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Real-Life Business Case Study Scenarios
EzyLearn has been developing its own software training courses since 1996. Our training course materials include:
- step-by-step workbooks
- exercise files
- educational demonstration videos
- knowledge review tests.
We are continuously adding content to our courses, using the ‘Micro Courses Concept’ (or, in other words, case studies).
Case studies are a great way to really flesh out our course content and breathe life into our courses, because they give you a relevant way of learning that is specifically linked to real-life, real-time situations — based on real people.
Below are some of our micro courses, or case studies, and where to find them. We can alert you when we add new micro courses — simply subscribe to our blog.
Investing in a Granny Flat (for Intermediate Excel)
This micro course features as part of our Microsoft Excel Intermediate Course (Course 306) or as a stand alone course, available separately.
With the Australian property market having gone gangbusters for almost an entire generation now, many people are exploring the option of adding a granny flat to their properties. Regional areas like Newcastle and Wollongong still have plenty of house and land opportunities that lend themselves to building a second dwelling on an existing block.
Sometimes a granny flat is built to house a relative (the proverbial ‘granny’ flat) but just as often they are constructed to be used as an investment to reap a higher income return from an existing property. Our new “Investing in a Granny Flat” Micro Course is designed to give you the tools to work out the total costs, estimated return, and even expenses and tax aspects like depreciation, so you can make an educated financial calculation and decision.
This micro course is available separately as a stand alone course or is included in the Microsoft Excel Intermediate Course (Course 306).
Wipe Thousands Off Your Mortgage (for Advanced Excel)
Deposits, repayments, principal and interest are some terms most of us speak about often, or at least when we are managing the mortgage on our home or investment properties, or other debts.
We have created the micro course “Wipe Thousands Off Your Mortgage” that provides loan payment formulas that are included in Microsoft Excel and how, with a little discipline and good use of your earnings or wages, you can save thousands in interest expenses — more than double, in fact, than you have to spend.
This micro course is available as part of our Microsoft Excel Advanced Course.
Ad Hoc Payroll (for MYOB, Xero and Excel)
A ‘Micro Business’ is another name used for independent contractors who work by themselves, or with a business helper. These business often don’t follow regular payroll processing procedures because their cash flow and payment needs can be inconsistent.
We have created an “Ad Hoc Payroll” Micro Course which demonstrates how PAYG, Super and other payroll transactions can be managed with the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets rather than with complicated accounting software packages and their payroll modules.
This micro course comes as a detailed spreadsheet and is available as part of the Payroll courses for MYOB Payroll (Course 505), Xero Payroll (Course 515) and Advanced Excel (Course 308).
Reconciling Bank Statements for a Messy Startup
We’ve created a real-life start up scenario centred around someone who has left the corporate world because they want to start working closer to home and choose their own work hours.
We’ve included factors that are inherent to startups, like director’s loans, wage payments and other activities less common in an established business.
This case study was created to provide students with experience in creating journal entries and understanding what to look for when it comes to asset purchases, depreciation and transactions that contain different components of GST.
This micro course is used in the Xero Bank Reconciliation and Journal Entries (Course 513).
Use Microsoft Excel PivotTables and PivotCharts to Schedule Rooms and Staff
In 2004 (yes EzyLearn has been operating since 1996), we operated and managed physical computer training centres in Sydney’s Lane Cove, Dee Why, Gordon, Chatswood and Parramatta.
We had thousands of students enrolling into lots of different courses, at different times of the day and night, and our CEO wanted to know which were the most popular.
Steve created the training schedule each quarter to allocate training rooms, trainers, training resources like workbooks, floppy disks (yes that’s what we used back then) and Tim Tams. Our most popular courses back then were:
- MYOB on Saturdays
- Microsoft Excel in the evenings
- Absolute Beginners, File Management and using Email and Web Browsers during the day!
In our Microsoft Excel Advanced Training Course we use the actual live data of enrolments for 2004 (removed any student names and details of course!).
We take you through a number of different exercises to demonstrate how we made executive strategic decisions about the business based on historical data and using Pivot Tables and Pivot charts in Microsoft Excel.
See what’s included in the Microsoft Excel Advanced Training Course and some of the Excel Course Exercises files we use.
Corporate Employee & Small Business Owner
Meet Jerry and join his journey as he builds up his first and subsequent businesses. We base his experiences on real life work, business and every day scenarios as we update our course content and integrate our highly popular software accounting courses with business start up ones.
Jerry is part of our online Xero course training courses.
Xero Course: Quarterly Reporting, Cashflow, Budgets and Strategic Decisions
Based on the transactions in our Xero Bank Reconciliations course we follow our Corporate Executive, come small business owner, as he navigates the world of small business. We use financial information to see what can be improved, what needs to change and what is doing very well.
