First Steps to Starting a Business
Thinking About Starting a Business? Start Here!
This free, interactive online class will help you explore your business idea, assess your entrepreneurial readiness, and identify your strengths and weaknesses as a business owner. Discover what information you need and where to find it.
This course is provided to you at no charge courtesy of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UW-Madison.
This interactive online class includes downloadable worksheets, hands-on exercises, stories from local entrepreneurs, and additional resources to help you determine your next steps.
You will learn how to answer these questions:
- Do you have the right personality, skills, and life situation to start and manage a business?
- Do you have a realistic business idea?
- Is your business idea well thought out?
- Are you financially ready to start a business?
- What are your next steps?
Registration Information
Schedule: Anytime
Location: Anywhere
Fee: No Cost
What’s Next?
After you’ve taken First Steps, you can dive deeper into your learning with Biz Smart Sprint or the Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP).
If you want a structured program to help you move quickly toward launch or a full business plan, the ETP may be the right fit.
If you prefer a lower‑commitment way to learn business basics, Biz Smart Sprint might be best.
For a comparison of the programs, click the link below
The First Steps to Starting a Small Business course offers the opportunity to take away so many decisions and choices when getting started as an entrepreneur. Instead, the course offers the chance for guidance, structure, reflection, and an opportunity to take that next foreseeable step. The class made a big difference in my ability to move forward rather than being stuck. I especially enjoyed the stories of Wisconsin entrepreneurs and their journeys in starting a small business. It is pretty amazing that this course is offered at no cost!
The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin. It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison is also part of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub at UW-Madison.
The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison helps entrepreneurs succeed at any stage. We offer no-cost, confidential consulting and business education across a wide region, primarily serving Dane, Sauk, and Columbia counties. SBDC services are provided in a nondiscriminatory way to all legal residents and citizens in the US.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.