---
title: "FINC 160 · How money and markets work"
publisher: Maestro College (Maestro Open)
lessons: 41
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/how-money-and-markets-work
full: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/how-money-and-markets-work/llms-full.txt
---

# How money and markets work (FINC 160)

Value cash over time, judge whether an investment is worth making, price risk, and plan how to fund a business.

Corporate Finance examines financial decision-making in business organizations. Students explore investment analysis, financial planning, capital structure, risk management, and advanced financial modeling and analysis tools.

## Course objectives
- Evaluate business investment decisions using cash-flow analysis and time-value-of-money principles.
- Develop spreadsheet-based financial models that connect operating assumptions, project cash flows, financing, and liquidity forecasts.
- Apply capital-budgeting methods to assess project value and compare competing investment alternatives.
- Estimate required returns and incorporate risk, capital costs, and sensitivity analysis into financial decisions.
- Assess financing alternatives, leverage, and liquidity constraints to support sustainable funding decisions.
- Validate financial analyses and communicate evidence-based recommendations to non-financial stakeholders.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## Lessons
### Unit 1: Making money count: value cash over time
#### 1. Shareholder value as the goal
- Identify maximizing long-term owner (shareholder) value as the goal of financial decisions, rather than maximizing sales or this year's profit
- Understand the three kinds of financial decision (investment: what to spend on; financing: how to pay for it; liquidity: keeping enough cash) and classify business decisions into them
- Judge whether a business decision is likely to raise or lower owner value and name the trade-off involved

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc.

#### 2. Cash flow vs. accounting profit
- Distinguish cash flow from accounting profit by identifying non-cash items such as depreciation and differences in timing
- Calculate yearly accounting profit and yearly cash flow from the same set of business inputs
- Complete a year 0 to year 5 cash flow schedule in a spreadsheet in which every formula references input cells

Teaching notes: Starts the Venture value model arc (runs through Unit 5 'Challenge: Board pitch and defense'): give the learner a pasteable skeleton of the Inputs and Cash flows tabs (row labels, year 0 to year 5 headers and the unit default inputs) so the effort goes into the distinction, not the layout, and recap depreciation from AACT150 rather than re-teaching it. The learner fills in the profit and cash flow formulas for their venture or the defaults and pastes the Cash flows rows (values plus one formula as text) into the chat.

#### 3. Opportunity cost: choosing a discount rate
- Identify the opportunity cost of using money as the return of the best alternative with similar risk
- Distinguish a discount rate (required return) from the interest rate on a loan
- Judge whether an investment's expected return beats its opportunity cost

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc.

#### 4. Future value: how compounding grows money
- Understand the time value of money (money today can earn a return, so it is worth more than the same amount later), and calculate the future value of a single amount over several periods using compound interest
- Distinguish compound growth from simple interest growth
- Compare how changing the rate or the number of years changes a future value

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc. Have the learner compute by hand (calculator or a blank sheet) before any built-in function, which comes in 'Spreadsheet PV and FV functions'.

#### 5. Present value: discounting future cash
- Understand present value as what a future cash flow is worth today, and calculate it by discounting at a given rate
- Create a spreadsheet valuation table that converts each year's cash flow to today's value with a discount factor linked to an input rate
- Compare the total of discounted and undiscounted cash flows and identify why they differ

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: starting state is the Inputs and Cash flows tabs for years 0 to 5 (rebuild from the unit defaults if the learner has no file), and the learner adds a 10% discount rate to Inputs and creates a Valuation tab with a discount factor and present value for each year. Ask them to paste the Valuation rows back; with defaults the five present values total about $75,800.

#### 6. Annuities: valuing level payment streams
- Identify whether a stream of cash flows is an annuity (equal payments at regular intervals) or not
- Calculate the present value of an annuity at a given discount rate
- Use the annuity shortcut to check a year-by-year present value result

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc; keep to level payments only (no perpetuities and no growing annuities).

