Free.In order.No login.
Most of what I know about starting a business and marketing it. Laid out in order. No course fee.
A free small business startup course: 128 lessons across four tracks, written for people who are starting a business or trying to get the one they have off the ground. No login, no course fee, no upsell waiting at the end. Read it in order or jump to what you need this week.
128Free lessons
4Tracks
$0To take it
Why is this free?
Because most small business owners never get taught how marketing actually works. They get sold it. Someone shows up with a proposal full of words they don’t understand, they nod, they pay, and six months later they still don’t know what worked.
I have spent a long time on the other side of that table, and I would rather you walk in knowing the questions to ask. So here is all of it: the business plan, the money, the brand, the avatar, every channel, the sales conversation. The same fundamentals we work through at RedKnight with clients.
If you read all of it and do all of it yourself, good. That was the point.
Gudmundur “Gummi” Sigurdarson
Founder, RedKnight
Four tracks. Start with the one that fits where you are.
Each track is a set of short lessons in order. Most lessons end with one thing to do this week and an honest estimate of how long it takes and what it costs. Stuck on something? Ask the club chat helper in the corner of any page and it will point you to the right lesson.
Track 1
Plan and Build the Business
Prove the idea works before you spend on it, then understand the money: pricing, break-even, cash flow, reserves, and how to read a profit-and-loss statement. Plus the name, your outside team of professionals, your competitors, a real marketing budget and a go or no-go decision before you launch.
Track 2
Build the Brand
Vision, mission, values and beliefs. Your marketing avatar, written in your customer’s words. Then the look, the name and the experience people actually walk away with, and how to turn all of it into a clear offer and packages you can deliver on.
Track 3
Get Found and Get Leads
The fundamentals first, then channel by channel: Google Business Profile, reviews, your website, local SEO, Google Ads, social, email, networking and AI. Plus how many leads you need, what a customer really costs, and how to budget and track it.
Track 4
Sell, Deliver and Keep Customers
Why people buy, the first conversation, closing without being pushy, and selling to the same customer twice. Then the operations behind the sale: delivering the work, systems, hiring, delegation and the weekly rhythm that keeps a business running.
Not sure where to begin?
Written for real small businesses
The examples here are contractors, restaurants, service companies, shops and consultants, because that is who we work with every day. If you are the one answering the phone, doing the work and trying to find time to market the business, this was written for you.
The Open Book
One email a month about something we dealt with and how we solved it. A campaign we set up, how we are using AI, what worked, what didn’t, and what we would do differently. Marketing as it actually happens. No selling. Unsubscribe whenever you like.