The Eight Essential Factors to Address When PLANNING Your Course

I once worked for a German boss that was a stickler for detail and planning. He was a hard taskmaster, and although he drove me to higher performance standards early in my career, his attention to detail in planning was often restrictive. 

Why? Because over planning can slow you down to the point where you never get around to actually executing the plan. Things move on, and plans end up having to be changed again and again.

So the trick is to plan the minimum you need to get started and give you a clear direction of what needs to be done in the future, and then amend your plan periodically as things evolve. 

In this post, I share the eight essential factors to address in your course planning phase so you can actually get started and make progress. I want to help you get things done and not get overwhelmed by the thought of being too much for you to do or frustrated and confused because you don't know where to begin.

Eight Essential Factors in the Planning Phase

In my experience, there are eight considerations to make when planning your online fashion course. Each of these should be addressed so that your course is designed strategically and not in isolation of the world in which it will exist and the marketplace it needs to thrive.

Being strategic and not rushing straight into course design but planning effectively leads to the following benefits.

Your course will:

1. Be competitive.
2. Be differentiated against the competition.
3. Appeal to its ideal student avatar.
4. Not overwhelm you during its creation phase.
5. Not overwhelm students that take it.
6. Be designed with your revenue goals in mind.
7. Be validated.
8. Be based on subjects you are passionate about and expert in.

So let me take you through each one of these characteristics and give you more details about each one.

1. Being Competitive

Being competitive means a course that

"Can be sold in profitable quantities on the basis of its price, quality, and service combination offered by you, over that offered by competing courses."

So it's not about just the price. Being competitive is not about being the cheapest but about combining several features and benefits with a certain quality that still attracts students from your competition when combined and sold at a certain price. 

It goes without saying that to be competitive, you need to carry out competitor research and analysis to know what you need to do to be competitive. Otherwise, it's like shooting in the dark without night vision!

So do your competitor research.

2. Differentiated Against the Competition

Once you have done a thorough review of your competition, you'll better understand what you have to build into your course and offer your students to be competitive. 

You will also see the opportunities to be different, to do things in a way that makes your course stand out. This may be through the features you offer. Still, your competition doesn't, such as downloadable workbooks or through the delivery style where your unique personality and on-camera approach shines through.

Inevitably you will find other tutors offering courses on the same subject. But this is a good sign because it is one of the factors that validate a market for your course, providing you build differentiation and remain competitive. 

So look for ways to be different.

3. Appealing to the Ideal Student Avatar

A student avatar is a fictional character you use to build up your ideal student profile, the person you are designing your course for. By considering your avatar's key characteristics for your online fashion course, you'll build up a deeper insight into them.

This avatar profile is then used to help you create your course, communicate your marketing messages, and choose the right words to use when writing your sales page to connect directly with your prospective students.

4. Not Overwhelming You During the Creation Phase

Planning effectively also means choosing the right types of online course to develop, especially when starting. Do you create a big signature course, one that all aspects of a topic or do you start with an entry-level course that is very specific? 

If this is your first or second course, then it makes sense to start with an entry-level course, but which one should you choose from the myriad of possibilities you can think of? Effective planning helps you choose that entry-level course and make that choice.

5. Not Overwhelming Students That Take It

Planning your online fashion course also involves considering how to avoid overwhelming your students when they take the course. So choosing what to teach and having a laser focus on specific challenges and pain points means you can reduce your courses' amount of content.

When there is less content involved in achieving the required goal, it takes less time for you to develop and less time for your student to achieve the transformation they so need. Everybody wins.

6. Designed With Your Revenue Goals In Mind

Strategic planning also involves considering the revenue goals you need for your course to make it all worth the while. You then know how many courses you need to sell each month to reach your goals.

Your revenue goals may be to earn enough to quit your job or simply enough to afford a proper two-week break every year or to contribute to your retirement fund. These will be personal to you.

Planning involves considering these revenue goals and any other motivators that are driving you to create your own online fashion courses.

7. Be Validated

When you validate your course, you test three things.

1. Does the target audience exist?
2. Is there the need that you think there is?
3. Will your course meet that need?

These are all tied together, and unless you have validated it and can prove that the course you are about to develop is worth doing, you risk designing and developing your course only to find it doesn't sell. 

So make sure you validate your course during your planning phase.

8. Based On Subjects You Are Passionate About And Expert In

Finally, your planning phase enables you to identify the best subject to teach in your course. It should be something you are passionate about and an expert in. If you're not the expert, you should have sufficient experience to enable you to create the course that will lead to the outcomes your students are looking for.

So be sure you pick the right topic.

Our Gift to You

If you'd like a free template for creating your ideal student avatar, enter your details here, and we'll send you ours. It comes as a PDF complete with explanatory notes.

Jump Start Your Course

You may also like to jump-start your course planning process by taking our FREE course How to PLAN Your Online Fashion Course Effectively. It is an essential short course for people setting out to create their own online fashion course. It covers everything you need to know to plan your course effectively, get started quickly and not waste time. Click here for more details.

Cheryl Gregory is the Founder of The Fashion Student Hub, a marketplace for selling online fashion courses. We Teach Fashion teaching fashion subject experts how to create and promote their own online courses, generate revenue and serve the growing need for online education in the fashion sector.