Financial education is so predominant these days that it is required to advance in every aspect of life. Financial knowledge is a must for every student and professional, right from managing your expenses to investing wealth in cryptocurrency. Similarly, those running their businesses or company, cannot ignore the fact that finance management is an important affair. With unique talent and excellent skills, many individuals have achieved great success with their ideas and started their ventures. With their business growth, They will eventually need to make financial decisions that will shape their future endeavors with their business growth. Thankfully for them, it is possible to handle their finances themselves.
With the rise of the internet, there are so many online courses that you can learn a new skill every day. Similarly, there is a wide range of courses available on finance-related subjects as well. For your ease, here is a prepared list of the top 7 finance courses you can target in 2021. Small businesses can check out the following online courses to help them bring financial stability to their respective companies.
Introduction to Finance: Basics (Coursera)
Under this course, you will learn the basic Finance concepts and make good decisions for your business. This course will introduce you to topics like the fundamentals of financial statements and financial ratios for small businesses and entrepreneurs. It will enable you to measure the financial performance of your business. For someone not familiar with the finance niche, this course is the right course to start with. It will cover modules such as Introduction to Finance, Financial Statements and Cash Flow, Financial Statement Analysis, and Time Value of Money. You will be capable to make better financial plans for your business after completing this course.
This course is in association with the University of Illinois and is 100% online. The complete course duration is approximately 20 hours.
Finance for Startups and Businesses (Coursera)
Many young entrepreneurs and early business owners find it challenging to understand the language of finance. Finance can be a new domain for someone who did not study the subject earlier. This course teaches you the basic financial concepts that are required to run your startup or business. You will deep dive into financial planning and funding, understanding the financial statements and financial ratios, VC term sheet, and valuation. The practical lesson learned can be implemented directly for running and operating your business.
This course is short and just 6 hours in length. So, the professional or student can complete the course within a month. The program is made available in association with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. One can pursue the program 100% online to avoid facing possible hassles.
Entrepreneurial Finances (Class Central)
This course provides all the small business owners and entrepreneurs with an opportunity to learn how to grow their businesses by exploring different financial strategies. This complete course consists of 4 modules, starting with Startup Valuation, followed by Financing for Startups, Blockchain Business Model, and Risk Management. Throughout this course, you will learn techniques to bring business innovations to your firm. This course will also sharpen your advanced skills associated with spreadsheets that form a core part of finances.
The course is created in association with Duke University. It takes approximately four months to complete this course, where the concepts are clarified simultaneously.
Finance for non-finance professionals (Rice Online Learning)
Many individuals running their own business find it difficult to pursue a full-time Finance course due to their busy schedules. Small businesses and startups often find it challenging to hire a professional for financial expertise and advice. This course is best suited for non-professionals to give them an impression of how financial professionals make decisions, especially while considering the importance of financial planning in an organization. This course is short and will cover all major topics taught during an MBA-level finance program. Some of those topics include Financial Valuation, Capital Budgeting, Cost of Capital. This course will prepare you to think like a Finance Manager and get the best out of your decisions.
This course is designed for beginners and offered by Rice University. It takes around 14 hours to complete the course.
Corporate Finance (Edx)
Initially, for new businesses and startups, Corporate Finance sounds like an odd choice. But later on, with the organization’s growth, it becomes crucial to make rational financial decisions. This course will help you in making decisions related to financial planning, capital purchases, etc. You will learn techniques to evaluate the net present value, internal rate of return, future value. Under this course, you will calculate an asset’s value and make a good investment. The syllabus for this course includes the time value of money, valuation of assets, and capital budgeting.
The course is provided in association with IIM-B and can be completed in 5 weeks.
Business and Finance modeling (Wharton Online)
Financial modeling is crucial for any organization. It is essential to keep track of the organization’s performance and then helps in making future decisions. This course will help you to design the mathematical models best suited to your business. The professional will successfully specialize in spreadsheets and modeling techniques upon completion of this course. It will cover topics such as Fundamental of Quantitative modeling, Introduction to spreadsheets, and modeling risks and realities. The course majorly focuses on using spreadsheet models to make data-driven decisions.
It is 100% online and takes up to 6 months to complete. The course is created in association with the University of Pennsylvania.
Financial Management (Udemy)
This course will cover the fundamental of Finances, especially the management aspect at an intermediate level. You will be studying strategic financial management, which will help the organization during portfolio management and valuation. The course requires some related experience, and it will be a good occasion for early startups or businesses to get started with this. The specializations under this course include accounting, investments, corporate finance, and financial management. Once this course is completed, you can easily understand capital markets and institutions and will be able to make strategic decisions from a financial perspective.
The University of Illinois offers this program and takes approximately 8 months to complete.
In conclusion
With these courses, organized by top institutes from across the world, you can quickly master the field of finance in a matter of months. You will start with fundamentals and eventually get insight into the practical knowledge required for making decisions on a larger scale. The universities and respective websites design these courses to keep the features that will prove beneficial for small business owners. Once completed, these courses will help you reach great heights with your business, thus helping you achieve your professional goals.
Author Bio
Abhyank Srinet is a passionate digital entrepreneur who holds a Masters in Management degree from ESCP Europe. He started his first company while he was still studying at ESCP and managed to scale it up by 400% in just 2 years. Being a B-School Alumni, he recognized the need for a one-stop solution for B-School to get in touch with schools and get their application queries resolved. This prompted him to create MiM-Essay, a one-of-a-kind portal with cutting-edge profile evaluation and school selection algorithms, along with several avenues to stay informed about the latest B-School Updates.
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