Have you considered enrolling in small business courses? Whether you already own your own business or are considering a new start-up, there is always something new to learn. With so many courses available online however, it’s often difficult to know which topics to select.
So to help you make the most of your valuable time, here are 10 of the best small business courses that have flexible time frames (taking less than 20 hours to complete) and are all online, so you can easily slot them into your busy schedule.
1. Introduction to Corporate Finance
Offered by Penn University of Pennsylvania, Introduction to Corporate Finance provides a short introduction to the fundamentals of finance, using real world situations. Key concepts include risk- return trade-offs, capital budgeting, asset valuation, discounted cash flow and internal rate of return.
2. Business Foundations Specialization
Offered by Penn University of Pennsylvania, Business Foundations Specialization provides the fundamentals of accounting, marketing, operations and finance for small business owners. This is one of the general small business courses that is suitable for everyone, regardless of your industry.
3. Moving to the Cloud
Offered by The University of Melbourne, Moving to the Cloud helps you to understand the benefits of leveraging the cloud for your small business, enabling you to realign your business practices and architecture to a cloud based business.
4. Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills
Offered by the University of Michigan, Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills, recognises that negotiation is the key to business success. You will learn how to plan a negotiation strategy, use key tactics for a successful outcome, create contracts and evaluate the results.
5. Managing the Company of the Future
Offered by the University of London, Managing the Company of the Future provides a comprehensive framework for understanding both traditional and alternative principles of business management. For all forward thinking business owners, this is one of the most important small business courses on offer.
6. Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship
Offered by the University of Maryland, Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship assists aspiring entrepreneurs to develop ideas into companies. You will learn how to identify and analyse business opportunities, develop an entrepreneurial mindset, perform strategic decision-making and create innovative business models.
7. Social Media Marketing Specialization
Offered by Northwestern University, Social Media Marketing Specialization provides up-to-date training that helps you to build a social media marketing strategy using customer insights and relevant metrics.
8. Introduction to Marketing
Offered by Open Universities Australia, Introduction to Marketing teaches you how to research and analyse academic and industry data, create solutions for marketing problems, generate persuasive reports, and understand ethical and sustainable business practices. These small business courses will help you to gain an edge on the competition.
9. Business English Communication Skills Specialisation
Offered by the University of Washington, Business English Communication Skills Specialisation teaches you how to communicate effectively in English in a professional context. The course covers speaking, reading and writing, as well as terminology suitable for negotiations, written reports, emails, phone conversations and professional presentations.
10. Recruitment and Selection
Offered by Open Universities Australia, Recruitment and Selection teaches you the principles and practices of recruitment and selection. Covering the legal issues, workforce planning, job design and analysis, employment value propositions, and decision-making processes. Learning is the key to success and these 10 small business courses will help you take your business to the next level.
