Online courses to become entrepreneurs: why they can help you make the right choices

Here are the main reasons why entrepreneurial education enables you to make important decisions without making mistakes.

Doing business in this country can really be … a business. Wordplay aside, we at Central Marketing Intelligence know very well how fascinating and difficult it is to become an entrepreneur at the same time. A life choice.

Facing it with the confidence of someone with the right skills is not a detail. In fact. This is precisely why we strongly believe in the value of training and online courses to become entrepreneurs.

Of course, not all online courses are the same, and on the Web, educational offerings are diverse and varied. Some valuable, some not very useful. We cannot rank the best online courses for becoming an entrepreneur, however, we can define some of the characteristics needed to obtain a top-notch entrepreneurial education.

With our market research agency, we have dealt with hundreds of experienced entrepreneurs (young and old) and even aspiring entrepreneurs. Even among a thousand differences, they all had something in common: they sensed that market analysis could simplify and improve their work and they were “hungry” for knowledge, for information. That same hunger for knowledge that moves those who want to enhance their entrepreneurial education.

Is there an ideal school for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Let’s unpack this point right away: there is no perfect school to become an entrepreneur. There are many different reasons for a person to start their own business.

Some people do it on a hunch or in pursuit of a dream. Those who do it to carry on a family business and even those who have to reinvent themselves, perhaps after losing their jobs. There are even those who choose to step out of their comfort zone by ditching a permanent job and a permanent contract to start their own business.

Madness? Not by a long shot. Courage.

Genuine courage and the knowledge that one lives by stimulation, joy, and excitement. In one’s work as well as in everyday life.

One of the greatest contemporary entrepreneurs,Steve Jobs, once said:

 “I am convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from those who are not successful is sheer perseverance.”

What about the other half?

This is where training comes in.

How many times have you heard about that entrepreneur who created an empire from nothing after dropping out of school early?

Well these episodes actually were not so rare in the past, especially in postwar and economic boom Italy. But we are talking about a world that no longer exists today. Today, creating a business from scratch without devoting time to training is simply “business suicide.”

But then does one necessarily need a college degree, perhaps a master’s degree in business & management, to become a successful entrepreneur? Evidently not.

Read also: 3 books for entrepreneurs on the importance of data in the digital marketplace

It’s just that even just the right idea isn’t enough anymore. We are in the midst of the digital transformation era with innovations and technologies rewriting the rules of competitiveness at the speed of light. Today anyone can set up a website or eCommerce in a matter of hours and with minimal investment. Then what?

That is not being an entrepreneur; it is not even the first step to business success. Today, to start a new business, a startup or enhance the results of an already established business, it is necessary to first invest in oneself by enriching one’s skill set.

Technical and, above all, practical skills. What makes the difference in online courses to become an entrepreneur is not just the number of training hours, the modules in the program or the cost of the course but, first and foremost, the hands-on approach.

Later we will see how other decisive aspects (the preparation of teachers and tutors first of all) also make a difference, but now let us dwell for a moment on the practical approach.

Have you ever been involved in a training or refresher course for your job? How many times did you feel it was “wasted time” or as you walked out of the classroom did you wonder how much of the volume of topics covered was really applicable in your actual case?

If this has happened to you, know that you are in good company.

Online courses to become entrepreneurs: which one to choose?

If you are reading this article, it is likely that you have already looked around the Web for online courses to become an entrepreneur and encountered several suggestions.

Most of these courses consist of modules of 2 or more sessions lasting 30 minutes or an hour each. The big limitation is the complete absence of interactivity. In fact, these are modules where a lecturer explains each topic in face-to-face mode (virtual, of course) but those attending cannot interact in any way with the expert and, at most, can send the film back to hear the apparently unclear explanations again.

Obviously, the user can attempt to send an e-mail to the lecturer or otherwise to the course contact person to ask for clarification or insight on a specific point, but the timing and manner of any response is totally dependent on the attitude of the individual contact person.

Another problem with conventional courses is the difficulty of “speaking” to a defined audience. Not all aspiring entrepreneurs start from the same foundation in terms of professional skills, experience, general culture. The risk of setting up an online course that is too “basic” or “advanced” is very high.

On the other hand, it is difficult to understand the real level of a course if you only have a landing page, a presentation trailer or, at best, a free lecture. However, it is good to take advantage of free trials or other magnets before choosing whether or not to purchase a course, at least to get a rough idea of the main topics covered and the lecturers’ dissemination skills.

