan

Transform Your Strategy into an Investor-Ready Business Plan | MBA-Level Training for Entrepreneurs

★★★★½ 4.71 (304 ratings)  |  2,279 students enrolled  |  14.5 hours of video  |  167 lectures
Enrol on Udemy →
Discount applied automatically through this link
The promise

“From strategy framework to investor-ready business plan — the complete walk-through, with templates and a working case study.”

4.71★
Rating
2,279
Students
14.5
Hours
167
Lectures
June 2024
Updated

Why this course

Most business plans fail because they are written backwards. Founders start with the financials, paper over the strategy, and hope the investor doesn’t notice. Investors always notice. This course teaches the right order — strategy first, then plan — with frameworks, templates and a real case study you build alongside the lectures.

Fourteen and a half hours, 167 lectures. We cover strategic analysis frameworks and SWOT, key business school models, how to critically appraise management, building competitive advantage, evaluating competition, external markets and industry analysis, the Business Model Canvas, my Six Minute Strategist scorecards, the customer value proposition, sales and marketing frameworks, digital business transformation, the three financial statements, ratio analysis on a real case study, SMART goals and OKRs, growth strategy review, valuation funding exit and returns, risk assessment, and the synthesis into a complete plan.

By the end you have a finished, investor-ready business plan you wrote section by section as the course progressed.

What you will master

Every outcome below is built into the course — not a marketing list, the actual curriculum.

Discover how business strategy and business plan inter-connect
Master the main strategic analysis frameworks including SWOT
Apply the key business models taught in business school
Critically appraise management
Create competitive advantage for your products and services
Evaluate your competition using classic business models
Analyse external markets and industry sectors
Use the Business Model Canvas and other frameworks to assess operations
Apply my Six Minute Strategist Templated Scorecards
Master the customer value proposition
Apply business school frameworks to sales and marketing
Discover my Six Minute Strategist Digital Business Transformation methodology
Read and analyse the three main financial statements
Use ratio analysis on a real case study
Apply SMART goal setting and the OKR framework
Review growth strategies suitable for your business
Understand valuation, funding, exit and returns from an investor perspective
Run a risk assessment on your business
Synthesise a complete, comprehensive business plan as you progress

Who this course is for

  • Anyone interested in the fundamentals of strategy and creating a business plan
  • Entrepreneurs, C-suite directors and startups developing in-depth strategy and plan expertise
  • Business and MBA students deepening their strategy and business plan knowledge
  • Company owners preparing a plan to attract investors and raise capital

Requirements

  • No prior knowledge or experience required
  • Some spreadsheets require Excel, Numbers or LibreOffice

What students are saying

Verified reviews from students who completed the course on Udemy.

★★★★★

“John’s instruction is comprehensive, yet easy to follow. I appreciate his methodical efforts in organising the abundance of course materials and resources. I am extremely pleased and highly recommend this course.”

Paola Lombardi
Verified Udemy student
★★★★★

“The lecture so far is great, very explanatory, easy to understand and related to my organisation’s business. I now understand the ‘WHY’ behind some decisions made by my organisation.”

Chioma Amuta
Verified Udemy student
★★★★★

“Great course — all the knowledge, templates and techniques you need to start, grow and sustain a business. Highly recommended.”

Safi eljim Bousaada
Verified Udemy student
Your instructor

John Colley

Investment banker turned educator. 30+ years across Hoare Govett, M&A, private equity and corporate finance. Cambridge graduate, Bayes Business School MBA with Distinction.

Author of the Investment Banking Practitioner’s Handbook Series — the largest practitioner-authored IB content library available online. Trusted by 150,000+ students across 30+ Udemy courses.

Every course is built on real deal experience — not textbook theory. The voice is a senior banker explaining how things actually work, not a lecturer reading notes.

Ready to enrol?

Lifetime access. 30-day Udemy money-back guarantee. Mobile and desktop. Certificate of completion.

Enrol on Udemy →
Discount applied automatically through this link
Part of John Colley’s finance course library on Udemy. More courses at jbdcolley.com