#### 7. Spreadsheet PV and FV functions
- Use the built-in PV and FV spreadsheet functions with correct arguments and sign conventions (money paid out entered as negative)
- Verify a spreadsheet function result against a hand calculation
- Fix formulas that contain typed-in numbers so that they reference input cells

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: starting state is Inputs, Cash flows and a Valuation tab with year-by-year present values at 10% (rebuild from the unit defaults if needed). The learner adds a PV() check of the level cash flows next to the hand-built total (about $75,800 with defaults) and pastes both values and formulas into the chat.

#### 8. Challenge: pricing a payment plan
- Compare a lump-sum price with a payment plan by converting both to present value at a stated opportunity cost
- Decide which option costs less today and identify how a higher or lower rate would change the choice

Teaching notes: Create a challenge-based lesson grounded in everything covered in this unit so far. Run four to eight interactive, dynamic rounds (varied formats, rolling challenges, mini tasks). Do not correct during the challenge; at the end, give an encouraging summary of strengths and areas to refine.

### Unit 2: Making the investment call: evaluate projects
#### 9. Incremental project cash flows
- Identify the incremental cash flows of a decision as the cash that changes only because of that decision
- Classify sunk costs, opportunity costs of assets already owned and financing costs as relevant or irrelevant to a project
- Identify net operating working capital (operating receivables plus inventory minus operating payables) as cash a project ties up when it starts and gets back when it ends.

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc; recap sunk costs from AACT150 rather than re-teaching them.

#### 10. After-tax operating cash flow
- Calculate one year's after-tax operating cash flow from revenue, cash costs, depreciation and a tax rate
- Identify the depreciation tax shield: depreciation is not a cash flow itself, but it raises after-tax cash flow by lowering taxes

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc; use one year of the Option A defaults (revenue $45,000, cash costs $25,000, depreciation $12,000, 25% tax), which give after-tax operating cash flow of $18,000 including a $3,000 depreciation tax shield. Name the apparent reversal from Unit 1 directly: depreciation is still not cash, but once taxes apply it lowers the tax bill, so it now changes cash flow.

#### 11. Building project cash flows
- Create a year 0 to year 5 incremental cash flow schedule in a spreadsheet that includes the capital investment, after-tax operating cash flows, and working capital invested and recovered
- Verify that a cash flow schedule is fully linked to input cells by changing one input and checking that every affected year updates

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds an Option A expansion block to Inputs and Cash flows using their own expansion idea or the unit defaults (year 0 -$65,000, years 1 to 4 $18,000, year 5 $23,000). Have them paste the finished cash flow row and the operating cash flow formula into the chat.

#### 12. Payback period
- Understand the payback period as how long it takes a project's cumulative cash flows to repay the investment, and calculate it
- Identify the limits of payback, including ignoring the time value of money and cash flows after the cutoff

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: starting state is the Option A cash flows from the unit defaults, and the learner adds a cumulative cash flow row and payback to the Valuation tab (about 3.6 years with defaults).

#### 13. Net present value (NPV)
- Calculate NPV by hand by summing a project's discounted future cash flows and subtracting the initial investment
- Use the spreadsheet NPV function correctly by adding the year-0 cash flow outside the function
- Decide whether to accept or reject a project using the NPV rule and identify what the size of NPV means for owner value

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model with the Option A defaults at the given 10% rate, where NPV is about $6,340; putting year 0 inside NPV() gives a wrong answer of about $5,760, so watch for it. The learner pastes both the hand total and the NPV() formula as text.

#### 14. Internal rate of return (IRR)
- Identify IRR as the discount rate at which a project's NPV equals zero by testing several rates
- Calculate IRR with the spreadsheet IRR function and compare it with the required return to make an accept-or-reject decision

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model with the Option A defaults (IRR about 13.6% against the given 10% rate). Have the learner try two or three rates in their NPV formula before using IRR().

