A core tenet at Anant is to help empower anyone, anywhere to be an entrepreneur. We help small and large companies leverage technology to enhance their businesses. For our employees and contractors, we encourage continual learning about business and software. Here are sites we use and share with our team members to build their skills and potentially launch their own businesses.
Coursera
Coursera offers four to ten week courses focused on business, technology, and other skills. The courses are presented by professors from leading universities around the world. Some courses are more collaborative with other students or linked together into larger certificates.
Udemy
Udemy is focused on serving professionals who want to develop specific skills to further their careers.
YouTube
YouTube hosts a lot of cat videos though there are a lot of how to videos available as well. Some individuals have created channels to focus specifically on key topics. You can also find TED talks and lectures
Codecademy
Codecademy offers free interactive programming sessions to help you learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. Coding skills can help entrepreneurs fix bugs or create automations if they don’t have a developer on staff.
Lynda
Lynda features thousands of classes in business, design, development, and other subject areas. It is now under the LinkedIn umbrella of offerings.
Coach.me
Coach.me is personal coaching and goal-tracking app with access to personal coaches and community to help you define and achieve your goals.
HubSpot Academy
HubSpot Academy is focused on inbound marketing, including website optimization, landing pages and lead nurturing – skills that are a must for business owners growing their business and online presence.
edX
edX, similar to Coursera, has partnered with leading universities and organizations to offer online classes on business and other skills for the workforce.
Khan Academy
The Khan Academy was created to give everyone access to education in math, science, art, technology and more. Classes are geared towards high schoolers, though a lot of business basics are learned in high school.
MIT Open Courseware
MIT Open Courseware is MIT’s attempt to get materials from all of its courses online. To help go-getters, the school put together an entrepreneurship page that lists available courses that are beneficial to new business owners.
Conclusion
Even with the amount of different online resources available for you to learn online, it’s important to remember that at the end of the day all that matters is that you find a course you like, stick to it, then use it. And repeat. With the amount of different options available online for learning it can become overwhelming quick, at which point you end up not even finishing any course.
What we’ve seen happen often is that someone bites off more than they can chew and they end up with multiple partially started courses. Without a clear end in sight, the person gets discouraged, and unfortunately give up on their learning path. So start small and get an easy win with a useful course. We recommend this excellent but brief course that covers all you need to know about what it takes to learn a subject effectively, Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects on Coursera.
Is there a great online resource you use that we missed or do you have a question about how you can make your business platform better? Let us know!
