9 Online Programs to Boost Your Business Skills

The internet is practically infinite. With that size comes the ability to learn just about anything, from how to change a tire to how trade tariffs will impact long-term economic growth. For business owners, there are endless resources to further business education. No matter what role you're in now or what stage your business is in, there are several ways to learn new skills and business concepts for the future.

A lot of these online resources are free, and you can learn at your own pace. This means you can focus your necessary attention on growing your business or improving in your current role while studying on the side. Regardless of what you want to learn, it's easy to get access to university and college courses for no charge.

Coursera

Courses on Coursera are taught by leading experts and instructors from the world's best universities. Business owners have access to video lectures, community discussion forums and auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments. There's a wide-range of content, from free to paid online, university-recognized degrees. There are several tracks and hundreds of courses to choose from. Topics range from programs like Excel to business practices like financial accounting. Coursera offers both paid and free courses, depending on what you're looking to learn.

Learn more at Coursera.org.

edX

Business owners can enrol in various free online courses from top institutions around the globe with edX. You don't have to apply for individual applications, courses are open 24/7 to join, and you can take courses on your own schedule. These courses are taught by university experts but are non-credit courses. You can get a verified certificate to prove you've mastered the class and concepts, however. Business courses range from critical thinking to data modelling. There are also courses in Spanish.

Learn more at edX.org.

Hello Fearless

Hello Fearless is an online school for female entrepreneurs. It provides courses and networking opportunities for women entrepreneurs looking to advance their careers. The website's educational component, Boss School, has educated more than 175,000 entrepreneurs. It's a 90-day course that provides real-world education, mentors for future growth and community support. There are limited spots, so you'll have to apply and tell Hello Fearless a bit about your business. If you're looking for more online-based learning, there are inspirational articles plus other content on Hello Fearless's website about entrepreneurship.

Learn more at HelloFearless.com.

HP Life

Tech giant Hewitt-Packard provides a free training program called HP LIFE (Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs) to educate business owners on common business challenges and technology solutions. Its courses span communications, finance, marketing and operations. There are even designated courses for start-ups. HP has partnered with various companies to bring users unique education opportunities. These courses are ideal for new business owners or workers looking to build out knowledge on their current role.

Learn more at life-global.org.

Lynda.com

Lynda.com is an online video education website that provides hundreds of courses on a variety of topics. Lynda isn't free, but they provide a free trial period so you can determine if the service is ideal for your needs. Lynda provides great resources for using software programs, such as Adobe Creative Cloud. It also provides designated learning paths, so you can take courses along a learning path until you're an expert in that area.

Learn more at lynda.com.

OpenLearn

The Open University is a free online learning platform that touches on a variety of topics, such as IT, Design and Law. You can browse OpenLearn's offering by courses, qualification or subject. It features several business-specific courses, such as business management, economics and marketing. For defined degrees, The Open University may require tuition.

Learn more at open.edu.

Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration has been supporting U.S. businesses for generations. In addition to providing loans and other services, the government agency also has an extensive learning center on its website. The courses on SBA are free and are great for young entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to learn business basics. Courses on writing a business plan, learning about financing options and understanding legal requirements are all provided by the Small Business Administration. There are courses on savings plans, social media marketing and sales. The SBA offers a lot of hands-on, real-world business education resources.

Learn more at SBA.gov.

Thrive Time Show

This online platform provides various resources for small businesses. In addition to conference information, business coaching and a business podcast, Thrive Time Show also has a business school. It's a massive library of 15-minute training courses taught by successful entrepreneurs. The company supports various topics ranging from copywriting to financing. While Thrive Time Show's business school is a good resource, it's a paid service. The company advertises a $1 per month fee, but you'll have to talk with a sales representative about cost depending on what you're looking to learn.

Learn more at ThriveTimeShow.com.

Udacity

Udacity provides online courses and learning resources for individuals interested in entering the tech industry. This platform focuses on data, artificial intelligence and other trending topics in technology. It breaks down learning paths into nanodegrees. Depending on which courses you sign up for, Udacity may charge a fee.

Learn more at Udacity.com.

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7780-online-business-education-programs.html

Writing a Business Plan? Do These 5 Things First

Starting a new business comes with headaches. Being prepared for those headaches – and trying to get ahead of them – can greatly decrease the impact they have on your business.

One important step in preparing for the challenges your start-up may face is writing a solid business plan. The technicalities and standard information that go into a business plan are easy enough to figure out, but there are other, more abstract things to consider before you put pen to paper.

Make sure you take the following five steps prior to drafting your business plan.

1. Determine your purpose

Having a plan to make a profit is important, but it's far from the only thing that matters when you start a business, experts say.

