The delivery woman knocks at the door.

You open it, to find a parcel there.

At last!

It’s a new kitchen gadget – let’s say, one of those spiraliser things that turns veg into pasta ribbons.

You’re impatient to try it out and want to use it that night to cook dinner.

No time like the present!

So when you open up the box and eagerly get it out, you’re not necessarily interested in reading through the manual… looking into the health benefits… opening up special recipe books… trying all the variables and settings.

You just want to get started.

Really, you only want to know how to plug it in, set it up, and use the basic settings.

The other stuff can come later.

This is why most gadgets… whether it’s phones and computers, gardening equipment or cooking gizmos… come with a ‘quick start guide’ among all the other more detailed instructions.

It’s usually the simplest, most direct way to use the item safely.

The reason they put these into products is because they KNOW the psychology of customers.

They know that not everyone wants to plough through reams of instructions.

Not everyone wants to know the theory, the background, the secrets, the wide range of applications or the specialist tricks.

Not everyone has the time or patience to go that deep into it.

Not at first, anyway.

So the quick start is something very valuable, and desirable, for those particular people.

It offers them a no-nonsense guide that saves them time.

Well, there is a similar type of online course that does this very same thing.

It’s one of the THREE types of course I recommend you consider as a beginner.

And while this ‘quick start’ type is sometimes dismissed as the ‘easiest’ or ‘least valuable’, that’s actually not quite true.

Put in a bit of work, and you could create something that people really, really want to get their hands on.

And they’ll happily pay you for it, or hand over their email address in return for it, even if what you produce is quite short and straightforward.

Quick Start Courses Explained…

A ‘Quick Start’ course doesn’t try to cover a lot of ground. It doesn’t go into too much detail, or get too deep into background, theory and application.

Instead, a Quick Start Course is focused on the key essentials that a beginner will need in order to achieve a certain goal, or avoid a certain problem.

For instance, it might be

• How to set up a basic accounts spreadsheet for a pop-up food stall.
• How to set up a private Facebook Group.
• How to set up an office to make it coronavirus-friendly.
• How to create a fertile vegetable patch in a small garden.

The idea is that you take the customer through a step-by-step process to get them to the goal as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What you don’t want is to give them too much…

And the beauty of this kind of course is, the customer doesn’t WANT too much.

Your job is to avoid that!

They’ll not be disappointed that it’s relatively short and sweet.

Instead they’ll thank you for cutting through all the clutter and noise to deliver a simple process that saves them time and energy.

In effect, that’s what they are signing up for.

So when it comes to creating a Quick Start Course, the hard work is in NOT putting things in… it’s in REMOVING unnecessary information, background and steps… and editing it so that it is streamlined and simple.

Which is why Quick Starts are not necessarily ‘easy’ to make.

They can still take effort in finding the right information and presenting it clearly. You will have to spend time planning the contents, working out what to include and – just as importantly – what not to include.

Once you’ve done that, you need to work out what you want your Quick Start Course to achieve.

Three Ways You Can Profit

There are three different ways you can use a Quick Start Course…

You can promote it as a ‘freebie’ (often referred to as a ‘lead magnet’ or ‘freemium’) in order to attract customers who are interested in the subject matter or topic.

When they sign up to get the course, they hand over their email address to you.

Upon delivery, you can upsell them to another course, or a higher level of the course, which they will need to pay for.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a product yet, then there is a second, less direct way, to make money.

You can use those email addresses you get from your Quick Start Course to begin building a database of customers whom you can email with further information and tips every week.

These will become your future target market.

This is a great way to test the water for your ideas, create a bond of trust, and establish yourself as an authority.

You won’t make money directly, but your email database will create the foundations of a profitable business further down the line.

The third way to make money is to charge for your Quick Start Course.

This can be anything but usually up to £99.

The price usually depends on the value of the outcome you’ll deliver and the niche.

Where there is more of a financial gain, or something that helps people save themselves a huge amount of time, or pain, then the price is towards the top end of that spectrum.

While this is the least expensive type of course you can create, please understand that the low price doesn’t always make a difference to your customers’ expectations.

I have published £37 Quick Start products where people are just as demanding of support as you’d get with a £5,000 product.

So I recommend that you set clear boundaries on what you’re prepared to deliver, and make that clear up front when you sell your Quick Start Course.

For instance I would suggest you don’t offer any form of direct support unless you are using this as a beta test/information gathering access.

If you do it right, the Quick Start can be almost as valuable as a more expensive course, as you’re creating a comparably short piece of work in return for a decent price – far more than you’d earn selling a £10 book, for instance.

Ultimately, a Quick Start Course can be a good way to introduce yourself if you’re new in a market.

And it can be a great way to get started in this business.

However, that doesn’t mean it should automatically be the first kind of course you create.

In the next email, I’ll tell you about something called a ‘Focus Course’ which can work just as well for you.