Every January there is a renewed excitement about the coming year. It is when we make resolutions and commitments to accomplishing certain tasks.

Just the same, every year around July we wonder where the time went!

It is hard to believe but we are halfway through the year. If you are like me then you probably have a list of things that you planned on doing but have yet to get done. Such is life.  🙂

But I am here to tell you that if one of those items on your lists is to create an online course business then it is not too late to get started. Far from it.

Overwhelmed? Here are some numbers…

If you have been procrastinating your course then you are not alone. Most people simply feel overwhelmed by all that has to be done – from creating the content to setting up your website.

The best approach is to take it step-by-step in manageable chunks. Start achieving “mini-wins” and these will add up.

So let’s take a look at the numbers from a course content perspective. In this scenario, we’ll imagine that you begin creating your course on July 1st of this year.

First thing to consider is that most online courses aren’t that long, so we’ll assume your course is an hour in length.

If you think your course will be more than hour then I encourage you to find a way to make it only an hour. There are multiple reasons for this but in most important for now is that it will allow you to launch quicker.

Now, if you start on July 1st and dedicate 10 hours to your course each week (that’s two hours of work per day and still giving you the weekends off), then you will have it completely done in just 10 weeks from now!

How do I know this?

When I was consulting major corporations on their e-learning development we would often quite 99 hours of development time for every 1-hour of online course instruction. Good news is that this is a pretty conservative estimate so there is a good chance you would develop your course even quicker.

Two Alternative Approaches

If 10 weeks feels too long then you have a couple alternatives. First is to find starter content for your courses. This will speed up the course creation time.

Second is to forget about creating your course for the time being and start your marketing efforts instead. This way you can pre-sell your course before you even have to make it!

Both of these methods work, you just have to decide which fits best for your situation.

The point is that you still have a lot of time left this year to get your course business launched. When you look at the numbers it is completely conceivable that you can be in business by early fall – you just have to commit to it!