"Business plans … encourage entrepreneurs to focus on what they are going to do," said Alan Williams, co-author of "The 31 Practices" (LID Publishing Inc., 2014). "This overlooks two more important questions: 'why' – why it exists and why employees would want to get out of bed in the morning, and 'how' – the values of the business, what it stands for, how people representing the business will behave."

Williams noted that entrepreneurs should take time to identify and articulate their business's core values and purpose, which will serve as your organization's compass for decision making at all levels. Williams' co-author, Alison Why brow, said that this "compass" can be discovered by having an honest, open conversation with your team.

"One thing that a team might want to do is engage in a formal assessment process – looking at habits, beliefs, values and capability – so that they are working from a clear starting point and have a framework for discussion about working styles, strengths, and individual and collective blind spots," Why brow said.

2. Build your vision

The key to business success is having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish as a company, experts say. But before you write a business plan, you should come up with three to five key strategies that will enable you to achieve that vision, advised Evan Singer, CEO of SmartBiz, a provider of SBA loans.

"Sometimes, less is more," Singer said. "It's far better to do three things very well versus 10 things not so well."

Tied in with building the vision for your business is also putting together a mission statement. The mission is the "why" you're doing what you do.

"The first sentence of the mission statement should be why you're in business. After you fully understand the why, then you need to define 'what' you are going to do and 'how' you're going to do it. The third and final part of the mission statement should be the 'who' you want as customers and how you are going to treat them," said Tina Bacon-DeFrece, president of Big Frog Franchise Group.

She added that from the mission statement, it is an easy transition to develop your "value proposition" statement that defines what makes you unique in the marketplace and how you intend to differentiate and position your business.

3. Clarify your business model

Alex Muller, senior vice president and chief product officer of GPShopper at Synchrony Financial said a good financial model should include many of the details you would put in your formal business plan – for example, hiring, pricing, sales, cost of acquisition, expenses and growth. As with a business plan, your model should be revisited and updated as the realities of your business start to unfold.

"Start [answering] 'what ifs,'" said Muller. "If I sell this product at this price point, and this is the cost of client acquisition, what rates of return can I get? When you're done building [and testing] the business model, then you can go back [and] write a business plan."

4. Identify your target market

Identifying a target market can be a tricky obstacle to get through. To help narrow down your market, Grant Leboff, CEO of Sticky Marketing Club, says to answer the question, "Why am I uniquely placed to solve the problem?"

"If you are unable to answer the question, you either have the wrong target market of the wrong offering," Leboff wrote in a blog post. "In this case, more work will need to be done before you start targeting your potential customers."

If what you offer isn't the most attractive to the type of client you want, you may need to change your offering or define your target market differently, Leboff added.

5. Test your business idea

Entrepreneurs should go out and talk to industry experts, potential customers in their target market and other entrepreneurs to determine their business' viability, said Kara Bubb, principal consultant at Kara Bubb Product Consulting.

"Talk to some real potential future clients [and experts], and ask for some honest feedback," Bubb told Business News Daily. "What do they think about your business idea? Who, specifically, are you targeting with your business? How big is the market? Will your market buy what you are selling? Who is your competition?"

Simply writing a business plan will not make your organization successful, but it does give you a road map to get there. The forethought put into the plan identifies the milestones by which you can mark your progress.

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7893-steps-before-business-plan.html

Career Planning And Development (Part I): 3 Steps To Create Your Own Career Plan

If you're pondering how you're going to get where you want to be, there are some simple steps you can take that will help you create your own career development plan. Let's not be confused by the word "simple."

Sometimes the simplest of concepts or steps can be tough to do because they require some thinking and some effort. Yet, your think time and effort are an investment in your future and happiness, which make it all very worthwhile.

Step 1: Figure Out Your Destination

As with all efforts, you must be clear about your direction when you create your own career development plan. You don't take a road trip without knowing where you want to end up. You also don't need to overly complicate this task. I think the following questions are helpful in thinking out your destination.

- Where do you want your career to be in two years? I like this question because this window is close enough to your current reality that it is easy to visualize.

- Where do you want your career to be in five years?If you see that your two-year goal is merely a step in an overall direction, then this question helps you define a longer term goal. Sometimes it's difficult to see that far out in time, as life and opportunities present themselves and can cause you to reset your plans. That's okay, but it's good to be looking "two steps ahead."

What makes these targets resonant for you?

- Don't make a goal just for the sake of making one. You need a goal that really rings your chimes and helps to motivate you into action. If you're making a goal based on what someone else wants, it also isn't going to be that compelling for you. Being clear on your direction means being clear that this direction is inspiring and motivational and knowing what is driving you to it.

Step 2: Do A Gap Analysis

A gap analysis is where you figure out the differences in the qualifications between where you are right now and your two-year goal or next step.

Using a job posting or job description for the position you are aiming at is a good way to get specific information about the skills and experience that are expected. I think it is good to get more than one job description (perhaps one with your company and one with a competitor) in order to ensure you aren't missing any key items during your analysis.

