Mon, 03 Dec 2012

When Calgary and Toronto-based GoForth Institute opened its doors three years ago, the founders did not think their plans would change.

But, as Communications Manager Samantha Garner will tell you, such is the changing nature of entrepreneurship.

“It’s just been fun to see how the business has evolved,” said Garner. “When we started we were doing traditional classroom based training and then we went on to the web based video learning and now we’re developing educational apps for high school and post secondary, which is not something we planned on doing three years ago.”

The way GoForth has evolved mirrors that of the world in which it seeks to give its customers training in.

The business world cannot be predicted easily, and so GoForth wants to “improve the odds of successful entrepreneurship through effective, relevant and timely education and ongoing support during venture start-up and growth stages.”

Dr. Leslie Roberts founded the firm in 2009 as a way to deliver comprehensive small business education.

Prior to this, Roberts had founded a research firm named Mercatus Research, served as a management consultant, and received her PhD in entrepreneurship - the first person in Canada to do so. She continues to lecture at Mount Royal University's Bissett School of Business and the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business. She has spent 14 years instructing and mentoring students on entrepreneurship, marketing and marketing research. Roberts has even published scholarly research as recently as the fall of 2010 when an article appeared in the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (JSBE).

The company transitioned its focus from in-class learning to web-based modules to more effectively train their often busy, on-the-go clientele. The firm is now developing educational apps for high school students.

“We’re really excited about those because they’re actually ‘gamified’ and that’s something people have been saying they want,” said Garner.

A key to constructing these apps has been to ensure that they are “pedagogically sound”. They have to follow a curriculum, be testable and viable as content and not just fluff or filler for the game.

But what can GoForth offer in services for an already cash-strapped startup? After all, as Garner admits herself, the odds are stacked against most small businesses from the start.

The content it offers is extremely comprehensive - something GoForth prides itself on. One of the main priorities in delivering this content is making sure small business owners are prepared for almost everything.

“We really stress being prepared 100% before you open your doors,” said Garner. “We encourage business plans, marketing plans or any planning tool you can use before you start selling your first product,” said Garner.

The cost of a typical course at GoForth is $295, and this includes 10 modules of 30 lessons, running at 20 minutes each. All told it is over 10 hours of content. Garner says that they based their price on customer feedback and what they were willing to pay.

“It’s an investment in the business and I think people understand that,” she said.

Moving forward one area of focus is reaching for customers in remote locations. For now it is business as usual though.

“We just want to keep doing what we’re doing, listen to what people are telling us and give people what they want,” said Garner.

While the company has been entirely self-funded thus far, Garner says that Fundica's free online funding tool can be an asset for businesses.

"I think Fundica's online tool is a great way for business owners to find the best funding for them, and I'm impressed by how comprehensive the database is," she said.