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Open · free during early accessBusiness Foundation
A costed, funded and sequenced plan for your business, built from your own numbers.
Insights by Mike · BUILD Academy
Turn a business idea into a plan you can defend.
Practical courses that work through the decisions and numbers that decide whether a business survives — with your own figures, saved as you go, and Lebanon-specific setup steps that name their sources.
- Built on your own numbers
- Sources and verification on every Lebanon claim
- Documents generated from your work
- Courses open
- 2
- Lessons written
- 29
- Downloadable resources
- 33
- Price during early access
- Free
Who it is for
For people about to commit real money.
The courses are written for founders and small-business owners, especially in Lebanon, who want to test a plan on paper before testing it with their savings.
- You have an idea and want to know whether the numbers work before committing money.
- You are about to sign a lease, order stock or leave a job, and want a plan you can defend.
- You already trade informally and want to put the business on a sound footing.
- You want Lebanon-specific setup steps — with their sources and how firmly they are verified.
Probably not for you if you want
- Anyone looking for guaranteed income or a ready-made business.
- Legal, tax or investment advice for your specific situation — the lessons tell you when to get it.
How a lesson works
Every lesson ends with something done.
A lesson is complete only when its exercise is saved, its knowledge check is passed and its checkpoint is confirmed. Opening a page is not progress.
- 01
Learn
A clear explanation, the mistakes people make, and what is different in Lebanon — with its source.
- 02
See it worked
A worked example, run through the same calculator you will use.
- 03
Do it for your business
An exercise and a calculation with your own figures, saved as you go.
- 04
Check your understanding
A short knowledge check, graded with an explanation for every answer.
- 05
Checkpoint
A practical checklist and rubric, so you know the step is really done.
Courses
Start with the Foundation, then specialise.
The Business Foundation is the base every course builds on. Online Business is open now; three more specialisations are being written and are marked as such.
Lower capital
Open · free during early accessOnline Business
Order economics you can trust, from niche and channel to delivery, returns, payment delays and invoices.
Operations-heavy
In developmentCoffee Shop / F&B
A café concept turned into a costed, permitted and operational opening plan — before the lease is signed.
Working-capital focus
In developmentTrading & Importing
Source, land, price and finance products starting from what a unit really costs on your shelf.
Project-based
In developmentEvents Business
An event planned to make money — worked out before the venue contract is signed.
Business Foundation
Seven modules, from the offer to the launch.
15 lessons, about 15 hours including practical work.
- Module 1
Idea and concept
What the business sells, to whom, and why they would pay for it.
- Module 2
Market validation
Evidence the demand exists before money is committed to it.
- Module 3
Startup budget
Every cost to open, what it costs to run each month, and how the opening is funded.
- Module 4
Pricing and unit economics
What each sale contributes once every per-sale cost is counted.
- Module 5
Cash and break-even
How much must be sold, and how long the money lasts.
- Module 6
Lebanon setup
Registration, tax position and the permits your activity triggers.
- Module 7
Launch plan
The sequence, the dates and who is responsible for each step.
Specialisation · open now
Online Business
Order economics you can trust, from niche and channel to delivery, returns, payment delays and invoices.
Enrolling in Online Business includes the Business Foundation, because it reuses figures you save there — fixed costs, contribution and your VAT position.
About the course- Offer and positioning. What you sell, to whom, and why they buy it from you rather than a marketplace.
- Channel and platform. What being online costs every month, and how your channels turn attention into orders.
- Unit economics. Price against product cost, delivery and payment fees, one order at a time.
- Payments and collection. How customers pay, and when the money actually reaches you.
- Fulfilment and returns. Couriers, delivery policy, refused parcels and the cost of a return.
- Acquisition and retention. The most you can pay to win a customer, and why the second order matters more.
- Policies, invoices and launch. Customer-facing policies, invoices and VAT, and the plan to launch.
Try it
How many sales before the rent is paid?
This is the same break-even calculation the lessons use. Change the figures and watch the answer move.
Your business file
Type a figure once. Every later lesson uses it.
Your fixed costs feed break-even; break-even and your revenue estimate feed the cash-flow forecast; the Online course picks up your Foundation figures. When an earlier figure changes, the lessons that used it tell you, so nothing silently goes out of date.
- Saved to your account and available on any device.
- Edit history for every saved figure, and named snapshots of the whole file.
- Export everything, or delete it, whenever you choose.
Downloads
Documents built from your own work.
18 resources in the Foundation and 15 in Online Business, as Word document, Excel workbook, CSV and PDF — each generated from what you saved, with its assumptions, date and sources, never a blank template.
