Your first priority is to do your paid work because, without that, nothing else matters. What you'll learn in this course is how to set your prices so that they cover your costs and the cost of the time you spend while at the same time allowing you to make sure you give your customers the quality they wanted when they bought from you.

Once you have that time blocked off, you need to develop a plan for your business. This course shows you how to make plans for projects and for your organization so that you can schedule time to develop your business, break down the work into small steps and keep track of your progress.

Part of this process is to keep simple records of what goes on in your business and the direction in which you want to go.

Finally, after covering your customers and your internal matters, this course will show you how to treat suppliers, subcontractors and employees as partners, letting them share in the success of your ventures.

We'll first explore how to keep your business structure simple by running your business without employees, using sub-contactors and suppliers. But, depending on the business you have chosen, you may find that you need to hire help and this course gives you tips on hiring, keeping and motivating key employees.

After taking the course, you can use the message board at the Suite101 Business and Economics Community to continue to get the support you need from the course developer and from other course participants.

Once you get your business organized and running smoothly, you will have time to focus on your customers and to start moving the business towards your targets. This course will help you take control of your small business and give you the levers to take it where you want it to go. You started your small business because you had some goals in mind - if you don't seem to be getting there, it's time to take control and get going.