Helpful online courses for small business owners | Reviews for 5 courses
Do you want to learn more about running your business but are not sure which online courses for small business to invest in?
Below are my reviews for my five favorite online courses that I’ve used to grow my small business.
Five online courses to help grow your small business
1) The online course to build the foundation of your small business.
2)Two online courses for succeeding in Pinterest and Instagram.
3)The online course to help navigate and thrive on Linked In
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There are so many layers to owning a business and when you are the sole person responsible for doing “all the things” it can get a little overwhelming and sometimes you just need a little help!
It is common to feel like there is always something to learn, a trend to stay on top of or simply a foundation that needs to be built so you and your business can move forward.
Owning a business, I can relate to all these things and often found that sifting through social media or watching YouTube Videos never got me moving forward. Not only was that process so time-consuming but the noise was too loud and if I didn’t start from the beginning, I would be lost, feeling more discouraged and confused than when I started.
It was at that point that I started to focus on online courses for small business because I do believe that if you want to grow and succeed, you have to invest in yourself and your business.
Problem is, there are a LOT of online courses for small business out there and it’s sort of impossible to know which ones are worth the time and money and which ones will really help.
As small business owners, funds are limited, especially if you are starting out and it’s important to invest wisely so I’ve gather a list of online courses for small business that I’ve purchased and taken to give you a sense of which ones might help you.
It’s important to note that I paid for all of these online courses myself. My reviews are my personal thoughts and these links are not affiliated in any way. My intention is to share my experience to give you the insight and confidence to take an online course for your small business, if that is something you are considering.
Click this image to learn more about Shanna’s class. Image from shannaskidmore.com.
The best online course for the building the foundations of small and creative businesses
When I opened my wedding venue business, I literally and figuratively built it from the ground up. Each contract, price sheet, employee document, budget and so on was written by me and I had to figure it out as I went along.
By working so hard in the business, I didn’t have time to work on the business and about a year and a half in, I was “in the weeds”.
Killing myself to keep the balls rolling, having no work-life balance and ending my first full year breaking even, I felt so defeated. I almost gave up but then I discovered Shanna Skidmore and her Blueprint Model Program, it was a game-changer.
Her course has enrollment twice a year and runs for 6 weeks. You can go at your own pace but I highly recommend going along with Shanna, her weekly office hours are so helpful!
She starts with honing in on your vision for your life and business and moves to sales and marketing, budgets and finance and more. Shanna helps you build a solid foundation for your business so you can get your life back and find the joy in the work once again.
The online course is an investment but it is worth it if you want to learn more about the numbers of your business while understanding your why behind the work. Shanna is kind, encouraging and really good with numbers!
After taking The Blueprint Model and having a true understanding of my business, I went from a break even year in 2017 to profiting over $25,000 the next year.
If numbers aren’t your thing, they will be after Shanna’s class. Not to mention, Shanna’s templates and worksheets are beautiful and her weekly online calls are so helpful to put it all together with real-life examples. She also offers courses on home finances and one-on-one services such as CFO in a day. Her website has all the info if you’d like to learn more.
Click the image to learn more about the Instagram Lab. Image from jennakutcher.com
Click the image to learn more about the Pinterest Lab. Image from jennakutcher.com
The best online business courses for the never-ending learning curve of Social Media
Do you struggle with keeping up with the ever-changing world of social media? Which platform to focus one, the secrets, the impact, the process, the rules…it’s all too much, especially for one person!
Whether it is Pinterest or Instagram or just creating the content for those platforms, there is a LOT of mixed messages out there on what to do and not to do, especially on social media itself.
The one person I turn to for guidance when it comes to Instagram and Pinterest (because those are the two main platforms I focus on) is Jenna Kutcher. Her Pinterest course alone took my wedding venue page from 100 monthly views a month to over 300,000! Her systems really work and they are very easy to follow.
Side note: I’m aware that Pinterest is a search engine not social media platform but I put them together here since Jenna sells them both.
It’s VERY likely you’ve heard of Jenna already and there is a reason for that—she’s good at what she does and one of my favorite parts about Jenna is that she shares so much of her knowledge for free!
Her podcast, Goal Digger, is a treasure trove of tidbits and helpful insight. When I finish one of her podcasts I am convinced I can reach any goal I set my mind to. Her energy, enthusiasm and passion for all things small business is contagious.
I have purchased Jenna’s Instagram Lab and Jenna’s Pinterest Lab and finished them both. She also updates them regularly and once you buy them, you are in for life. You can always go back and review the content.
Like Shanna, her worksheets are clear, easy to use, help you track success and keep your goals and progress right where they need to be, in front of you.
I believe in what Jenna teaches so much that I also bought her content creation course, The Content Lab and her email marketing course, List to Launch Lab. I haven’t taken them yet (because life and that elusive thing called time) so I can’t review them but when I do, I’ll update this post.
