Ever wanted to do courses at Ivy League Universities like Harvard, M.I.T and Yale? Now you can without breaking the bank! We’ve found a great list of Free Online Courses on a range of topics that are sure to assist entrepreneurs and other creative people.
Learning should be a lifelong commitment and here’s a list of everything you need, from scaling a business, and negotiating contracts to raising finance
All of these courses provide hours of FREE online instruction, along with practical learning exercises – and they won’t cost you a penny.
Up-skill with no bill!
Entrepreneurship
Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship
20 Hours / University of Maryland
Explore how to identify and develop great ideas, then turn them into successful customer-centric companies.
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Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace
15-25 hours / University of Maryland
Examine frameworks to structure the innovation process and learn how to bring new products to market.
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Entrepreneurial Behaviour
20 hours / OU
Optimise your entrepreneurial leadership and management style, whilst discovering the must-haves when building a team around you.
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Invention and Innovation
55 Hours OU
How to overcome technical, financial and organisational obstacles to bring an invention to market – and crucially, persuade people they need to buy it.
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Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses, Part I
6 hours / University of Virginia
Get to grips with common growth challenges faced by existing private businesses when they attempt to scale up operations.
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Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses, Part II
6 hours / University of Virginia
Focusing on the people and team building side of growing a business (doing Part 1 is not a prerequisite, but you might as well, if you’re scaling up).
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Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills
8.5 hours / University of Michigan
A practical, holistic introduction to vital skills and strategies when negotiating deals and contracts.
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Contracts: From Trust to Promise to Contract
14 hours / Harvard
Understanding contracts is not just a skill needed by lawyers: this course will help you avoid common pitfalls: one-sided promises, mistake, fraud, and frustration.
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Introduction to Public Speaking
18 hours / University of Washington
The art of argumentation and arrangement laid bare…helping you critically examine speeches, to take your own to the next level.
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Marketing
Introduction to Marketing
20 hours / University of Pennsylvania
Learn all about customer-centric strategies for branding, selecting the right mix of marketing channels and making product launches a glorious, till-ringing success.
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Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals: Marketing Analytics in Practice
32 hours / University of Illinois
Demystifying the use of data in marketing and helping you utilise intelligent data-driven insights for business decision-making.
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Retail Marketing
8 hours / OU
If you’re selling stuff, it’ll help to understand how the big boys promote products and communicate with customers. This course will enlighten you on the tools and techniques that hook customers best.
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Marketing Communications as a Strategic Function
6 hours / OU
The way an organisation communicates defines its relationships with customers. This Masters-level course will help you embrace techniques that work well amid the autonomy and unpredictability of 21st century consumer behaviour.
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Marketing in a Digital World
48 hours / University of Illinois
Tips and tactics for using digital tools to: develop innovative products, set competitive prices, manage distribution and all importantly, persuade people to buy.
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Content Strategy for Professionals
24 hours / Northwestern University
How to create engaging, strategic, honest stories that’ll be trusted and treasured by your most important audiences.
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Google Adwords
At your own pace / Google
Google provides free training and qualifications in their suite of tools. The Adwords classes give advice on optimising PPC campaigns, with specific sections on using adwords to market to via mobile and driving conversion through retargeting strategies.
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Google Analytics
At your own pace / Google
Google’s Analytics Academy will empower you to make good decisions about optimising your online presence, teaching you everything from the fundamentals of analytics to reporting techniques that pull out genuine useable insights to boost sales and engagement.Go to course
Leadership & Strategy
Better Leader, Richer Life
30 hours / University of Pennsylvania
Guidance from bestselling Harvard Business author Stewart Freidman on how to best articulate your core values and vision; build trust with your most important people, and achieve “four-way wins” that’ll make you a savvier leader and communicator, both at work and at home.
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Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence
24 hours / Cape Western University
Tune up your EI and be a better leader, using superior EI to help resonate emotionally with your people and get teams working cohesively, full of hope, compassion and playfulness.
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Introduction to Communication Science
28 hours / University of Amsterdam
Delving into the history, sociology and psychology of communicating; learn skills, theories and models from the complementary disciplines of mass, interpersonal and intrapersonal communication.
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Introducing a Framework for Strategy
10 hours / OU
For those involved in decision making, this will stimulate your imagination and inform your judgement. Understanding the frameworks of strategy and deploying them inventively will make you more effective, and leave your company/clients in better shape, long term.
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Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management
15 hours / University of Virginia
In this course, you’ll beef up your PM skills and learn frameworks for scoping projects, sequencing activities, utilising resources, and minimising risks.
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Finance
Finance for Non-Financial People
8 hours / University of California
An back-to-basics course that’ll help creatives work smarter on the business side. Topics include: financial analysis; planning, forecasting, and budgeting; cash flow, and strategic financing.
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New Venture Finance: Start-up Funding for Entrepreneurs
12 hours / University of Maryland
Learn the ‘language’ of fund-raising and the processes to follow to successfully attract funding for your new venture.
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Introduction to Bookkeeping and Accounting
8 hours / OU
Learn the time-honoured rules of bookkeeping, including how to prepare a trial balance and the two principal financial statements: the balance sheet and the profit and loss account (and save yourself a few quid into the bargain).
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Happy learning!
Photo: Jeff Sheldon