Plan the first 90 days
See this course’s project requirements
A business practice packet: a customer-problem brief, one-page offer, validation record and justified decision, setup checklist, outreach plan, and operating scorecard. Use the supplied fictional café case or clearly identified permitted real evidence. A supported proceed, revise, or stop decision is a complete learning result.
Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.
What to include
- A problem brief with classified source notes, a customer-problem statement citing at least two notes, one counterexample or evidence gap, and a useful follow-up question. Use the four supplied fictional notes or clearly identified real evidence you have permission to use.
- Draft a one-page offer with customer, result, scope, exclusions, price, timeline, and next step. Identify assumptions separately from supported facts.
- A validation record showing the test, the decision rule chosen beforehand, classified observed results, and a justified decision to proceed, revise, or stop. Include a limitation and one bounded next test. Use the supplied practice case or clearly identified real-world evidence.
- Draft a setup checklist naming requirements to verify, responsible official sources or support, status, and next actions. Keep unresolved items marked pending.
- Build a sales-process plan with a sample prospect list, outreach draft, stages, and dated follow-ups. Use fictional records for practice.
- Create an operating scorecard with costs, capacity, cash timing, and review dates. Label assumptions and explain one decision using sample results.
Review and revise
Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.
- Claims can be traced to source notes. Fictional inputs, reported behavior, opinions, assumptions, and missing evidence are distinguished.
- The problem and offer fit the customer situation supported by the notes and acknowledge counterevidence.
- The original decision rule is applied accurately. A justified negative finding or revise/stop decision meets the criterion.
- The next test changes one defined element, sets a rule in advance, and names resource limits.
- Plans are internally consistent and record unresolved checks honestly. Assessment depends on reasoning and the work produced, not sales or outside approval.
Want more background?
The idea in everyday life
For the first 90 days, track both your weekly actions and their results. Record messages sent, conversations, offers, sales won, revenue, direct costs, delivery time, mistakes, and available cash. Use these to check cash, work quality, and what to improve.
The first system is a loop: sell, deliver, collect evidence, improve, repeat.
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
Create a standard delivery checklist and define what ‘done’ means before work begins.
- 2
Build a weekly scorecard template for cash received, costs, outstanding invoices, reserves to verify, and available delivery hours. Use the supplied planning assumptions and label them.
- 3
Model one hypothetical delivery at the $450 case price with six hours at a $20 planning cost per hour and $30 other direct costs. Calculate the amount remaining before overhead and tax; show when payment is assumed to arrive.
- 4
Explain one decision from the hypothetical week and write a customer-feedback question for possible fieldwork. Set weekly review dates across a 90-day plan.
See how it works.
In a hypothetical week, one $450 delivery uses six hours at a $20 hourly planning cost plus $30 of other direct costs: $450 − ($120 + $30) = $300 before overhead and tax. Two available delivery slots would use 12 delivery hours; sales and administration need separate time. The scorecard records payment timing as an assumption and checks capacity before planning another job.
Did you cover these?
- Revenue is separated from cash received and profit.
- The scorecard includes delivery quality as well as sales.
- Each weekly review ends with one named experiment and decision date.
What to finish
A 90-day scorecard template with one labeled hypothetical week, cost and capacity calculations, a cash-timing assumption, and a justified next decision.
Watch for this
Growing revenue while ignoring cash timing, fulfillment capacity, and unpaid tax obligations.
How can I tell I understand it?
You can distinguish assumptions from observed results and explain a cost, cash-timing, or capacity constraint using the practice numbers.
Quick knowledge check
Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
Go to the knowledge checkOptional course overview video · same video as Lesson 1
An Introduction to the SBA
From U.S. Small Business Administration. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Revisit the SBA's categories of assistance and select support based on the constraint visible in your scorecard, such as accounting, contracting, or financing.Tools, templates, and lesson sources
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