#### 15. Profitability index
- Calculate the profitability index as the present value of future cash flows divided by the initial investment
- Use profitability index to screen projects under capital rationing (a fixed budget that cannot fund every good project), and compare feasible combinations by total NPV when projects cannot be split

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model with the Option A defaults (PI about 1.10); the ranking practice can use short project lists the tutor provides.

#### 16. Comparing mutually exclusive projects
- Build a side-by-side comparison of two mutually exclusive options (only one can be chosen) in a spreadsheet showing NPV, IRR, payback and profitability index
- Identify when NPV and IRR rank projects differently because of differences in project size or cash flow timing
- Select the option with the higher NPV when the rules conflict and justify the choice in terms of owner value

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds an Option B block next to Option A (defaults: year 0 -$20,000, then $6,000 a year in years 1 to 5), where B wins on IRR (15.2%), payback (3.3 years) and PI (1.14) but A wins on NPV ($6,340 against $2,745) because it is larger. Create an illustration that plots both options' NPV profiles against the discount rate, showing that they cross at about 12.9%, so A has the higher NPV at any rate below that.

#### 17. Challenge: venture expansion decision
- Defend a project choice using NPV when payback, IRR or profitability index favor a different option
- Fix relevant-cost errors in a project analysis, such as included sunk costs, depreciation treated as a cash outflow or missing working capital
- Recommend an accept-or-reject decision for competing projects in a short written justification that cites the key numbers

Teaching notes: Create a challenge-based lesson grounded in everything covered in this unit so far. Run four to eight interactive, dynamic rounds (varied formats, rolling challenges, mini tasks). Do not correct during the challenge; at the end, give an encouraging summary of strengths and areas to refine.

### Unit 3: Pricing risk: set required returns and WACC
#### 18. Risk and return basics
- Calculate an investment's expected return as the probability-weighted average of its possible returns
- Compare the risk of two investments by the spread of their possible returns
- Identify why investors require a higher expected return for taking on more risk, and why higher risk does not guarantee a higher return

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc; keep risk measures to ranges and, at most, the spreadsheet STDEV function. End by asking the learner what the risk-return trade-off means for the return an investor would demand from their own venture.

#### 19. Diversification: which risk gets rewarded
- Distinguish company-specific risk, which diversification can remove, from market risk, which it cannot
- Identify which type of risk raises an investor's required return
- Use beta to compare how strongly an investment moves with the overall market

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc. End by asking the learner which of their own venture's risks are company-specific and which are market-wide, and which of those an outside investor would expect to be paid for.

#### 20. Cost of equity with CAPM
- Understand CAPM as the cost of equity built from a risk-free rate plus beta times the market risk premium (the extra return investors demand for market risk), and calculate it
- Identify the cost of equity as the return owners could earn elsewhere for the same market risk, not a free source of money
- Create a cost of equity calculation in a spreadsheet that references input cells

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: starting state is the Unit 2 workbook (Option A at a given 10%), and the learner adds the CAPM inputs to Inputs and creates the Risk tab (defaults: 4% risk-free, beta 1.5, 6% premium, cost of equity 13.0%). Learners using their own venture can look up the beta of a similar public company.

#### 21. After-tax cost of debt
- Calculate the after-tax cost of debt from a pre-tax interest rate and a tax rate
- Identify why tax-deductible interest makes debt cheaper than its stated rate

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds the debt rate to Inputs (the 25% tax rate is already there from Unit 2) and the after-tax cost of debt to the Risk tab (defaults: 7% pre-tax, 5.25% after tax). Do not analyze leverage or the debt mix yet; that is Unit 4.

#### 22. Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)
- Calculate WACC by weighting the cost of equity and the after-tax cost of debt by their market-value shares
- Create a WACC calculation in a spreadsheet that updates when any of its inputs change
- Identify common WACC errors, including treating equity as free, ignoring the tax shield and using book values

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner finishes the Risk tab with the given target mix of $73,500 equity and $31,500 debt (70% and 30%), giving WACC of about 10.7% with defaults. Treat the 70/30 mix as given; choosing a mix comes in Unit 4.

