As small business owners know, budgets often run tight, but it doesn’t mean that you should skip out on investing in self-improvement. Today, there are a plethora of free workshops and online courses available, whether it’s in-person or online. From learning new digital marketing strategies to getting a thorough financial education to manage your books, there are many options in the form of educational courses, hands-on courses, and free workshops available for you to get started. Here are just a few for you to consider to level-up your skills. 1. Digital Marketing If your small business involves any type of online presence, then digital marketing knowledge is a must. Ahrefs provides an exhaustive list of free online marketing courses and workshops that you can take to learn. Courses range from digital marketing to search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing. 2. Excel for Beginners Excel is a powerful financial tool, and for good reason. It’s a multifaceted spreadsheet tool that helps to manage financial statements, pivot tables and charts, and even helps run a proper balance sheet and more. Excel Campus, Udemy, and various YouTube channels offer affordable or free material to help you level up this important hard skill—whichever industry you may be in. 3. Business Writing Technical business writing is a core skill that every business owner should have—no matter the industry or niche. Strong business writing skills can help shape your brand, tailor your ideas, and communicate to others what you want to say—clearly and concisely. Coursera and Class Central offers a business writing course for entrepreneurs and small business owners to brush up on their technical and nontechnical writing skills for any level. 4. Accounting Software Workshops The roles that professional accountants play in ensuring an individual’s and/or an organization’s financial stability cannot be overemphasized. But often, business owners might not have access to one to help manage their books. When push comes to shove, every entrepreneur and small business owner should have enough understanding of accounting to properly manage their own books. The use of accounting software is also a simple and affordable way to easily manage our business’s books, especially those that use automation or machine learning to speed up bookkeeping tasks. Adopting software also means that you likely have access to numerous accounting resources and materials to help you understand your finances. Kashoo, for example, not only offers a free 14-day trial for small business owners to get started with accounting software but we also offer numerous free workshops for entrepreneurs and business owners to learn the ins and outs of the software and bookkeeping in general. Our most attended workshop “Getting Started with Kashoo 2.0” along with our other accounting 101 workshops can be found on our Workshops page. Kashoo also offers free webinars for both existing and new users, no matter your skill level. From educating on the basics of accounting and small business topics to learning how to set up your accounting software, our workshops and webinars are a must for small business owners looking to level up. 5. Project Management Project management is a fundamental part of every business. It involves clear communication and delegation of tasks, and proper planning of a project before jumping right in. Cybrary offers a professional project management course that’s not only free but does a fantastic job of introducing the topics to beginners. EdX also offers free project management courses in areas of leadership, agile development, risk management, portfolio management, and more, for those entrepreneurs looking to apply their practices to run their projects. Start Online Workshops, Courses, and Webinars Today To Level Up As you can see, there are numerous free online business courses available to level up your skills; all you have to do is look. To get started, brainstorm and write out three skill areas (technical or non-technical) that you want to improve on and start today. A good way to maintain consistency is to schedule 1 to 2-hour “study” time blocks every week in your calendar or tell a friend or family member about this goal. By starting today, you’ll be doing your future self a huge favor.
