Have you recently launched your own hair salon, spa, massage room, tattoo parlor, personal shopper studio, or similar enterprise? Or are you considering it?
Becoming a beauty, health, or wellness entrepreneur is an amazing route, filled with independence, opportunity, and excitement. But running a business isn’t a simple undertaking. This is especially true if your experience is limited to practicing your craft. While that’s important, giving you meaningful insights into your industry and customers, it doesn’t have much to do with actually running a business.
If you’re passionate, driven, and determined to make a smashing success of your new salon or studio, you’re eager to learn the ropes of running a business and to fill in your skill and knowledge gaps. Fortunately, there are plenty of free online business courses available to help you do just that.
Peruse the list below for some smart places to start. Most free online business courses can be started at any time and completed at your own pace. Occasionally, though, these classes have enrollment periods or have a finite time (usually a week) to complete each section, so keep an eye on these.
Free Introductory Business Classes You Take Online
- Becoming an Entrepreneur – This self-paced course introduces you to many fundamentals of starting up. It’s designed to take about one to three hours per week for six weeks.
- Characteristics of the Successful Entrepreneur – Gain insights into the habits of successful business owners with this free two to three-hour web class.
- Creativity and Entrepreneurship – Here’s an offering made for creative types who are also entrepreneurs. Just give it three to five hours per week over a four-week period.
- Financial Literacy – This is a crucial subject, and one where many practitioners-turned-business-owners are lacking. This six to 10-hour class focuses on personal finance, but that’s inextricably tied to your business when you own it.
- Fundamentals of Accounting – Even if they have a professional accountant, successful entrepreneurs understand the basics of the field. Learn them here in this introductory course that only takes less than two hours.
- Introduction to Marketing – Get acquainted with the basics of marketing in this overview. It’s a great intro to a big topic, and it only takes around two to three hours to complete.
- Fundamentals of Marketing Your Business Online – Start learning specifically about digital marketing for beginners with this brief one to two-hour introductory class.
- Customer Service Training – Assuming you’ve been working at your craft for while, you should have at least a decent sense of how to provide great customer service. Still, the demands on you are stronger as the business owner. Brush up with this one to two-hour course.
- The Art of Effective Time Management – Few skills are more important for an entrepreneur than the ability to manage their time well. It’s necessary to being punctual for appointments, taking care of all the behind-the-scenes aspects of your business, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. This in-depth 18-hour class is a worthwhile investment.
- Hubspot Academy Courses – If you want to delve deeper into marketing and sales topics, Hubspot has lots of informative, insightful, self-paced, free web classes to choose from.
