The Lab

Have a great idea for a business but not sure if it will work?

Don’t worry we’ve got you! The sixty:forty Lab Course will help you gain clarity, confidence and get you ready to launch!

Starting a new business or launching from an idea is one of the most exciting things that you will do. This journey will likely come from the desire for freedom and independence. If you are living with unfulfilled ideas and ambitions it’s time to use the sixty:forty platform to develop your potential, explore different opportunities and achieve both personal and financial success.

Testing a business idea.

In this course you’ll work directly with sixty:forty Co-Founder, Sheree Cusack, to create your Lab Project.  This process takes your business idea and creates a strong foundation so you can launch your business with confidence.

Whether you’ve got a great idea and want to test the market to see if your idea has potential, or if you want to attract interested professionals to help make your plan a reality – we offer the perfect place for you.

To start a business involves risk. How can you test your idea without risking too much of your time, effort of money? The answer is … in THE LAB.

This workshop is not just for aspiring entrepreneurs. It is also for seasoned operators who want to re-build or transform their business for maximum earning potential.

In this hands-on training, you’ll create your own Lab Project that will help when testing a business idea. This will help you challenge your thinking and firm up your ideas about your new business or division. More importantly, you will start getting this all down on paper so that you can begin to build your ‘Make it Happen Team’.

If you want to develop your idea based on proven, step-by-step processes that work, then you’ll definitely want to join in.

So how do you launch a new business with confidence and tilt the scales of success in your favour? Short story, you take your idea and you pressure test it. You focus on the core elements of your business model. The five core elements of any initial business test are:

5 steps to testing a business idea

These core elements are identified for your business using high impact strategies you can implement in a few hours – not weeks or months.

By the time we’re finished, you’ll have developed your business idea into a fully fledged Lab Project ready to move to the next phase.

What you’ll learn when testing a business idea.

How to craft a Value Proposition that hits on all of the key points to really sell your business .. even if you’ve never written anything like this before. (TIP: Our fill-in-the-blank templates make it quick and simple)

Identify whether your business or idea is looking to solve the ‘right’ problem

The 7 step approach to building your Customer Avatar that brings your customer to life so you can clearly understand their need to get things done, their goals and challenges

Discover the 6 different types of product that you can create from your one idea

Learn how to use Google to identify the top competitors in your market and find out what it means if you can’t find any paid competitors in your niche (plus what you should do next)

The 7-step calculation you can do to quickly assess whether your idea is financially viable

By the time we’re finished, you’ll have a Lab Idea that is ready to launch.

Here’s what we’ll create together…

There’s a lot of bright shiny things out there and lots of people trying to sell you into their new coaching programs, all claiming to help you when testing a business idea. We are not coaches and we are not consultants. We are ‘Coach-sultants’ who show you what you need to get done and how to actually make it happen.

We’ve seen what works when starting a business (and more importantly what doesn’t). We know what it takes to get your idea off the ground.

So while there’s no guarantee of success in your venture, there’s a number of things you can do along the way to increases your chances.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll actually create your entire Lab Project ready to launch, including:

  • Having clarity over your reasons for being in business
  • Crafting your Value Proposition
  • Doing a back of the envelope Financial Viability Check
  • Building your Customer Avatar worksheets
  • Identifying your core product that solves the customers need
  • Developing clarity over Industry Trends, Changes and Challenges
  • Identify and analyse your Competitors
  • Begin Building your Organisation Chart
  • Identifying the Profit Formula that supports your Business Model

Cut through all of this noise and join Sheree Cusack, sixty:forty co-founder, as she breaks down how to take your idea from a thought bubble and turn it into a firm, actionable plan.

Course Breakdown

Part 1 – Foundation

Develop clarity on exactly what you want to be in business and what you want to achieve out of having your own business, by working step-by-step through our personal and business Vision worksheets. Critical when testing a business idea.

Part 2 – Defining the Opportunity

We’ll walk you through crafting the Value Proposition statement that defines your idea, identifies the problem that you are solving and how you will solve it. You will develop an understanding of the six different product types and how you can use them craft your customer’s value journey.

Part 3 – Identifying your Target Market and Competitors

You will work through a systematic approach to identifying the size of your market and building a customer avatar based upon our template. You’ll learn how to use Google to identify the competitors in your market and find out what it means if you can’t find any paid competitors in your niche.

Part 4 – Selling your Product

Dive into understanding the different ways that you can bring your product to market and apply the 6-Q approach to evaluating each option.

Part 5 – Who’s on your Team

In this section you will work through the Team you have now (or are wanting to build) and introduce you to the Functional Organisation Chart so you have a framework to identify any position gaps that need to be filled.

Part 6 – The Profit Formula

Here we will look at building the profit formula that will support your business model. We will identify the key drivers of income and expenses in your business idea and see how optimisation of expenses relating to your key resources and processes can enable your business to come to life. There is no point starting a business if it does not make money.

Meet your Instructor

Sheree Cusack

Experienced Public Accountant and Registered Tax Agent

Sheree is co-founder of sixty:forty, a Public Accountant and Registered Tax Agent. She holds an undergraduate Bachelor’s degree from UNE and a Masters degree in Taxation from UNSW. As a long term member of CPA Australia and a Chartered Tax Advisor she has operated her own public accounting practice firm from 2005. 

Sheree Cusack - CEO & Co-founder

Have questions about starting a business?

No problem, talk to one of the team about The Lab today.

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We're on a mission...

We want to create a world where people successfully start, build, manage and grow their small business in a way that leads to a meaningful and prosperous life for themselves and families, their team and the wider community.

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