Financial Modeling 101: Master the Key Financial Concepts
All the building blocks you need to do financial evaluation of projects and investments.
About this course
You need to analyze or compare financial choices and make financial decisions, but you don't have a solid grip on concepts like time value of money, net present value or internal rate of return.
Don't make the wrong decision or embarrass yourself through mistakes in your analysis.
This accessible course introduces you to all the fundamental concepts in financial modeling and shows you how to apply them in financial evaluation of projects or investments, with practical examples and downloadable templates & guides.
What will I gain? What will I be able to do?
- Gain a strong understanding of core financial concepts.
- Be able to calculate profitability metrics such as net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR).
- Be able to do financial evaluation: analyze and compare financial alternatives (including doing cost comparison and profitability analysis) and select the most beneficial.
Your Instructor - Dr. Sean Moolman
Dr. Sean Moolman has a broad range of experience stretching across chemical plant design and cost engineering, R&D (research and development), management of innovation, technology transfer, intellectual property management and entrepreneurship. He is an inventor on several international patent families.
Sean is a co-founder of PowerOptimal (Pty) Ltd, a renewable energy technology company, and has served on the boards of several other early-stage companies. Before his first start-up, Sean was the head of technology transfer (licensing & ventures) at the largest R&D institute in Africa, the CSIR in South Africa.
He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) with the ATTP and has completed the Management Advancement Programme at Wits Business School.
Sean regularly presents courses in financial modeling and technology & startup valuation, including for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Licensing Executives Society of South Africa (LES) and the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA). He collaborated with the LES to develop their 3-day advanced Intellectual Property Valuation course.
Sean is passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship, reason and science, life-long learning and inspiring people!
Course Curriculum
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StartSpreadsheet: Example Calculations and Exercises for Time Value of Money Concepts
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Start3a. Time Value of Money (3:21)
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Start3b. Future Value (14:48)
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Start3c. Present Value & Discount Rate (5:18)
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Start3d. Discount Rate and Risk (8:17)
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Start3e. Inflation (Nominal vs. Real) (6:07)
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Start3f. Cash Flow (6:27)
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Start3g. Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) (4:14)
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Start3h. Discounted Cash Flow (2:01)
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Start3i. Depreciation and Tax (26:05)
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StartReference Sheet: Time Value of Money Concepts
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StartQuiz on the Time Value of Money
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StartAnswers to Quiz on the Time Value of Money
About the Licensing Executives Society of South Africa (LES)
The Licensing Executives Society of South Africa (LES) is an association of members having common interest in transferring technology in the broadest sense of that term. It is thus composed of persons who are business people; managers; scientists; engineers; academics; government officials and lawyers, in particular, intellectual property lawyers and patent attorneys and agents.
THE AIMS OF THE SOCIETY
- To encourage high professional standards among individuals engaged in the transfer and licensing of technology.
- To assist the members in improving their skills and techniques in licensing through self education; attending educational activities; and through their exchange of information, both personally and by way of publications.
- To inform the public, the business community and governmental and international bodies about the economic significance of technology licensing and the importance of high standards required in the field.
- To make available to its members the latest, most accurate information on the subject of technology licensing.
Course duration, difficulty and background required
Background required: Basic spreadsheet skills are required. If you do not have any spreadsheet skills, consider doing Course 201: Kick-start Your Spreadsheet Skills first.
For an explanation of all course gradings, click here.
❓ FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
- understand financial concepts and financial evaluation
- ask the right questions about others’ financial evaluation results and recommendations
- learn to do financial evaluation of cash flow series for projects and investments and choose the most attractive ones
- understand the value and limitations of financial evaluation metrics
- Video lectures
- Graded quizzes and exercises
- Course completion certificate
- Downloads:
- Spreadsheets with exercises and answers
- Guidelines: Steps in developing a financial model; How to forecast revenue, step-by-step
- Reference sheets: Time value of money concepts, definitions & formulas; Financial evaluation step-by-step guide
- Templates: Financial evaluation spreadsheet template
- Access to student discussions on lectures & lecturer answers to questions
- For the Coaching package: One-on-one consultation with lecturer
- 2-year access to the course materials
- Work at your own pace
- Review or redo any part whenever you want to
- Pause and pick up again at any point
- Downloadable materials, quizzes and exercises reinforce the learning and provide practical tools that you can apply in your own business or activities immediately
- Assessing commercial potential of products, processes, services and business models;
- Company valuation;
- R&D and other investment decisions;
- Building budgets;
- Valuing IP (intellectual property);
- Monitoring & evaluating project or business performance.