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Want to start a business but don’t know where to start? A little education can go a long way, especially when it’s free.
Here are seven great online classes for aspiring entrepreneurs — from some of the top business schools in the country.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What will you learn?
- How to overcome the most common myths of entrepreneurship
- How to define your goals, as an entrepreneur and a startup
- How to identify business opportunities
- How to conduct market research and choose your target customer
- How to design and test your offering
- How to pitch and sell to customers
Time involved: 6 weeks, approximately 1 to 3 hours per week.
Stanford (Sam Altman)
More a series of videos than a class, How to Start a Startup covers a wide range of topics — and includes startup founders like Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Emmett Shear (Just.tv and Twitch), Marc Andreessen (Netscape), Aaron Levie (Box), and Paul Graham (Y Combinator.)
What will you learn?
- How to build a team
- How to build a product and talk to users
- How to raise money
- How to build a great culture
- How to build services that scale
- How to manage, operate, and be a great founder
Time involved: 20 videos, approximately 50 minutes each.
Sloan School of Management (MIT)
Maybe you won’t need a business plan; plenty of people argue you don’t. Or that your business plan will start changing the first week.
Even so, understanding the basics of a business plan will definitely help bring focus to your idea and your first steps — so what better than the course that has been by every MIT MBA student for over two decades?
What will you learn?
- How to refine and present your idea
- How to create marketing and sales plans
- How to choose the right business model
- How to develop financial projections
- How to plan for legal, accounting, copyright, etc. issues
- How to execute your plan
Time involved: 6 videos of approximately 1 hour each, plus extensive lecture notes and supplemental material (if you want more.)
Wharton (University of Pennsylvania)
Ideas are great… but execution is everything. A great idea and a solid plan is a given; the next step is to put it into action.
What will you learn?
- How to build a minimum viable product (MVP)
- How to build a team
- How to build a network: Advisors, mentors, professional service providers, etc.
- How to create a brand
- How to bring your brand to market
Time involved: Self paced, approximately 8 hours.
Wharton (University of Pennsylvania)
Once you’ve launched, you’ll need to grow — especially if you’re bootstrapping your way to success and financing your startup with the revenue you generate.
What will you learn?
- How to land customers
- How to use earned, paid, and owned marketing as efficiently as possible
- How to build cost and pricing structures
- How to develop and track the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business
- How to build a great culture — and maintain it as your startup grows
Time involved: Self paced, approximately 7 hours.
Wharton (University of Pennsylvania)
How do you make a small fortune? Begin with a large fortune, and start a (insert your favorite startup money pit here.)
Because a business without (eventual) profits isn’t really a business.
What will you learn?
- How to develop the right business models
- How to keep your best customers
- How to determine the right financing for your business (even if “financing” just means your savings)
- How to calculate burn rate, break-even point, and other key financial metrics and milestones
- How to pitch investors
- How to decide when the time is right, and under what terms, to exit.
Time involved: Self paced, approximately 6 hours.
Deakin University
You can learn business and entrepreneurial skills from a wide variety of sources. But who will teach you how to stay the course when times get tough, as times inevitably do?
For starters, these folks.
What will you learn?
- How to follow a few simple steps to become more resilient
- How to develop specific skills to deal with difficult situations
- How to perform a little self care to recharge your resiliency batteries
- How to apply resiliency frameworks to professional and personal situations
Time involved: 2 weeks, approximately 3 hours per week.
