Courses

Every Riot Design engagement starts with understanding — and this is the fastest way to get it. Short, practical online business courses written for busy owners across Milton, Burlington, Oakville and Halton Hills. Take one, fill in the intake form, then book your consultation. By the time we talk, we’re already halfway there.

Take all three as a bundle for $240 — and if you go on to launch with us, the bundle price comes off your project. Every module below tells you exactly what you’ll learn — no mystery boxes.

Bring Your Business Online — the full curriculum.

For the owner starting from zero or rescuing a half-finished setup. By the end you’ll have a working online presence and the vocabulary to never be oversold again.

1. 01

   Module 1 — What you actually need (and the $2,000 you don’t)

   The honest shopping list: a domain, an email address that matches it, one good page and a Google Business Profile. Plus the skip list — app builders, premium themes, SEO retainers on day one — and why each can wait.

2. 02

   Module 2 — Your name on the internet

   How to choose and buy a domain you’ll still like in five years, why it must be registered to YOU (not your web guy), and the renewal-trap fine print that catches almost everyone.

3. 03

   Module 3 — Google Business Profile in one evening

   The single highest-return hour a local business can spend online. Category choice, photos that rank, posts, and the settings most owners never find.

4. 04

   Module 4 — The one-page website formula

   The five-block page that outsells most five-page sites: what you do, where you do it, proof it’s good, what it costs, and one way to say yes. You’ll sketch yours during the module.

5. 05

   Module 5 — Being found nearby

   Local search fundamentals in plain language — what Google actually reads, why “near me” favours complete profiles, and the three free citations worth having.

6. 06

   Module 6 — The launch checklist

   The exact pre-flight list we run on every client launch — test the form, click every link on a phone, check the site logged out, and the ten other things everyone forgets.

Your Digital Footprint — the full curriculum.

How customers see you before they ever meet you — and a 30-day plan to make that first impression earn money.

1. 01

   Module 1 — Search yourself first

   The audit: what a stranger finds in the first ten results for your name and business, scored the way a customer scores it. Most owners have never done this. It changes everything after.

2. 02

   Module 2 — The reviews engine

   Reviews are your real homepage. The same-day ask (with the exact wording), the direct-link trick that triples response rates, and how to answer the bad one without making it worse.

3. 03

   Module 3 — Profiles that match

   Name, address, phone and photos identical everywhere — why inconsistency quietly costs rankings, and the fifteen-minute fix.

4. 04

   Module 4 — Photos that don’t look like a phone flash

   Light from the window, camera at chest height, three angles per subject — the amateur-to-respectable jump costs nothing and takes an afternoon.

5. 05

   Module 5 — The Tuesday rule

   A decent post every Tuesday beats a brilliant post whenever-you-remember. Build a one-month calendar from a single shoot, in one sitting.

6. 06

   Module 6 — The 30-day cleanup

   Day-by-day: audit, fix, photograph, ask, post. Finish the month with a footprint you’d happily show a bank.

Money In, Money Out — the full curriculum.

Built with our finance specialist — a banker by trade. Small-business money in plain language: what to watch, what to charge, and how to make a slow month boring instead of terrifying.

1. 01

   Module 1 — The three weekly numbers

   Cash on hand, money owed to you, money you owe. Five minutes every Monday. Owners who track these three stop being surprised — surprises are what kill small businesses.

2. 02

   Module 2 — Break-even by heart

   The revenue number where your month stops losing money, calculated for YOUR business during the module. Every decision gets easier once you know it cold.

3. 03

   Module 3 — Pricing from costs up

   Copying a competitor’s price copies their cost structure without their volume. Rebuild your rates from your real numbers, then sanity-check against the market — in that order.

4. 04

   Module 4 — Invoicing without awkwardness

   Same-day invoices, a friendly day-7 follow-up template, and why “polite” late-billing is the most expensive habit in small business.

5. 05

   Module 5 — Two accounts and the tax slice

   Operating and tax. Every deposit, the tax portion moves immediately. Ten minutes to set up; ends the HST-bill panic forever.

6. 06

   Module 6 — Runway and the slow month

   Weeks-of-cash-on-hand, the liquidity buffer that fits your business, and the early-warning signs that say “adjust now” instead of “panic later.”

1. 01

   Spend with confidence, not hope

   An owner who knows what a domain, a schema and a content calendar are cannot be oversold by anyone — including us. The course pays for itself in the first vendor conversation.

2. 02

   An evening, not a semester

   Each course is built to finish in one sitting, with a checklist you’ll actually use. No fluff, no theory, no homework guilt.

3. 03

   Your intake does the talking

   Finish a course and the intake form takes ten minutes instead of an hour — and your consultation starts at the interesting part.

1. 01

   Study

   Work through the course at your own pace — most owners finish in an evening.

2. 02

   Intake

   Answer a customized intake form so we know your business before we meet.

3. 03

   Consult

   A real consultation with the team — next steps might be a logo, a site, socials, or honest advice to wait.