Go through the job description line item by line item and rate your current state of skills, education, or experience to what is listed. Your rating system can be as simple as 1-10, with ten a perfect match and one being completely missing. As you rate, make notes about your thinking for future reference.

Once you have completed this exercise, identify all of the items where there is anywhere from a fair amount to a substantial amount of development that is needed. Look for commonalities and clump those together as a category. You will discover that there will be themes to your gaps.

Also, don't get too compulsive about where you don't think you're a perfect match but think you have fairly developed skills. If they are mostly present, they will make you a competitive candidate and shouldn't require too much development attention.

You now have a list of development items!!

Step 3: Create Your Development Plan

You are now fully armed with a clear two-year goal and all the details of where and what you need to develop to get you where you want to go. Your plan will be best if you can consult with your boss and/or a mentor to help you with ideas of how to get the skills you need to add.

There may need to be some logical order to a few of the items on your list. Sometimes you need to do X before you can do Y. Make these among the highest priority items so you can accomplish these things and move on to others.

Usually there are multiple ways of accumulating the needed skills. You may also want to have multiple ways of beefing up your skill set to add depth to it. An example is if you want to move to a project management position, you may want to get certification and also to ask for project responsibilities. Initially, these may be small, which are fine; they will give you an opportunity to grow and learn.

You may need to research various ways to get the skills you need. Once done, it will give you ideas on how you can approach these items.

You need dates. You need to keep yourself accountable to your plan; and the best way to do that is to give yourself a "start by" date. You can't predict how long or how much work you will have to do in order to develop the skill at the level you need, but you do have control over the action you take to get started.

Keep track. You need to pay attention to your plan a minimum of twice per year. This will allow you to stay focused on your progress and remind you of next steps.

Career development is the sort of thing that you can easily forget about until you wake up one day to realize you have gone nowhere and aren't having fun. You are responsible for where you go in your career. With a little bit of planning you can accomplish great things.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Career-Planning-And-Development-(Part-I):-3-Steps-To-Create-Your-Own-Career-Plan&id=8558672

8 Business Ideas for Entrepreneurial College Grads

It's a tough job market out there for everyone, but especially recent college graduates. With little first hand  experience, it can be difficult to land that first job, which is of course necessary to gain experience in the first place. Finding a job in your field is certainly desirable, but for some the calling of launching their own business offers more promise than interview after fruitless interview. Instead of waiting around for their dream jobs to open up, many recent grads are choosing to start careers as entrepreneurs. Here are eight low-cost businesses you can start as a new college graduate.

Clothing company

Did you dream of working in the fashion world, but couldn't find more than a few low-level opportunities in the field? If you have a great eye for design, you can strike out on your own and start an independent clothing company. Knowing how to sew or silk screen will help you get off the ground, but you'll eventually need to find a good manufacturer to reach the next stage of growth. As with any business, high-quality products combined with great marketing skills are the keys to success. 

Content creation

Thanks to social media and the 24-hour news cycle, creative individuals like writers and graphic designers can use their talents to produce high-quality, shareable content for businesses and media outlets. A growing part-time economy of freelance and contract workers makes it easier than ever to market yourself as a professional freelance content creator. This can also be a great way to build up your skills should you choose to seek a full-time job later on.

Electronic repair

In today's tech-obsessed world, most people have smartphones, tablets and laptops that they use daily. With constant usage, there's a good chance that at least one of those devices is going to crash or otherwise break at some point. If you're a techie who can fix these issues with relative ease, you can offer to repair people's electronics for cheaper than what the big retailers charge. Get started by marketing your services to students at your alma mater who don't want to wait for the campus IT department to fix their hard drives.

Event entertainment

If you spent your undergrad years tinkering with sound-mixing software and staffing the DJ booth at your college radio station, starting an event entertainment company could be the right path for you. With only your music collection and your laptop, you can get people out on the dance floor at weddings and birthday parties, or simply provide background music at more-casual events. DJ equipment is a big investment, but plenty of companies offer daily rentals of speakers, subwoofers and other accessories that you can use until you save up enough to buy your own.

Fitness instruction

Were you constantly hitting the gym after class? Turn your passion for fitness into a lucrative job by becoming a fitness instructor or personal trainer. You'll have to put in a small amount of time and money to get certified, but organizations like the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America offer online certification programs that you can complete at your own pace. Once you're a certified trainer, you can look for openings at local gyms or work one-on-one with clients at their homes. You can also find numerous programs for certification to teach fitness classes like yoga or Zumba.

Graphic design

Are you a wiz with software tools like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop? Many small businesses are clamouring for an affordable way to gain access to professional branding, such as logos, banners and signs. If you're about to leave college with a toolbox full of graphic design skills, consider launching a freelance design business that caters to other entrepreneurs. Once you establish a network of contacts and a reputation for quality designs, you can leverage past work into new jobs and possibly even set yourself up with a full time job right out of college.