#### 23. WACC as the hurdle rate
- Replace a given discount rate with WACC and recompute a project's NPV and profitability index
- Judge when a project's risk differs enough from the company's typical risk to need a higher or lower rate
- Decide whether a project still creates value at its hurdle rate (the minimum return it must earn, here WACC)

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner links the Valuation tab's rate cell to WACC on the Risk tab instead of the typed 10% (defaults: Option A NPV falls to about $5,100 and PI to about 1.08, so it stays positive). Ask them to paste the rate cell's formula, which must point to the Risk tab.

#### 24. Sensitivity analysis: which input matters most
- Build a one-variable sensitivity table by changing one input in steps and recording the NPV at each value
- Identify the input to which NPV is most sensitive by comparing how much NPV moves for the same percentage change in each input

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner changes one Inputs cell at a time (default: Option A revenue from $40,000 to $50,000 in $2,500 steps) and records each NPV in a small table on the Risk tab, then resets the input to its base value. This manual table works the same in Google Sheets and Excel, so use it as the default; an Excel Data Table is an optional extra.

#### 25. Scenario analysis: best, base and worst case
- Create best, base and worst-case scenarios that change several related inputs together through input cells only
- Calculate a probability-weighted expected NPV across scenarios
- Compare scenario NPVs with the expected NPV and judge whether the downside risk is acceptable

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds a 'scenario rate adjustment' cell to Inputs, changes the Valuation rate formula once to WACC plus that cell, and then switches scenarios only through Inputs, so the WACC link is never overwritten (scenario defaults are in the unit instructions). With weights of 25%, 50% and 25%, the default NPVs of about -$16,400, $5,100 and $23,000 give an expected NPV of about $4,200.

#### 26. Break-even: how much room for error
- Calculate the break-even value of a key input at which NPV equals zero by testing trial values
- Compare a break-even value with its base-case assumption to judge the margin of safety

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: with defaults, yearly revenue breaks even at about $43,200 against a $45,000 base, a cushion of only about 4%. Default to manual trial values, which work the same in both tools; Goal Seek (built into Excel, a free add-on in Google Sheets) is optional.

#### 27. Challenge: stress-testing the project
- Identify the assumption that can flip a project decision, and at what value, by combining sensitivity, scenario and break-even results
- Choose a risk response, such as a fixed-price contract, staged investment, a cash reserve or insurance, and test its effect on NPV in the model
- Recommend proceeding with, reworking or rejecting a project in plain language a non-finance decision-maker can follow

Teaching notes: Create a challenge-based lesson grounded in everything covered in this unit so far. Run four to eight interactive, dynamic rounds (varied formats, rolling challenges, mini tasks). Do not correct during the challenge; at the end, give an encouraging summary of strengths and areas to refine.

### Unit 4: Funding the future: finance and plan
#### 28. Debt or equity: choosing a funding source
- Distinguish debt from equity financing by repayment obligation, cost, control and risk
- Identify financing sources available to a small US business, such as bank and SBA loans, lines of credit, angel investors and crowdfunding
- Choose a suitable financing source for a stated business need and justify the choice

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc.

#### 29. Loan payments: what each offer really costs
- Calculate a monthly loan payment with the spreadsheet PMT function after converting an annual rate and term into monthly values
- Split a loan payment into its interest and principal parts
- Compare loan offers with different rates, fees, or terms by discounting all payments and fees at a stated common comparison rate

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds loan amount, annual rate and term to Inputs and creates the Financing tab with a PMT() payment, checking it with PV() at the loan rate, which must return the loan amount (defaults: $31,500 at 7% for 5 years gives about $624 a month, with about $184 of interest in month 1). For the offer comparison, discount both offers' monthly payments and any upfront fee at a common 7% annual rate: Offer 1 (7%, no fee) has a present cost of about $31,500, while Offer 2 (6% plus a $1,000 fee) has a present cost of about $31,750.

