Monday, October 19, 2009

7 Universities and Websites Offering Free Business Entrepreneurship Courses Online

Source education-portal.com

7 Universities and Websites Offering Free Business Entrepreneurship Courses Online

Approximately 10 million entrepreneurs consider starting businesses in the U.S. every year. Only 3 million of these people actually do it. You could be one of the 3 million if you take advantage of these free online courses in business entrepreneurship.

1. MIT- Sloan School of Management (mit.edu)

· Global Entrepreneurship Lab
· Entrepreneurial Finance
· Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager
· Developmental Entrepreneurship
· Introduction to Marketing

The Sloan School of Management provides hundreds of free business courses online, many of which would be of benefit to entrepreneurs. Course materials include video, audio, text and many other multimedia elements.

2. Carnegie Mellon (cmu.edu)

· Entrepreneurship and Business Planning Course
· Entrepreneurship and Business Planning Course - Audio Version

Carnegie Mellon Professor Mark Juliano teaches an Entrepreneurship and Business Planning Course great for new entrepreneurs. Course materials include PowerPoint slides, a class blog and handouts in addition to lectures. Audio versions of the lectures are available for your mobile device.

3. U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov)

· Staring a Business - Series of Courses

The U.S. Small Business Administration offers a number of courses on starting small businesses. The self-paced courses take around 30 minutes to complete. You'll be prompted to submit a brief online registration before you start each course, but you may skip it by clicking the submit button located at the bottom of the form and clicking 'proceed to training course'.

4. Trump University (trumpuniversity.com)

· Write a Business Plan - Mini Course
· Find Start-Up Funding - Mini Course

Trump University has many courses for aspiring entrepreneurs. Only two of these courses are free, but both are well worth the time. Additional resources on this site include live training, articles and the Trump Blog.

5. Business Week (bwcourses.com)

· Fire Your Boss: Start Your Own Business
· Start-Up Basics for the First-Time Entrepreneur
· Raising Capital for Your Small Business

Business Week offers a large collection of free, instructor-led online business courses. You'll need to be a registered Business Week user in order to take advantage, but registration is free. Not every course is immediately available, but you can easily find out when the next session begins by choosing your course and then submitting your email address.

6. Kutztown University - Small Business Development Center (kutztownsbdc.org)

· Accounting Courses
· Business Plan Workshops
· Finance Courses
· Leadership and Management Development Courses
· Small Business Tax Courses


Kutztown University's Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has one of the largest collections of free online business entrepreneurship courses. Topics range from finance and accounting to management and leadership; courses take from 30 minutes to three hours to complete.

7. My Own Business (myownbusiness.com)

· How to Start Your Own Business

My Own Business, Inc., a nonprofit organization with a mission of helping new businesses succeed, offers a free Internet course consisting of 14 sessions. This course is designed for entrepreneurs wanting to learn the basics of starting up a new business, and includes supplemental materials such as a newsletter, templates, video clips and other useful items.