Handmade crafts

Do you have a knack for knitting, jewellery making or creating other small crafts? If you can produce a lot of items quickly, you can open up an online storefront and sell your creations to the public. Start-up costs are extremely low if you purchase your materials in bulk from a craft supplier, and if you can turn orders around quickly, you'll make a profit in no time. You could even turn your store into a full-time gig.

Social media consultant

Want to put that marketing or communications degree to good use? Consider starting a social media consulting firm. Small businesses often have to take care of their own social media marketing. But, with so many other responsibilities, the company's owners may be too busy to come up with great strategies for each of the growing number of social channels companies are expected to utilize. As a consultant, you can help businesses determine the best tactics, posting schedules and content for your clients' target audiences. As their follower counts grow, so will your business.

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6111-business-ideas-new-graduates.html

The Dos and Don'ts of Writing a Great Business Plan

                          

Preparing a business plan is like outlining an itinerary for a road trip. You'll want to have a clear, objective map that you can follow step by step while developing your business.

"A business plan is absolutely vital as it navigates your business on the road to success," said Joel Klein, founder and producer of BizTalk and the B-Tank platforms. "Only by setting a plan that outlines where you want to go, along with a plan of action on how you are going to get there, will a business owner know if they are heading in the right direction and how far they are from their final destination."

Your business plan should guide you throughout the start-up process, available as help for any problem that may arise. Based on advice from our expert sources, here are a few specific dos and don'ts to consider while formulating your plan.

Do test your idea – don't jump into it.

It's tempting to dive into your business after reading success stories of similar companies. However, if you're going to take a leap, make sure you first test the water.

"Don't get mesmerized by the attractive macro data you can find on the web," said Dr. John Mullins, associate professor at London Business School and author of “The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Investors Should Do Before Launching a Lean Start-up, 5th ed." (FT Publishing, 2017). "Before your start writing … talk with prospective customers, suppliers and others in your industry."

Even after you embark on your business endeavour, you want to ensure you're attracting and retaining customers before asking for capital, Mullins added.

"Raising money too soon is a distraction, and has big downsides … not the least of which is eventually losing control," he said.

Do study your market – don't go in blind

As with any business project, research is critical to a solid business plan.

"Research is one of the big value-adds of writing a business plan," said Joseph Ferriolo, director of Wise Business Plans. "Research forces companies to learn what they can expect to make and what the industry trends are."

Mullins advises asking yourself how large and attractive your market is, how quickly it's growing, and if there are any trends that will make it grow in the future. Pay close attention to the "five forces" – threat of entry, threat of substitutes, supplier power, buyer power and competitive rivalry.

Additionally, research critical success factors, or important areas to focus on when investing in a project. Some examples are finding the right location, competing with like companies and retaining efficient employees. Discuss your CSFs with your team to guarantee they are onboard with your goals, said Mullins.

Do share your plan – don't keep it to yourself.

If you want your company to succeed, then all employees should understand the business plan's dynamics. It is not a document that you should lock away.

"The business plan keeps an organization focused, [and] it needs to be shared," said Brian S. Cohen, an operating partner at Altamont Capital Partners and member of board of directors of Access Insurance Company. "Too many companies treat it as a confidential document to be kept away from the 'prying eyes' of the rank-and-file employees. I believe the business plan should be shared, discussed and amended where appropriate, through an open loop of feedback and insights."

The more people who are involved, the more ideas you can circulate around the company, Cohen said. It is important to consider every worker's input to ensure that the outcome is something that's pleasant to all.

Do be clear and concise – don't go overboard.

You don't need to have an over-the-top, elaborate document with fancy formatting or flashy decor. However, what's written should be specific enough to cover all areas of concern.

Cohen advised starting your plan, with a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Create an executive summary describing the industry you wish to succeed in, and how and why you intend on doing so. Then, list your company's strengths and weaknesses, opportunities for growth, and any threats that might hinder the achievement of those goals.

Klein stated that the document doesn't need pages and pages of text; rather, it can include images, infographics and specifics "so that it can be used as a point of reference at any point in time to ensure that the business is on the right path and is meeting its goals."

Do put it to use – don't file it away.

Your plan is there for a reason. Don't be afraid to refer to it as much as possible — think of it as checking the map when you've made a wrong turn. There is nothing wrong with using your plan to get back on track or to make sure you're still on course.

"The biggest mistake people make is [that] they prepare the document, and then put it in a drawer and never look at it again. That's self-defeating," Cohen said.

Finally, remember that you should revisit your business plan as your company grows.

Templates and resources

Additional templates and resources are available at the following sites:

• Bplans
• Entrepreneur.com
• SCORE.org
• Small Business Administration
• LivePlan

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4533-business-plan-outline.html