When it comes to business, people choose MBA, while for the techies, it is M.Tech or MS, and the same question now applies to the rapidly developing area of interest, entrepreneurship. “Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.” –Thomas Fuller. There are many popular online courses for entrepreneurs which can instill knowledge, significant knowledge on the least important things to the prime ones.
You are selling an idea. When you are creating something, technology comes into play, while you are selling something, business and economics come into play. I am sure you can now imagine the domain of entrepreneurship clearly. You do not have much time to concentrate on so many things in a short span of time. Agreed! Here are 20 online courses for entrepreneurs that will help you gain “knowledge” in this wide field. These courses for entrepreneurs will cover topics related either directly or indirectly, but are extremely relevant and useful!
1. Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate
Innovation and creativity is the much-needed combination, and this course essentially covers both of them. There are a variety of courses as options, out of which a certificate is provided on the completion of 8 courses. However, accessing this course is not so easy a task. Applications have to be submitted online beforehand, and only people who are selected can access the course material.
2. Entrepreneurship Specialization by Wharton University
This specialization course is going to hone your skills on entrepreneurship. This four-course series is going to start from scratch and subsequently cover the domain of finance and marketing.
3. From Idea to Startup by Israel Institute of Technology
Like the name of the course suggests, From Idea to Startup. This is the first step in this field and the most crucial one indeed. This is one of the must take online courses for entrepreneurs by Shlomo Maital, which is meant to teach how to tell bad ideas from good, to build a winning strategy, prepare a business plan, compare their innovation to existing solutions, instill flexibility into the plan and determine when the best time to quit is.
4. Entrepreneurship: Launching an Innovative Business Specialization by University of Maryland, College Park
Launching a business in the market with a right strategy is the ultimate thing to be done for being successful from the initial stage. It is one of the top 20 online courses for entrepreneurs which will give you the in and out of the launching of a business idea.
5. Startup with UpGrad
This one of the must take online courses for entrepreneurs by Upgrad majorly covers three aspects of entrepreneurship – Validation of idea, Funding and Legal Aspects and Scaling up the business. The course is meant for beginners as well as the ones who have already started their business. There are many benefits that the participants get like personal mentoring. Few selected candidates get an opportunity to pitch their idea to the investors on the Upgrad Pitch Day.
6. How to build a startup: The Lean Launch Pad
One among the best online courses for entrepreneurs by Steve Blank is an introduction to Customer Development and helps in establishing a suitable business idea that primarily serves the needs of the consumers.
7. The Essential Guide to Entrepreneurship by Guy Kawasaki
When it comes to motivational and real-life lessons, entrepreneurs must take it seriously, because their lessons might reduce the risk of failure in your business, and you are more cautious. Guy Kawasaki has discussed about almost everything in a startup journey and shared his real life experiences.
8. How to validate your startup idea by UNSW Australia (The University of New South Wales)
By the time one completes this course, they would already have a validated business idea ready to be started right away. One among the must take online courses for entrepreneurs, it is a guidance to budding and existing entrepreneurs so that their idea can capture the market.
9. Foundations of Business Strategy
Undoubtedly, revenue is important here. In order to expand, you need to develop strategies to maximize profit, besides customer satisfaction. The mentioned online course on entrepreneurship will give you insight into numerous business strategies, which you must know.
10. Negotiations and Conflict Management
This aspect is many a times overlooked or ignored by entrepreneurs, but this has a significant impact on the brand equity and visibility among the public. Sudden conflicts and breakdowns are bound to arise; one must possess the ability to deal with these situations effectively such that it will be harmless to the image of the company. The course fits well in the category of best online courses for entrepreneurs, because it will help you master the skills of negotiations and conflict management, which is otherwise not so easy to acquire.
Also Read: Top 10 must read books for entrepreneurs in 2016!
11. Public Speaking
You might wonder why is this course included here! Well, to sell your idea, you have to make people aware of it. And there is no better way than word-of-mouth. Apart from telling about your plan, the way to address the doubts of the consumers in a public forum works greatly.
12. Knowledge Management and Big Data in Business
Knowledge in Big Data can change the layout of your plan for a better purpose. This topic in the online courses for entrepreneurs is going to help them in SEO, Business Analytics via the knowledge of Big Data.
13. Make Data Driven Business Analytics
It is necessary to measure the growth of any business that you do since it will help you formulate further policies for your company. This online course on entrepreneurship by Wharton University of Pennsylvania provides a 4-course series with a capstone project.
14. Do Your Venture: Entrepreneurship for everyone
Do you know how and when to raise capital for your business? One among the top online courses for entrepreneurs, it will acknowledge you with various financing options and how to pitch to investors for your venture.
Also Read: 10 best motivational videos that will help entrepreneurs succeed
15. Digital Marketing, Social Media and E-Commerce for Your Business
This marketing strategy is being widely accepted by the companies nowadays and these techniques have helped in growth of businesses because of the strong connecting platform, Internet. The course will provide complete knowledge in this domain.
16. Introduction to Web Development – HTML
Knowing something about web development, HTML is essential for today’s entrepreneurs. You don’t have to be an expert coder, but this course will help you feel far less lost in the tech world.
17. Scaling Operations by Northwestern University
Linking Strategy and Execution: Scaling business with the right plan at the right time to maximize profit is the ultimate goal of any startup in the long run. One among the best online courses for entrepreneurs, the course will familiarize with the strategies and methods of scaling operations.
18. Inventions and Patents
Protecting your intellectual property is a part of business ownership that should not be overlooked. Learn the history of patents and discover if your creation needs protection by any chance from this course.
19. Silicon Valley Programme by Startup Village
Startup Village is going to launch a free online course on entrepreneurship on August 30, for creating campus startups. They have designed a highly competitive six month course for budding entrepreneurs to help them build real products and enter the market at an early stage.
20. Competitive Strategy by Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization
This six-week course, taught by Tobias Kretschmer, explores how firms behave in situations where its actions affect competitor’s profits, or vice versa. By analyzing how firms select strategies to gain the competitive advantage, the aim is to get students to think about business strategy in a more methodical way.
These 20 online courses on entrepreneurship are definitely going to help you. However, we cannot deny that experience is the best teacher and the journey itself will teach you numerous untaught things. We hope these courses help you flourish in this field and make those high aims come a little closer to you.
Rashika Daga
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