What is the aim of this course?
More and more firms are switching from transaction-based businesses to subscription businesses. This business model requires a different approach when it comes to analyzing it in Excel. During some consulting projects, you may be asked to analyze or model subscription business models in Excel and advise firms on the best course of action. In this course, I will teach how to model fast and efficiently subscription businesses in Excel and how to analyze them during consulting projects.
In the course you will learn the following things:
How to model different subscription businesses in Excel
How to analyze whether the switch to a subscription model makes sense or not
How to analyze customer acquisition
This course is based on my 15 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting firms and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, performance improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest firms from Retail, FMCG, SMG, B2B, and services sectors that I worked for. I have carried out or supervised over 90 different performance improvement projects in different industries that generated a total of 2 billion in additional EBITDA. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained in person over 100 consultants, business analysts, and managers who now are Partners in PE and VC funds, Investment Directors and Business Analysts in PE and VC, Operational Directors, COO, CRO, CEO, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 224 000 students including people working in EY, Walmart, Booz Allen Hamilton, Adidas, Naspers, Alvarez & Marsal, McKinsey, PwC, Dell, Walgreens, Orange, and many others.
I teach through case studies, so you will have a lot of lectures showing examples of analyses, and tools that we use. To every lecture, you will find attached (in additional resources) the Excels as well as additional presentations, and materials shown in the lectures so as a part of this course you will also get a library of ready-made analyses that can, with certain modifications, be applied by you or your team in your work.
Why have I decided to create this course?
Subscription businesses are not the dominant form in most industries. Many people struggle with capturing the complexity of such businesses in Excel. Subscription businesses also require a totally different approach to customer acquisition and retention. Most universities are not addressing this sort of business. Also, some consulting firms don’t provide their consultants with enough opportunities to understand and learn how subscription businesses work.
Therefore, I have decided to create this course that will help students understand or refresh their knowledge of subscription businesses. The course will give you the knowledge and insight into real-life case studies that will make your life during a consulting project much easier. Thanks to this course, you will know what and how to do during consulting projects devoted to subscription businesses. You will master the modeling of subscription businesses in Excel and analyze whether the switch to such a model will make sense. On top of that, you will learn how to approach customer acquisition and retention.
To sum it up, I believe that if you want to become a world-class Management Consultant or Business Analyst you have to have a pretty decent understanding of subscription businesses. That is why, I highly recommend this course to Management Consultants or Business Analysts, especially those who did not finish business school or Economics. The course will help you become an expert in subscription businesses on the level of McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top consulting firms.
In what way will you benefit from this course?
The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tons of analyses, tricks, and hints that will significantly improve the speed with which you understand, and analyze businesses. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that thanks to the course you will learn:
1. How to model different subscription businesses in Excel
2. How to analyze whether the switch to a subscription model makes sense or not
3. How to analyze customer acquisition
You can also ask me any question either through the discussion field or by messaging me directly.
How the course is organized?
The course is divided currently into the following sections:
Introduction. We begin with a little intro to the course as well as some general info on how the course is organized.
Essential Concepts. We will start by explaining some essential concepts that later we will use to describe and show you the differences between subscription businesses. I will explain what we mean by subscription businesses, churn rate, MRR, and MRR churn. I will also provide examples of firms using a subscription model.
Modeling Subscription Businesses in Excel. Modeling Subscription Businesses in Excel requires a bit different approach than transaction-based businesses. We will show you in this section how to do it. I will start with transaction-based e-commerce, after which we will show you how to model e-commerce as a subscription. Later on, we will also model the streaming businesses.
SaaS. A lot of SaaS businesses run as subscription businesses. We will discuss what SaaS is, what KPIs you should pay attention to, and how to model them in Excel.
Customer Acquisition. Without customer acquisition, you will not enjoy much growth. In e-commerce, you will spend a lot of time optimizing and finding more optimal ways to acquire customers. In this section, we will discuss how to calculate customer acquisition costs, how to lower them, and how to increase the value of the customer.
You will be able also to download many additional resources
1. Useful frameworks and techniques
2. Models & Analyses shown in the course
3. Additional resources
4. Links to additional presentations, articles, and movies
5. Links to books worth reading
At the end of my course, students will be able to…
How to model in Excel subscription businesses
How to analyze whether the switch to a subscription business
What are the main challenges in subscription businesses?
How to calculate customer acquisition costs
How to reduce customer acquisition costs
How to increase the value of the customer
How to model e-commerce, streaming business, and SaaS business in Excel
Who should take this course? Who should not?
Management Consultants and Business Analysts
Managers
Financial Controllers
Investment Analysts
Startup Founders
Project Managers
Managers responsible for Acquisitions and Mergers
What will students need to know or do before starting this course?
Basic or intermediate Excel
Basic knowledge of economics
Basic or intermediate knowledge of finance & accounting