The best courses for entrepreneurs must be practical and…

Therefore, the first rule is very simple: never buy an online course to become an entrepreneur blindfolded. Ask, indeed demand, to know the detailed syllabus for each module and see at work-at least for a few minutes-the experts who teach the course.

The second rule is to choose an extremely practical approach. Those who already have jobs or are otherwise busy all day do not have time to get lost in the meanderings of useless notionism. What he needs are concrete examples that can be applied immediately in his own industry. This is another sore point of so many training products that provide information that is correct and educationally sound, but difficult to use in concrete contexts.

An example?

In a corporate event planning course, I heard a lecturer ask his “students” how they would organize a particular meeting without worrying about the budget. Basically, consider having unlimited resources.

What is the purpose of such a drill?

Specifically, we all know that all companies have a defined budget for each activity and that, often, these are “laughable” figures? A true entrepreneur is precisely the one who decides how to properly allocate resources by deciding how to invest in each activity according to business goals without fantasizing about nine-figure or unlimited budgets.

This, of course, was just an example. The point is that the hands-on approach must be breathed in during the course of all modules, both through moments of practice and in the overall management of a course that must lead to a homogeneous and overall growth of all “pupils.”

It will also be important to work right away on an “essential dictionary” that will enable users to be able to grapple with terms and acronyms they may not yet know with the confidence that they fully understand what is being discussed.

… with a pointed focus on goals (as well as tools)

Finally, one should never, ever confuse goals with the tools to achieve them. And this is another mistake that is often evident in different educational paths. The entrepreneur must become familiar with a multitude of business tools, from IT tools to marketing skills to tools for measuring operational performance. But the best online courses for becoming an entrepreneur don’t just teach how to use these tools as much as how to manage them to achieve your goals.

Take a marketing campaign as an example. It makes no sense to teach how to start a marketing campaign with the generic goal of gaining visibility. First you need to define the concrete goal (increase leads, boost business website traffic, etc.) and then once the goal is defined, identify the best tools to achieve it.

An entrepreneur can be recognized by mindset

Finally, the mindset. Mental attitude.

Just as I told you at the beginning of the piece, it is one thing to have the fixed salary secured at the end of the month by working for someone else, it is another to build something of your own and only yours. For the money, of course, but mostly for your human and professional fulfillment.

A winding path full of pitfalls, but as they say, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react.”

You don’t have to be afraid to fail.

Never.

Because any moment (even the most difficult ones) can really be the turning point.

Forget positive thinking and other overblown or trivialized concepts.

The point is that becoming a successful entrepreneur means not only finding the right product or service within the right market but developing the ability To act and react promptly to what happens, especially in uncertain situations. There are those who possess this gift innately and those who have to develop it.

But the right mindset can be learned. And choosing to take an online course to cultivate your entrepreneurial dream is a first step in the right direction because your desire to grow, learn and improve yourself day by day.

Read also: Business intelligence & training: these are the best paths in the world

Online courses to become entrepreneurs: why choose CMI Academy!

What you need is not a course but a path.

That’s why we created the CMI Academy, something more than classic online courses to become entrepreneurs but a comprehensive pathway to become data-driven entrepreneurs where everyone can access video courses, customized counseling sessions, and Boosters, the community of entrepreneurs, managers, and freelancers where you can learn through weekly lessons, compare and get immediate feedback, and-why not-build a network of relationships that can pave the way for new business or successful collaborations.

Working with SMEs, freelancers and start-ups, we are increasingly asked for concrete support in transforming the  Actionable Insights   that emerge from our Market Analysis into practical actions or, as we prefer to call them:  monetizable . 

Hence the idea of structuring a real comprehensive course with Videocourses, Training in Aula and the MasterMIND, specific moments in which Central Marketing Intelligence experts select a select group of entrepreneurs to help them overcome daily challenges and set the right future strategies to quickly achieve business goals.

The question you need to ask yourself is not, “How do you become an entrepreneur?” but rather, “What do I need to know to achieve my goals and become a successful entrepreneur?” We can offer you the answer to this second question.

Contact us now!

We will be happy to help you grow and train you as an entrepreneur 2.0!

How about leveraging a tool designed by our team to define the objective level of knowledge of your business? Our Data Strategy Check-Up will only take you a few minutes. Effective now!