Offer statement
Word document · Your customer, product and reason to choose you, in one page you can edit.
Market estimate
Excel workbook · The bottom-up estimate with each input and its formula.
Alternatives and first-price check
Excel workbook · Your alternatives, their prices, and the margin and markup of your first price.
Customer interview log
CSV · Your conversation notes as a table for any spreadsheet.
Validation summary
PDF · Interest and commitment from your conversations, and what they tell you.
Revised market estimate
PDF · Your estimate after validation, compared with the first one.
Startup budget
Excel workbook · Every opening cost, with contingency, as a live workbook.
Fixed-cost schedule
Excel workbook · Monthly fixed costs, annual total and the daily cost before the first sale.
The Lebanon layer
Every claim about Lebanon says how sure it is.
Registration, VAT and permit steps are drawn from official sources where they exist. Each carries one of six labels, the authority responsible and the date it was last reviewed. Where a requirement could not be confirmed, the lesson says so and tells you who to ask — it never turns an open question into an instruction.
Educational guidance, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your own filings with the authority or a qualified adviser.
- A current official source states this directly.Officially verified
- An official source exists, but its dates, fees or steps may be out of date. Confirm before acting.Verified with qualification
- Decided by your municipality. There is no single national rule.Municipality dependent
- Depends on your product, sector or activity.Activity dependent
- Needs review by a Lebanese lawyer or accountant before you rely on it.Pending professional review
- No sufficient public source was found. Get written confirmation from the authority.Pending authority confirmation
Free lesson, no account needed
Margin, Markup and the Price You Set
Why “30% on top” is not a 30% margin, how to price from the margin you need, and a calculator to test your own price. Read the whole lesson before deciding anything.
Open the free lessonCapstone
My Launch-Ready Business File
The course ends by assembling what you built into one file, section by section, with a short summary in your own words. You can submit it for review.
- 01
Offer and market
Who buys, what they get, why they choose you, and the market estimate you are planning with.
- 02
Evidence from customers
What your conversations showed, how many committed, and how that changed your estimate.
- 03
Costs and funding
Your startup budget, monthly fixed costs, what you need in total and how the gap is closed.
- 04
Price and contribution
Your price, its margin, and what each sale contributes after every per-sale cost.
- 05
Break-even and cash
Sales needed to break even, whether your capacity allows it, and your lowest cash point in the downside case.
- 06
Legal form and VAT
The form you are considering, what your lawyer or accountant still needs to confirm, and your VAT position.
- 07
Launch and the first ninety days
Your launch sequence and date, the numbers you will review each week, and the triggers you set in advance.
Certificate of completion
Finish the work, and it can be verified.
Complete every required lesson and submit your capstone, and you can issue a certificate of completion with your name and a public verification link.
It is not accredited. It is not a diploma, a licence or a professional qualification, and it does not say otherwise.
Who wrote it
Mike Sader
Mike holds a Master’s in Finance from Saint-Joseph University of Beirut, where he graduated as valedictorian (Major de Promotion). He then spent around four years in external audit at a Big Four firm in Beirut, working across banking, energy and management services.
Audit is the habit of opening a business up and asking where each number came from. The courses teach that habit, applied to your own plan.
Early access
No testimonials yet — honestly.
The Academy has just opened, so there are no learner reviews to show, and none will be invented. Early learners can report anything that is unclear or wrong from inside every lesson.
In development: Coffee Shop / F&B, Trading & Importing, Events Business. No release dates are promised.
Questions
What does it cost?
Nothing during early access: the open courses are free for anyone with an account. No prices have been set.
Do I need a business background?
No. Each calculation is explained with a worked example first, and the calculators do the arithmetic. You need your own figures, or honest estimates of them.
Is this legal, tax or financial advice?
No. The courses teach you to prepare your own figures and documents. Every Lebanon-specific statement names its source and how firmly it was verified, and the lessons say when you need a lawyer or accountant.
Is the certificate accredited?
No. It is a certificate of completion showing that you finished the course and its capstone. It is not a diploma, a licence or an accredited qualification, and its verification page says so.
Where is my work stored, and can I delete it?
In your account, so it follows you across devices. You can export it, take snapshots, and delete it at any time from your workspace. Deleting your account deletes it too.
Will signing up put me on a mailing list?
No. Enrolling sends only messages about what you did — for example, confirming your enrolment. The newsletter is a separate choice that you make yourself.
Build the plan before you build the business.
The Business Foundation and Online Business are free during early access.
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