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CAREER ADVICE

Become an Entrepreneur

Want to learn how to start your own business? Or bring new ideas and energy to your current organisation? Develop key entrepreneurial skills with short online entrepreneurship courses from top universities and business schools.

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What are the characteristics of an entrepreneur?

  • Opportunism

    Entrepreneurs spot opportunities to develop new products and markets. To do this, they monitor customers, competitors and technological trends.

  • Creativity

    Once an entrepreneur has spotted an opportunity, they seize it. They use innovative thinking to improve existing products and develop new ones.

  • Commerciality

    Entrepreneurs know how much it costs to produce something and how much customers will pay for it. They focus on finances, making their business processes as efficient as possible.

  • Leadership

    Entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea or business. And they inspire their teams too, through top-notch communication, management and leadership skills.

Develop your entrepreneurial skills. Take an online short course

An illustration showing managers and leaders towering above a city skyline.
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The Open University

Management and Leadership: Growing as a Manager

Explore the foundations of successful management with this online course from The Open University and CMI.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
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The Open University

Management and Leadership: Planning Your Personal Development

Focus on and plan your personal development as a manager with this online course from The Open University and CMI.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
A group of business professionals discussing customer engagement
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The Open University

Business Fundamentals: Customer Engagement

Learn how to design business and marketing activities to engage customers through relationships instead of one-off sales.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
A graphic showing hands choosing between coins - a metaphor for making business funding decisions.
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The Open University

The Digital Economy: Finance for Business Growth

Learn how to develop a funding strategy for your business; explore different types of finance and learn when, and how, to use them
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
A graphic showing cogs, speech bubbles and bank notes - a metaphor for customer relationship management in sales and marketing
Removed from Wishlist
The Open University

The Digital Economy: Selling Through Customer Insight

Uncover new perspectives on the role and behaviour of your customers, to enhance your sales and marketing.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
Girls soccer team with their coach in a huddle
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Deakin University

The Self-aware Coach

Find out why self-awareness is so important in coaching and leadership, and learn strategies to apply to your own practice.
2 weeks
3 hrs per week
Hands holding a small plant growing in dirt.
Removed from Wishlist
Queensland University of Technology

Teaching Entrepreneurial Thinking

Get an introduction to what entrepreneurial thinking is, and how and why we should teach it.
2 weeks
1 hr per week

Part of a degree

Woman standing between two blackboards with lots of illustrations
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Deakin University

Becoming Career Smart: How to Sell Yourself

Thinking about a career change? Identify your key strengths and professional skills, and learn how to sell them and yourself.
2 weeks
3 hrs per week
A group of business professionals networking effectively
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The Open University

Business Fundamentals: Effective Networking

Learn how to build and sustain your network to enhance your professional relationships and open up career opportunities.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
Young woman using a tablet
Removed from Wishlist
Accenture

Digital Skills: Digital Marketing

Learn about some of the different digital marketing strategies and techniques that are available for businesses to use.
2 weeks
2 hrs per week
A graphic showing a globe, a profit graph and a rocket – a metaphor for effective supply chain management
Removed from Wishlist
The Open University

The Digital Economy: Effective Supply Chain Management

Learn how supply chains work in the digital era, and how you can make them more effective and efficient.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
Removed from Wishlist
The Open University

The Digital Economy: Success through Market Segmentation

Explore how and why market segmentation can be used to improve business performance.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
An illustration showing managers and leaders towering above a city skyline.
Removed from Wishlist
The Open University

Management and Leadership: Leading a Team

Develop a business plan and build a team with with this online course from The Open University and CMI.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
Removed from Wishlist
The Open University

Management and Leadership: Well-being and Welfare at Work

Learn to support the development and well-being of the people you manage with this online course from The Open University and CMI.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
man and woman at desk with laptop, calculator and printed paper with table of numbers
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The Open University

Bookkeeping for Personal and Business Accounting

Learn how to balance your books and develop the skills to manage finances in personal and business environments.
4 weeks
3 hrs per week
A container ship
Removed from Wishlist
University of Twente

Supply Chain Innovation: How Technology Can Create a Sustainable Future

Understand how new technologies can make supply chains more sustainable and learn how to deal with today's trends.
6 weeks
3 hrs per week
Young man using a tablet
Removed from Wishlist
Accenture

Digital Skills: Grow Your Career

Learn about how digital is changing the world of work, and how you can successfully grow your career in the digital age.
2 weeks
1 hr per week
Young woman holding a mobile phone
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Accenture

Digital Skills: Social Media

Learn how to use social media for business, from creating a social media presence to measuring success.
2 weeks
1 hr per week
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University of Leeds

Innovation Management: Winning in the Age of Disruption

Learn how successful organisations like IBM manage innovation to disrupt markets and achieve business advantage.
2 weeks
4 hrs per week
Removed from Wishlist
CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

HR Fundamentals

Get an introduction to the practice of HR, and develop the skills you need to become an HR professional.
5 weeks
3 hrs per week
People Management Skills
Removed from Wishlist
CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

People Management Skills

Get an introduction to people management and develop your own management style.
5 weeks
3 hrs per week
eFIRE: a businessman holding in his hands icons representing team members, surrounded by coloured flames.
Removed from Wishlist
Queensland University of Technology

Leadership Coaching through Turbulent Times: Playing with eFIRE

Use eFIRE, a coaching mindset and methodology, to make better leadership decisions in the face of a complex and challenging world.
3 weeks
3 hrs per week

Browse more courses in Business & Management and Tech & Coding

What do people say about these entrepreneurship courses?

It has been a great course and truly inspiring! The course gave us a series of new areas to think about. It gave us a new way to look at some of the areas in our business that we thought were all wrapped up but in reality, we had glossed over the subject matter. The material of this course was so easy to follow because of how relevant and interesting the readings and videos were. The learner comments and discussions made a great contribution, making the course easier and successful for me.

Enam Haque
Learner on Supply Chain Innovation: How Technology Can Create a Sustainable Future

The benefits of taking entrepreneurship courses online with FutureLearn

Learn flexibly online, for free

Develop valuable skills with a short, online entrepreneurship course wherever you are. Start learning for free, on desktop, tablet or mobile.

Upgrade for tests and Certificates

Upgrade your chosen course to get unlimited access, take tests and prove what you’ve learnt with a Certificate of Achievement.

Meet experts and entrepreneurs

Learn with experts from top international universities and business schools. Network with developers all over the world.

Contact FutureLearn for Support