Custom-made Business School: Best Online Courses For An Aspiring Entrepreneur
The general idea for this post was to feature a few online courses for aspiring entrepreneurs, but there are so many resources available, I just figured we should make a whole semester out of it. So take out your notebooks and laptops, and let’s get cracking!
Essential courses:
We’ll start with the basics – two courses that will make your Entrepreneuship 101, from University of Maryland, College Park:
1. Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace
This course provides framework for examining the innovation process, and quickly transitions into exploring how to successfully bring innovations to market.
2. New Venture Finance: Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs
…because money matters.
And one that’s absolutely essential by MIT, as many a startup has failed because they didn’t have (the right) answer to this question.
3. Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?
Advanced Courses
Okay, let’s step it up a bit now – after you’re done with those, I suggest you mix it up with some Stanford and MIT courses:
4. Scaling Up Your Venture Without Screwing Up
Scaling is a word you’ll learn to love, hate, fear, expect, so learn about it before you throw your self headlong into the process that’s equally frightening and exhilarating.
5. Innovation and Commercialization
This course from MIT on EdX presents a simple model for understanding innovation as a highly iterative process, in which you cycle repeatedly through many factors in the areas of Technology, Market and Implementation — until the right pieces come together.
Skill building:
Theoretical background in business is great, but it’s far from enough – you’ll need some skills that go beyond the core business courses.
Understanding big data is one of the hottest skills you can have today, and this course will teach you how to use it to improve companies, cities, and government, and best-practice for privacy
Learn how to solve complex problems with analytics based decision-making and solution designs … because you’ll face many a problem along the way.
You’ll have to communicate with your team, partners, investors, clients, everyone. And your communication skills can make or break your business.
Ever wonder why people do what they do… including buying your product or supporting your business? This course offers some answers based on the latest research from social psychology.
Electives:
Now this part depends on where your talents, ambitions and fortes lie. What’s the industry you’re trying to disrupt?
Think businesses should be more socially aware? You’re right, and ocial entrepreneurs and social innovators are tackling and diminishing many of the world’s problems, so if you want to join that team, this is an elective for you!
This interdisciplinary course focuses on sustainable innovation, introducing entrepreneurial students to the realities of problem identification and solution design within the complex world of healthcare.
There is more to the world than The States – and it plays by different rules!
This course will highlight the critical legal and business issues entrepreneurs face as they build and launch a new venture.
So there’s your syllabus – if you really want to stick to it, I suggest you make a plan, put it in your calendar and get a study buddy – online courses are an amazing resource, but human motivation tends to waver, so get some help. Getting help and asking for it is something you’ll also learn along the way, anyways 🙂
