As long as we live, we keep learning something new. This is not just a motivational sentence, but a reality – and for business owners a motto to live by. It is essential to continue to develop your skills and acquire new ones if you want to be successful in running your business.
The more you learn, the more your horizons expand and you get new ideas for creating new products or services, expanding your business beyond its initial niche and being always one step ahead of your customers’ demands and needs.
“This is very true, but when do I get the time to enroll in classes? And isn’t optional learning expensive? I can’t afford that.” Trust us, you are not the only small entrepreneur who has raised these objections. However, the endless possibilities which modern technologies offer us will help you solve both the problems of time and money.
Free online courses, or MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), are available on a large number of platforms, offering training in a vast range of subjects, with degrees of difficulty starting from beginner to specialization. We checked several such platforms offering MOOCs and we selected the ones which we believe are the most useful for a home-based business owner.
Here they are:
1. MIT OpenCourseWare
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is known worldwide for the high quality of training it offers and for its most illustrious alumni, among which there are 29 Nobel Prize winners, the inventor of GPS and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Every technically inclined person would love to study at MIT, but only a few get this chance. However, in an incredibly bold move, the university decided to offer most of its courses for free to anyone through an online platform. That’s right, you can take up an MIT course without paying anything.
What is more interesting is that they have created a specific section for potential entrepreneurs, named the Entrepreneurship Page, where you can find lots of helpful materials about how to become an entrepreneur, business-related topics and technological innovations.
2. Coursera
Coursera is one of the largest MOOC platforms with around 144 educational partners from 29 countries. It offers courses on a vast range of subjects, from arts and humanities, to business and management, and to computer programming and mathematics. Some of the partner universities offering free online courses are: Princeton University, Stanford University, University of London and Sapienza University of Rome.
All the courses have intermediary and final exams and, if you want, for an affordable nominal fee you can also obtain a certificate of graduation if you pass the final exam.
3. Codeacademy
One of the founders of Twitter was famously quoted recently saying “if you love technology, then why don’t you code?” Indeed, most of the modern start-ups which have become highly successful were founded by people who are talented at coding and created useful applications and platforms. Even if you don’t start such a business, you should know a little coding, at least enough to be able to tinker on your own website, add affiliate banner codes, or implement the Facebook Pixel.
4. Moz
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the mantra of any marketer and online business owner. But what exactly do you know about SEO? Can you help your website rank for the right keywords? Make your web page Google friendly? If you are not sure what we are talking about, then you should head to the Moz platform and learn everything you need to know about SEO for your business. Besides the easy beginner’s guides, there are lots of free live and recorded webinars, as well as a lively community of members ready to help each other.
5. ALISON
Do you want to learn on authorized courses from Microsoft or Google for free? Then you should sign up on ALISON’s MOOC platform. You will discover over 600 courses organized on relevant topics for business owners, such as: Financial and Economic Literacy, Business and Enterprise Skills, Languages and IT Skills.