10 Free Courses Every Startup Founder Should Take

Every business starts from a single great idea. If you have an exciting product or service, you can start a business, be an entrepreneur, develop yourself in a particular market. But, many people who are passionate about a product or service they can offer people are not knowledgeable about the best practices of running a business. Read on to discover 10 of the best free online courses that you can take to help learn how to run a successful business — even without an MBA.

1. How to Start a Startup

Through a series of 20 videos, this free course covers all the aspects of building a startup company from the ground up. Curated videos from experts who have founded world-renowned business in a range of industries are enhanced by an extensive list of supplemental reading. Learn how to build a product or develop an idea, raise money, create a company culture, manage people, and create an end user experience that satisfies.

2. Business Model Canvas: A Tool for Entrepreneurs and Innovators

Learn how to use and build your own Business Model Canvas. You’ll learn to identify and communicate the nine key elements of a business model: Customer Segments, Value Proposition, Channels, Customer Relationships, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partners, Revenue Streams, and Cost Structure. Over the course of 14 hours, students complete coursework and a project that culminates in a 10-minute video and one-page document.

3. A Guide To Seed Fundraising

Seed fundraising presents challenges for startups of all sizes. Learn where to meet investors, how to budget and fundraise, the complexities of company valuation, and evaluating equity and debt. This comprehensive crash-course delivers helpful information on crowdfunding, venture capitalism, and negotiating deals, too. This course includes additional references, a comprehensive list of documents you’ll need, and a glossary of terms you’ll need to know.

4. Most Influential Business School Case Studies

One of the most beneficial ways that any entrepreneur can learn is to look at the examples of business innovators who came before. In this challenging course over 10 days, Highbrow will send you a lesson each day about a leading business case study. A system of studying previous businesses that was developed at Harvard, this course uses U.S. and international examples to illustrate concepts like business strategy development, marketing, operations, and financial documentation.

5. SEO Fundamentals

In this course, you will learn about how to how to conduct keyword research, what it means to “rank” your site, the fundamentals about backlinks, and more. Touching on reputation management and social media as well, this invaluable information will show you how to achieve both long and short-term results.

6. Getting Started with Email Marketing

Enjoy this free course compiled from 14 bite-sized videos led by experts. This course provides an overview in core concepts, content distribution, and common scheduling concerns. Learn all the need-to-know skills for email marketing in any size company — startups to corporations — including building a campaign for your specific audience. Study great examples of past campaigns to build your company’s future.

7. Productivity and Time Management: Get More Done

Through a series of videos that takes only 30 minutes to complete, students can learn to better manage their time and increase their productivity. Designed and instructed by the Product Marketing Manager of Trello, this course explains how to use a project management and scheduling system to not only get more done, but to prioritize well and get the most important things done. Learn to personalize your workflow and collaborate with team members through professional tools that work across many industries.

8. Sales Strategies: Mastering the Selling Process

Selling is a life skill. Over five weeks in this course, students can study dozens of videos to learn about conversational selling, storytelling as a tool, how to identify and explain features and benefits of products and services, and how to overcome objections. Expand your entrepreneurial knowledge and grow with specially-developed tools for success. Even learn to manage high-impact, high-productivity meetings.

9. Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies

Operating a business requires many overlapping actions at once, and the only way to track, measure, and understand how your business operates is to use metrics. In this course over four weeks, learn to analyse data about your business’ performance and use it to make predictions and guide future business decisions. Data-analysis techniques and skills can disrupt how a company currently does business and can enhance any company’s future growth.

10. Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects

Learning about learning seems like it would be complicated, but this course demonstrates just how essential it really is. Learn the tricks of the neurobiology and psychology of learning that have taken experts decades to unlock, but that you can apply to your life immediately. Unlock your own potential, remember better, eliminate procrastination, and learn how to make learning easier, so you can master any topic you set your mind to.

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