#### 30. Financial leverage: how borrowing boosts returns
- Understand EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes, the business's operating profit), and calculate a company's EBIT and total capital by combining the results of its existing business and a new project
- Build a spreadsheet comparison of return on equity (ROE: profit after interest and taxes as a share of the owners' investment) for several debt-equity mixes that updates when the debt share changes
- Identify the condition under which borrowing raises ROE: the business earns more on its capital after tax than its debt costs after tax

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner derives company EBIT from their own Cash flows tab (defaults: base venture $12,000 plus Option A $8,000, so $20,000) and total capital ($40,000 plus $65,000, so $105,000), then adds mixes of 0%, 30% and 60% debt to the Financing tab. With defaults and 25% tax, expected ROE rises from about 14.3% to 18.2% to 25.6%.

#### 31. Can we cover the interest?
- Calculate interest coverage as operating profit (EBIT) divided by interest for different debt levels
- Compare how ROE swings between good and bad years as debt increases
- Judge whether a financing mix stays within a stated minimum interest coverage

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model on the Financing tab, adding bad-year and good-year EBIT rows (defaults: company revenue 10% below or above base, giving EBIT of $6,500 and $33,500). With defaults, the 60% debt mix covers interest about 3.5 times in a normal year but only about 1.1 times in a bad year, while the 30% mix covers it about 9.1 and 2.9 times.

#### 32. Finding the best debt mix
- Calculate WACC for several debt-equity mixes when the costs of equity and debt rise as debt increases
- Identify the debt-equity mix with the lowest WACC and why WACC stops falling as debt keeps rising
- Recalculate a project's NPV at each mix's WACC and judge whether a mix creates owner value by its effect on WACC and NPV, not by ROE alone

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds WACC and Option A NPV rows per mix on the Financing tab using the given cost schedule (cost of equity 11.5%, 13.0% and 18.0%; pre-tax debt 7% at 30% and 9% at 60%), giving WACC of about 11.5%, 10.7% and 11.25% and NPV of about $3,600, $5,100 and $4,000. Point out that the 60% mix has the highest ROE but not the highest NPV, and do not derive the costs or cover Modigliani-Miller proofs.

#### 33. Financial distress costs
- Understand financial distress (struggling to meet debt obligations) and identify its direct and indirect costs, such as legal fees, lost customers, supplier pressure and missed opportunities
- Understand loan covenants as conditions a lender attaches to a loan, and identify common ones and what happens when a business breaks one
- Judge how the risk of financial distress limits how much a business should borrow

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc.

#### 34. Profitable but out of cash
- Calculate net working capital and the current ratio from a short balance sheet
- Identify how the timing of customer payments, inventory purchases and supplier payments creates cash gaps
- Distinguish a profitable business from a liquid one

Teaching notes: Stands outside the Venture value model arc. Link back to the working capital line in the project cash flows (the default $5,000 invested in year 0 and recovered in year 5) as the same cash tied up in receivables and inventory, now seen month by month.

#### 35. Cash flow forecasting
- Build a 12-month driver-based cash forecast in which sales grow at a monthly rate, costs are a percentage of sales plus a fixed amount, and loan payments come from the loan terms, all through input cells
- Identify the months in which cash falls below a minimum balance and size the largest shortfall

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: give the learner the pasteable Forecast template from the unit defaults (month labels, opening cash, month-1 financing and inventory rows, month-3 insurance and the lagged collections row already filled), so they build only the sales and cost rows from drivers, the loan payment linked to the Financing tab's PMT(), and closing cash. Point out that loan payments belong in the Forecast but stay out of the Valuation cash flows, because WACC already prices the financing.