We look at mistakes made about funding larger capital purchases and some of the other options available to Jerry as well as other ways to improve cash flow and budgets to help run a smoother business next quarter. In this course Jerry uses data from Xero reports to explore business opportunities:
- selling training courses for EzyLearn
- being a trade agent for local trades people by providing a measure and quote service in exchange for a percentage of the sale value using HiPages as one lead source
- doing a real estate agents course, becoming a real estate licencee and hiring a real estate agent
- valuing a business and selling it.
Daily Transactions for Products & Services Businesses
One of the case studies we use in our popular bookkeeping training courses (MYOB, Xero & QuickBooks Online) are based on the common transactions entered into by most building, trade and professional services business which sell a combination of stock items as well as their time pulling a project together. We use the example of a VoIP telephon system provider and installer. This organisation:
Buys stock of common products they sell, service and replace on a regular basis- Keeps track of which products are most popular and provide the best profit and also which ones take a long time to sell
- Buys products from large suppliers who provide payment terms and also deliver the inventory items in an adhoc basis based on the stock they have on their own shelves
- Visits prospective prospects to understand what they need and use the software to provide quotations which are converted to orders and invoices if they get the sale
- Includes products they stock, items they buy in as well as the time of their employees to provide a full service to their clients.
- Gives their own clients payment terms, receives part payments, deposits etc and has to run Accounts Receivable Reports to see how much money is owing
- much more
This case study relates to businesses like plumbers, electricians, small builders, chippies and other trades as well as marketing people and most consultants. It can even apply to businesses which sell mainly products.
Learn more in the
- Xero Beginners Training Courses & Advanced Certificate in Xero Course
- MYOB Beginners & Advanced Training Courses
- QuickBooks Online Training Courses
Micro Courses in Development
Releasing Equity in Your Home Loan Mortgage
Using some real life examples from the New South Wales Newcastle Property Market we demonstrate how property owners in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne can use the recent increase in their homes to release equity and use that to borrow to buy an investment property in a regional area like Newcastle. In Newcastle, you can still buy a house and land, carry out subdivisions, add granny flats, perform renovations and get a great solid return on your equity.
Learn more about our property investment courses & training materials
Asbestos Removal Company
Tristan has been working in the Asbestos removal and demolition for over 10 years in his family business and then decided to go it alone and focus mainly on the asbestos removal service. Being trades focussed his computer skills are at a beginner level and much of the lingo that is used in all aspects of accounting, office administration and marketing were confusing. EzyLearn CEO Steve Slisar was lucky enough to meet him while he was coming to quote on asbestos removal quote and the rest is history. With Tristans permission the EzyLearn team were able to help Tristan better use technology to manage several different parts of Tristan’s business so you’ll see these real life scenarios drawn out and explained in logical order in some of our training courses.
What I like about Tristan’s business is that he does a good and thorough job for a reasonable price. When I received quotes for asbestos testing and removal I received quotes from very slick operators who had all the fancy bells and whistles (their quote was twice as high as ABS) and I also received quotes from cowboys who I thought were just going to kick the garage down. From such an amazing range of choices Tristan and his team were the obvious choice for me and I’m thrilled that he has allowed us to use their business as a case study in someone of our training courses. Steve Slisar, CEO EzyLearn
Courses include:
Mark the Tradesperson Starts his Own Business
As part of our EzyStartUp Course, we give you the real-life case study of Mark the Painter and Decorator. This case study outlines the questions asked by every business owner when they first start a business: What should I do and how much should I charge?
The answers may seem simple at first. For instance, a Painter and Decorator just beginning their business might say, “I should paint and I should probably charge a low day rate”.
Delving into this a little deeper, things become more complex, with some people wanting a fixed quote, others wanting broader ‘handyperson’ help, and others expecting a Level 1 painter, complete with all of the tools and licenses for the trade.
Some jobs are small and straightforward, while others are blow out and become time consuming and fiddly; some work is complex and requires fine detail, while some work is basic and low level. Managing ones’ time and how to price different kinds of work — particularly when you may not even know what’s expected of you — becomes just one more challenge in the successful running of a painting and decorating business. And the scenario isn’t just limited to this trade.
We explore the use of digital and social media marketing to attract enquiries, how much to charge, and how to clearly define the work to be done, and what to do about tasks that sit outside what you might be comfortable doing.
We explore productivity tools like Google Gmail and Calendar to help manage time, improve sales and customer service, and how to manage the change in your charge-out rate depending on what clients are willing to pay in the market. We take a look at how you can boost your credibility when starting out, so that you become seen as an authority in your field, and how to get recommendations in various social media from your current work and past jobs and any other contractors you’re working with.
This micro course is part of our EzyStartUp Course and our Digital Business Course.
Subscribe and be Informed
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