As an entrepreneur or a small business owner you might feel that keeping up with the cut-throat pace of the industry you’re working in is a never-ending battle. With the ever-changing nature of technology and the growth mindset that is prevalent in most trades, it can be difficult to keep yourself and your business afloat at all times.
The key to navigating the rough waters of transformation and prosperity is by always being one step ahead of the crowd. This is most easily achieved by the pursuit of lifelong learning. Although you’re already a professional and probably excellent at the job you do, you need to recognize that true growth can only be achieved by constantly developing your skills and deepening your knowledge.
One of the most accessible ways a modern entrepreneur can do this is by learning via webinars. When you decide you want to study online, the opportunities are endless, since the internet is flooded with seminars, courses, workshops and training programs aimed at business owners. Through these, anyone can tackle their financial obstacles, understand the most important areas of the branding process and even learn the ins and outs of marketing or sales. Even better news is that you can have unlimited access to some of these completely for free!
Here are a few amazing websites that offer free webinars for entrepreneurs and small business owners, tackling various topics, themes and challenges along the way:
Alison
One of the leading global websites in e-learning, Ireland-based Alison offers over 1,000 different courses to its students completely free of charge. Entrepreneurs will surely be interested in webinars tackling subject matters such as leadership and management, operations, communications and a wide range of other themes in line with the daily requirements of small business owners.
BizLaunch
Whilst the previous website also features webinars not related to entrepreneurship, BizLaunch focuses solely on how to build up your business from scratch and then maintain it. Their YouTube channel offers nearly 300 comprehensive explanatory videos along with footage from live seminars, all aiming to help you build a profitable business. They also have an extensive list of recommendations about textbooks and software which might come in handy.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
One of the most famous and successful academic institutions on the planet, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has an entire section of free online courses, dedicated to all types of topics, specializations and themes. Under its Business category you can choose to study a wide array of subjects, from operations management and innovation to entrepreneurship and globalization.
Open Culture
Another website covering a wide range of topics, Open Culture offers over 1,300 different courses gathered from top universities from all around the world. It also features quite an impressive list of free textbooks covering different specializations and themes. Entrepreneurs will definitely appreciate both the leadership development training and the marketing courses found on the site.
Score.org
Compared to other online course websites, Score.org ups the ante by also providing the opportunity to learn directly from mentors and senior business owners. You also have access to an extensive library providing insightful writing about some very diverse corners of the business world. Their e-courses and webinars cover topics like strategically building an online brand, getting funds to kickstart your business venture, and managing one’s finances and taxes correctly.
Small Business Development Center of Pennsylvania
As its name suggests, the SBDC Pennsylvania aims to help small business ventures tackle their daily tasks and increase their work-day productivity. To do this they’ve compiled quite an all-encompassing set of webinars, covering all the main topics a business owner needs to be aware of, from legal and financial details to business planning, marketing strategies and management tactics.
U.S. Small Business Administration
The government-operated SBA also features quite an extensive range of courses, sub-categorized according to the four main stages of entrepreneurship: planning, launching, running and growing one’s business. This is quite a helpful feature because you can select the themes in which you’d like to immerse yourself to suit the exact phase your business is currently in.
Webinara
Webinara is another excellent resource for entrepreneurship webinars. It offers an impressive collection of business-themed videos, which range from 30 to 60 minutes in length. Compared to the previous websites, which mainly present a general approach to the business side of things, Webinara uses concrete examples to get the message through, by discussing everything from strategic leadership tactics in a fixed environment to scaling startups and mastering the art of winning over costumers without spending a fortune.
