Skip to main content

Starting Business Courses

Learn how to start your new business venture with free online entrepreneurship and business development courses from MIT, IIMB and other top schools.

Hundreds of great courses at your fingertips

Learn on the go with the new edX mobile app. You can stream or download course videos and watch directly from your iPhone or Android device.

How to Start a Business

Someone with great business ideas or even just a strong desire to work from home might be interested in learning how to start a small business – or even a large one. Fortunately, there are lots of great online resources that can help make that dream a reality.

First, there are many courses available online that offer various kinds of business training. Also, there are plenty of media outlets devoted entirely to the business entrepreneur experience and related strategies.

Additionally, it’s a great time to be a female entrepreneur. In recent years a number of new organizations have been founded to give education and support to women starting their own businesses. These organizations often provide some combination of counsel, contacts, funding, and business ideas for women.

People who excel in creating new businesses typically display a wide variety of skills, as most entrepreneurs have to wear a lot of hats while they ramp up. Business Development and interpersonal skills are a must for landing customers and clients. An aptitude for communications and marketing help build awareness and reach new customers. And of course, a certain level of business training is a big advantage.

Online Courses in Entrepreneurship

There are a great number of opportunities to learn about the entrepreneurial world from online courses. MIT offers Becoming an Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship 101: Who is Your Customer?, Entrepreneurship 102: Do You Have A Product?, and Entrepreneurship 103: Show Me The Money.

Berklee College of Music also offers Creativity & Entrepreneurship, a course that introduces learners to new skills and provides real-world examples from renowned entrepreneurs and innovators.

The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore offers a MicroMasters program in Entrepreneurship, which entails work in four courses: Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship: DO Your Venture, People Management for Entrepreneurs, and Accounting and Finance.

For a wider perspective, Harvard University offers Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, a study of how entrepreneurs tackle complex social problems in emerging economies around the world.

Earning in Entrepreneurship

Every new business is different and can start out with a broad spectrum of capital, logistical challenges, overhead, and debt. As such, it’s difficult to say how much an entrepreneur will make when starting out.

According to the online career-matching platform Sokanu, entrepreneurs in the United States earn a median salary of $171,610 per year. However, using data accumulated from directly from employees, users, and past and present job advertisements, the job site Indeed maintains that the average Entrepreneur salary in the United States is approximately $67,608 per year.

The correct answer is: it’s different for everyone and every business. The one constant truth is that the more knowledge an entrepreneur can gain before diving in, the better the chance of success.

Explore a career in Business Development

Entrepreneurism is by no means an easy path, but millions of people around the world take the plunge every year. It takes tenacity, confidence, and some good ideas. A solid knowledge base is a huge asset and there are plenty of online courses that can help. Dive in!