Jenna’s website has a full list of all the online courses for small business—from podcasts to photography, from Instagram and Pinterest—if the social side of business is where you want to focus, then the online courses for small business created by Jenna are definitely worth considering. Many of them are reasonably priced too!
Use this link to learn more about the LinkedIn course from Savvy Social School. Image pulled from savvysocialschool.com
The best online courses for growing your network on Linked In
LinkedIn is the platform that everyone is talking about these days. If networking is your thing or if you need it to be your thing, than LinkedIn is where you want to be but let’s be honest, it’s different than Facebook and Instagram.
More professional, straightforward, business-focused and there is a lot to love about it but also a lot to learn about it. You can’t do on LinkedIn, what you can do on Facebook, TikTok or Instagram and because of that, a little guidance might be needed.
Last year I took online course for small business by Andréa Jones called the Linked In Savvy by Savvy Social School and it was a huge help in understanding the ins and outs of of this growing platform.
Andréa is so well-versed on all things LinkedIn, her approach is straightforward and easy to understand. Her course is broken down in easy and attainable steps and her methods work.
I actually revisited her online course recently because my vision for my business is changing and as it evolves, my LinkedIn profile and connections need to as well. I actually started with her free 5-day LinkedIn Challenge which was a fun way to jump in and do a small task each day.
I completed all the tasks (but haven’t posted them yet) because I need to update a few things on my website first.
See, I’m just like you…so much to do in your business, so little time. Baby steps forward is still progress in the right direction and we need to be patient and give ourselves grace. It’s not easy running a business and a family. Ok, I got off track….let’s go back…
Andréa even gives you a course completion certificate at the end and you can show that off on your LinkedIn profile if you so choose!
Andréa’s online course will help ensure you take the best approach to build your network the right way and connect with the right people. First impressions are so important on LinkedIn because these are people you may be working alongside one day!
If you like to learn on the go, be sure to check out Andréa’s podcast, Savvy Social Podcast. I also want to mention that Andréa does so much more than just LinkedIn. She offered courses on almost every platform such as TikTok, Clubhouse, Facebook as well as has courses on Canva and ways to create content for your niche. A bonus, her team is awesome to work with. Head to her website to check out the complete list.
Learn more about Galen and her SEO course with this link. She offers a free 3-day challenge to get started. Image is from localcreativeco.com.
The best online course for learning SEO for your small business.
If you own a business and have a website, you know that SEO is crucial to growth and success because if you don’t show up in the search engines, you are essentially invisible. That’s where SEO comes in but let’s be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming, technical and not that exciting.
Essential, yes. Glamorous, no.
BUT if you want to grow, you have to know SEO. I did not intend the make that rhyme.
There are a lot of online courses for small business owners out there on SEO and for me, I needed someone who’s approach was calm, easy to understand and spoke in a non-technical language.
When I came across Galen from Local Creative Co, I knew she was my person for all things SEO. It helped that she teaches a lot of about Squarespace sites (which is what I use) so I started out watching Galen’s YouTube videos and listening to her podcast, The Intentional Creative Podcast. I quickly realized that her advice worked. She was easy to understand and she earned my trust, like Jenna, by giving so much information to her followers for free , buying her SEO course quickly became a confident decision for me.
PS: her coding tips for Squarespace are pure gold!
I have finished her online course for SEO and it absolutely works. Galen gives you step by step methods on how to ensure you are doing all the right things to get your website and blog posts seen by the right people. She has helpful worksheets that can keep you on task and I appreciate that Galen’s course isn’t too long, so you can get started on making positive changes to the back end of your website ASAP.
After taking her online course for SEO, I actually hired Galen to help design this website. Maybe it’s that we are both from the Northeast but I really like her straight-forward, quick to the point style. She tells you what you need to know and gets it done. If you need design help, I recommend contacting her—she does the build out in one day! No waiting months to see the finished product!
So many online courses for small business to choose from, so little time!
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the courses you might need for your business nor is it a complete list of all the ones I’ve purchased and/or have taken. Truth be told, I have not finished all of the ones I signed up for but I have stopped buying ones….for now!
If you are the one person that has finished every online business course you have ever purchased, please comment below and tell me your secret! I’m getting better but the squirrels of life can get the best of me some days.
If you found this helpful, I’d love to know. If you have a suggestion for a course you love, let us know below. Those following along would love to hear about them. Your contribution will help small businesses along the way. Please only include ones you’ve paid for and taken not ones you are trying to sell!
I may do a part 2 on this post because I have a few more to share but until then, my hope is that by sharing these online courses for small business owners it will reminds us all that there is power and good when women support women. Each of these women I mention today are extremely generous and share their gifts so we can all grow and succeed. They are proof that we can learn from each other, grow with each other and when we work together, we all thrive.
“To rise and thrive, we need one another”
Celebrate your business, Explore online courses!
