5 Business Skills Every Entrepreneur Should Learn Online How does a dedicated entrepreneur grow, adapt and stay successful in today's digital world? One way: online courses you can learn from anytime, anywhere.
There's no denying it: Taking a risk on a new business venture or other enterprise can be extremely daunting. After all, according to a recent piece by USA Today, only around 20% of businesses survive their critical first year.
What does it take to become one of these prosperous few? While there's no single, tried-and-true way to business success, one way to start is by continuing your education.
Because innovations in business keep happening, it's critical for entrepreneurs to constantly hone and evolve both their hard and soft skills. And online audio and video courses from The Great Courses Plus make learning these skills more accessible than ever before.
So how, exactly, can online courses help you as an entrepreneur? Here are five skills every entrepreneur should learn.
1. Coding and programming skills
Now widely taught in schools — even in elementary schools — computer programming is an eminently learnable skill that gives you unrivalled problem-solving power you can apply in all areas of business and life. Simple, general-purpose computer languages like Python can be readily grasped, thanks to online coding and programming tutorials. They allow even complete beginners to write short pieces of working code, while also taking the mystery and complexity out of more complicated scripts.
2. Foreign language skills
Ours is a truly interconnected business world, which means knowing foreign languages can help give you an edge over competitors. And online courses are perfect ways to learn languages such Spanish or French without the boredom and frustration that come from dry textbooks. These online language courses take you "under the hood" of languages and make it easier than ever to master key concepts of grammar, culture and vocabulary that can prepare you for a wide range of business — and everyday — situations.
3. Financial skills
With record-breaking highs one minute and economy-rocking lows the next, financial markets can be daunting even for the most seasoned entrepreneur. Courses in finance and investing make excellent primers on financial markets: from their functions, strengths and possibilities to their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. By exploring how money moves around the world, you'll not only gain a new appreciation of financial products and services available to you — you'll discover just how crucial you as an entrepreneur are to the functioning of the entire system.
4. Mindfulness skills
Business is a high-stakes, high-stress environment. And it can quickly take its toll on even the hardiest entrepreneur. Online mindfulness courses reveal the science behind mindfulness in compelling detail and demonstrate its application to an extraordinary range of human problems — including many of those faced by entrepreneurs trying to succeed in business today. They can teach you how neurobiological changes benefit your mind and body, how ancient practices like meditation and yoga are now profoundly influencing the contemporary world, and practical ways to use mindfulness techniques almost anywhere you happen to be.
5. Public speaking skills
Some entrepreneurs have a deep fear of public speaking, or they think it's an intuitive talent that can't be learned. But that couldn't be further from the truth, especially when time-tested techniques and strategies are readily available to learn online. Courses in public speaking can illuminate one of the most important skills in your personal and professional life. Finally become the confident public speaker you've always wanted to be. Or just get fresh advice on how to boost your public speaking skills.
Never stop learning
As any entrepreneur knows, learning is as much about growth as it is about facts. And educational researchers are becoming more and more interested in the effects of lifelong learning and the difference it can make in your life.
So if full entrepreneurial potential is something you're after, here's a bonus tip for you: Always keep learning. And online audio and video courses from The Great Courses Plus can put knowledge and insights well within your reach.