#### 36. Building an integrated financial plan
- Link valuation, risk, financing and cash forecast results into one summary by cell reference so it updates when any input changes
- Identify which summary figures answer the investment, financing and liquidity questions of a decision

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: give the learner a pasteable Summary skeleton (labels for NPV, IRR, WACC, expected ROE, interest coverage in normal and bad years, monthly loan payment and lowest month-end cash) so the only job is linking each cell to its source tab. With defaults for the 30% debt mix the Summary shows NPV about $5,100, IRR about 13.6%, WACC about 10.7%, ROE about 18.2%, coverage about 9.1x (2.9x in a bad year), a $624 payment and lowest cash about $6,100.

#### 37. Challenge: financing the venture
- Recommend a debt-equity mix that meets stated minimum interest coverage and minimum cash limits and justify it with its ROE, risk and WACC against the alternatives
- Choose a funding fix for a forecast cash shortfall, such as a line of credit or a timing change, and confirm it in the forecast
- Confirm or revise a project's NPV after linking its discount rate to the WACC of the chosen financing mix

Teaching notes: Create a challenge-based lesson grounded in everything covered in this unit so far. Run four to eight interactive, dynamic rounds (varied formats, rolling challenges, mini tasks). Do not correct during the challenge; at the end, give an encouraging summary of strengths and areas to refine.

### Unit 5: Making the call: validate and recommend
#### 38. Model validation with AI review
- Create at least three error checks in a spreadsheet model, such as totals that must match, sign checks and a scan for typed-in numbers
- Use an AI assistant to review spreadsheet formulas and verify each suggestion by hand before accepting it
- Fix the errors found, then test the model's links by changing one input and tracing its effect through every output

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model: the learner adds a Checks tab, and if they have no file or no errors, give three planted errors to find (year-0 cash flow inside NPV(), depreciation subtracted as a cash outflow, a typed-in loan payment instead of the PMT() link). The learner pastes each AI suggestion with how they verified it, then changes one input (default: expansion revenue to $43,000, just below break-even, so NPV turns to about -$500) and traces the effect on NPV, ROE, coverage and lowest cash.

#### 39. Writing a finance recommendation
- Write a one-page finance recommendation that states the decision, the key numbers, the main risks and what would change the decision
- Adapt finance terms and numbers for a non-finance decision-maker

Teaching notes: Continues the Venture value model, drawing on the Summary tab (defaults: NPV about $5,100 at a WACC of 10.7%, expected NPV about $4,200, break-even revenue about $43,200, 30% debt with 9.1x coverage, a $624 loan payment and a $2,000 line of credit). Seed the canvas with the headings Decision, Key numbers, Risks, What would change our mind and Next steps.

#### 40. Challenge: when the numbers change
- Update an integrated financial model for new information and trace the effect on NPV, WACC, loan payment, interest coverage and cash
- Rerun a model's error checks after changing inputs and fix any check that fails
- Revise a one-page recommendation so it matches the updated numbers, reversing the decision if the evidence requires it

Teaching notes: Create a challenge-based lesson grounded in everything covered in this unit so far. Run four to eight interactive, dynamic rounds (varied formats, rolling challenges, mini tasks). Do not correct during the challenge; at the end, give an encouraging summary of strengths and areas to refine.

#### 41. Challenge: board pitch and defense
- Present an investment-and-financing recommendation in a short pitch supported by key numbers
- Defend a recommendation against challenging questions about assumptions, risk, financing and model checks
- Identify which finance skills you can now apply in your next role, venture or course

Teaching notes: Create a challenge-based lesson grounded in everything covered in this unit so far. Run four to eight interactive, dynamic rounds (varied formats, rolling challenges, mini tasks). Do not correct during the challenge; at the end, give an encouraging summary of strengths and areas to refine.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.
Start with lesson 1 unless the learner asks for a specific lesson. Keep track of which lesson you are on.

## When a lesson is done
Teach one lesson at a time. A lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed for it; check each with a small task or question.
When it is complete:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson N complete: <lesson title>." (use the lesson's number and title).
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, say "Lesson N+1 of 41: <title>", and ask if they're ready to start it. Start it only when they say yes.
After the last lesson, congratulate them on finishing the course.