Aside granting loans to small businesses, the SBA has a learning center where they share knowledge. Here are 7 most popular courses offered by SBA. When you think of the Small Business Administration (SBA), you probably think of business loans.
But there are also other things the SBA can do to help your business before and after you start—from day-to-day management and expanding your business to making changes. The Small Business Administration, or SBA, is a U.S. government agency that supports small businesses and entrepreneurs.
The SBA provides resources like training and educational materials for small business owners. With an emphasis on technical assistance and specific support for planning, managing and growing your business, the SBA provides online courses as well as in-person consultations that can help strengthen a business owner’s entrepreneurial skills.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has a learning centre which contains short, 30-minute courses on financing, government contracting, managing a business, marketing and how to start a business. Generally, there are over 60 courses and the most recent published courses cover how to take a high – tech product to the market, SBA’s mentor program and a disaster recovery guide if your business was affected by a natural disaster.
In the SBA learning centre, you can find individual help with business startup, business plan writing, marketing, and other business questions through SCORE (formerly the Service Corps of Retired Executives), an SBA partner group. There are SCORE chapters throughout the U.S., and probably one near you. Here are the most popular courses offered by the SBA in the United States.
What is the Most Popular Course Offered By the SBA?
Financing Options for Small Businesses
This training exercise is an introduction to financing options for your business. Topics include; determining your financial needs, loans, grants, venture capital, angel investors, crowd funding and other financial options available to small businesses.
Creating a Successful Business Plan
In this course, you walk through all the major components of a business plan and turn your business ideas into a solid plan for financing and long – term success. Committing your idea to paper in the form of a business plan increases your chances of obtaining financing and keeps your business strategically focused.
Take Your Business Global – An Introduction to Exporting
This course is meant to be a guide for small businesses to help determine if exporting, as a business strategy, makes sense and whether the basic ingredients for export readiness are in place.
Growing an Established Company
Let’s imagine you have started your business and now you think you are ready to grow. How do you really know if you and your company are ready for the next step? This course will help you determine if a growth opportunity is right for you.
Creating Web Pages
With this SBA course you can create and post your very own website on the Internet in this extensive, hands-on workshop. You can also learn about the capabilities of the World Wide Web and the fundamentals of Web design. You’ll also learn critical and timely information on securing the best possible location in search engine listings, and powerful no-cost or low-cost web marketing strategies.
Sales: A Guide for the Small Business Owner
Let’s also imagine you have a great product or service. Now you have to sell it. This course will give you an overview of sales plans and other tools to get your product or service into your customer/consumer’s hands.
Customer Service Fundamental
Note that with this course, you can learn and develop new skills in identifying and satisfying customer needs, and become an indispensable asset to any organization. This online course will help you discover and master the essentials of customer service. You’ll learn the best ways to measure customer service, apply the principles of consumer behaviour to your business, and differentiate between industrial and consumer marketing.
Savings Plans for Small Businesses
This self-paced training exercise will give you an overview of savings plans and strategies for your small business. You will also learn about the contingency and long – term savings, tax breaks, retirement savings and much more.
Anyone managing a small business or planning to start one should note that SBA support can give you a leg up. With district offices throughout the U.S., coupled with what you can access online, finding support from the SBA is easy. By taking advantage of all the programs, training and resources, you can gain valuable insight to start and grow a successful small business.