Best Free and Low-Cost Resources for Learning New Professional Skills

When starting a small business, there’s a lot to learn, and fast. If you’ve said “yes” to the solopreneur life, congrats! You’ve just become the Management, Sales, Marketing, IT, Human Resources, and Accounting departments all in one!

Thankfully, some of these tasks can be outsourced to trusted business partners. But what about the skills you need to master, or at least get a working knowledge of, for yourself? Fortunately, you don’t need to take out student loans to gain the skills you need to run your small business.

Here are some of the best free or low-cost options available to help you take your skills to the next level:

Your local library

This isn’t just for the readers among us. Libraries are evolving to offer more and better services to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Not only do some feature coworking spaces, many are beginning to offer access to online learning platforms, professional databases, and other e-resources that would otherwise require a paid subscription.

Before dropping money on one of these subscriptions, check if your library offers access for free. And if you find your local library somewhat lacking, remember you also have access to state libraries which are often better funded and offer even more resources.

Cost: Free for the price of your state and local taxes.

YouTube

Ah yes, that great repository of knowledge, the Wikipedia of videos. While less well-organized or well-vetted than libraries or other carefully curated learning platforms, YouTube is a great place to start in learning the basics of any new skill. There is, seemingly, a YouTuber for everything. At best, you’ll find someone with significant expertise in the exact topic you want to learn. At worst, you’ll pick up valuable leads on where to go next to learn those skills at a deeper level.

Cost: Free for the price of your time spent waiting for the ads to finish.

Coursera

coursera has become one of the best-known remote learning platforms for professional adults. It offers online degrees through top universities as well as professional certification tracks from tech giants like Google. If you’re looking to learn in smaller, more targeted chunks, you can also sign up for short individual courses, many of which are self-paced.

Cost: 7-day free trial, after which the cost varies depending on your goals. Some courses are available to audit for free. Subscriptions to Specializations or Professional Certificates currently start at $39. If you can’t afford a particular course or program, be sure to apply for financial aid.

EdEx

Similar to Coursera, edex is another major provider of on-demand remote courses for professionals facilitated through top universities and companies. Topics range from business communications to computer science. Pretty much any subject you could study in university appears in their course listings.

Cost: Free to sign up, after which the cost is variable by course and learning goals. Many courses are available for free through open enrollment, while others may require fees if you want to receive credit or pick up a certification.

Class Central

Similar to Coursera and EdEx, this program facilitates courses provided through top universities, global institutions, and other providers. Many of the free certifications are offered as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) with volunteer instructors guiding a global group learning experience. This can be especially helpful if you want a mix of flexibility with enough human engagement to keep you motivated and on task.

Cost: Free registration, cost variable by course and learning goals with many free certifications available.

LinkedIn Learning

Accessible through several of the platforms mentioned above, linkedin learning is great for short crash courses in professional topics. The videos are usually brief, targeted, and hosted by well-known subject matter experts. There is no required coursework, so engagement can be fairly passive and casual if that’s what you need. Completing these videos also gives you access to LinkedIn badges which can boost your profile and networking opportunities.

Cost: 30-day free trial, after which registration costs $19.99 per month, billed annually.

Udemy

This is another great platform for casual, self-paced professional learning. udemy is similar to YouTube in that the instructors are not vetted through top universities and institutes. Anyone can offer a course for free on this platform, so the quality does vary, however, this dynamic also offers a great opportunity to learn from down-to-earth instructors with creative, alternative approaches. Courses are often rated by past students, so you can always check reviews before you commit.

Cost : 7-day free trial, after which you pay per course. Some are free. Paid courses are generally low-cost, and Udemy frequently runs sales.

Skillshare

The selling point of this platform is that it focuses on offering instruction in hands-on creative skills. Some of the course topics include painting, animation, graphic design, digital illustration, and video editing. Whether you need to learn one of these arts to better promote your business or simply want to pick up a new hobby, Skillshare is a good choice for entrepreneurs with a creative flair.

Cost: 7-day free trial with occasional 30-day promotional periods, after which membership is currently $32 per month.

Courses by successful entrepreneurs you follow

Think about your personal list of entrepreneurial role models. You may have discovered them on social media or the pods. Some of these entrepreneurs have created courses of their own that might have particular value to you.

While these are often priced higher per course, the topics may be more useful to you. They may speak to your entrepreneurial niche in a way a top university instructor might not. Plus, you can feel great about supporting a fellow entrepreneur.

Cost: Varies by provider, often paid in a one-time installment for lifetime access.

Your local workforce center

It is a common misconception that workforce centers only serve the unemployed. In many cities, these centers also provide resources useful to new business owners, especially those getting established for the first time. It is, after all, in the best interest of the local economy for small businesses to arrive and thrive! It may be worth reaching out to a center in your area to see what they have to offer. The opportunities may range from workshops in small business skills to business fairs to government-subsidized training programs.

Cost: Free for the price of your state and local taxes.

To become an entrepreneur is to become a life-long learner. Thanks to the many free and low-cost learning resources now available online, acquiring the skills needed to run a business has never been easier – or cheaper. Self-directed learning inevitably requires some investment of time, energy, and commitment, if not also money. In the end, upskilling is a smart business investment. It will pay off sooner rather than later.

WRITTEN BY: DEBORAH STEVENSON