Treat this article as a gateway to a library of the best learning resources you can find to get informed, updated, and qualified. Dear food business owner, you may have all the passion in the world on food or managing a company but know that there is a clockwork behind every venture there is. Getting back to school to learn all this is most probably something that you will not consider at the moment as your time is usually allotted now into building and growing your restaurant, café, or bar. Also, the idea of spending more money on business school isn’t expected to be part of your capital.
So how?
With today's technology, you need not spare a dime to get a good grasp. Free courses are now being offered online. With this convenience coupled with the right amount of perseverance, surely having the edge to put your startup in full scheme shouldn’t be a problem now.
Below are some of the sites where you can score the best guidelines you need to put your business in full swing. Two to three hours a day won’t hurt as you can study at your own pace and time. Ready?
Coursera regularly updates their course list so be sure to subscribe to their course notifications. The short courses are developed by top colleges and universities from around the world. They have a course catalogue that covers topics from Humanities, Computer Science, Math and Logic, Personal Development, Language, and much more. Their Business section, on the other hand, features courses on Leadership and Management, Finance, Marketing, and Strategy. One of our top recommendations from Coursera is their Food and Beverage Management course developed by Università Bocconi in Italy. If you want to check out other related courses, just type in “food” or “business” in their website’s search box.
Alison is a treasure chest of FREE online learning materials on a whole range of topics. It is backed by an 8-million strong community where students can interact and network to gain study peers, look for more learning resources, or just share how they are going with their studies. Some of the courses that we think are useful for a budding food business owner like you are the Diploma in Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Diploma in Food Safety, Marketing Success for your Business, Diploma in Operations Management, and the Diploma in Human Nutrition.
HubSpot offers a certification program that shows you the hoops and loops of growing your business using digital marketing. It runs courses on how to optimise your website, nurture your leads and turn them into buying customers, how to launch email marketing campaigns, manage social media pages, creating engaging content and blogging, and utilizing other digital marketing tools to better promote your food business.
This comes in 16 parts in video, audio, and text formats. This goes from picking your business, finance, building your clientele, and even creating your own dream team.
This learning platform uses storytelling, discussions, and community support to deliver its courses. They offer over a hundred of FREE online courses but one that we recommend for you is Innovation: The Food Industry by the University of Leeds.
There is no limit to learning just as long as you are determined and resourceful. When it comes to free online courses, these and other websites regularly update their course catalogues so you need to keep watch. Remember that as a business owner, you always need to be looking for ways to improve yourself and your business. One way to do this is to never get tired of learning something new each day.
Did this blog inspire you to start on a short online business course? Or you might need some advice on what course to choose. Email your queries to info@businessmanualsmadeeasy.com.
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