Brownie Wise (the saleswoman behind the success of Tupperware) said, “If you want to build a business, build the people.” This is incredibly important, now more than ever. With the labor shortage continuing, business owners need to make their business stand out, and helping potential employees understand that they can have a career with you (or at least feel valued while they are there) can be the difference between retaining or losing an employee.
But how do you “build the people”? Training can be costly and who has the time or money for that? Believe it or not, there are a lot of free resources out there. This article lists just a few. To the best of our knowledge, each of these options is free. However, there may be a minimal cost with some specialized training.
1. The Chamber of Commerce
If you belong to the chamber of commerce in your area, those benefits extend to your employees. If the chamber offers webinars, meet and greets, or lunch and learns, you can (and should) encourage your employees to attend these free (or heavily discounted) ways to learn and get to know others in the community.
Additionally, as a member of your local Chamber, you have access to programs and resources from the Canadian & Atlantic Chambers. Sign up for newsletters from these organizations to get information about upcoming training sent right to your inbox.
2. PEI Business Women’s Association
In addition to Chambers, there are many other local business groups that offer free training periodically. Sign up for their newsletters or check out their website to see what webinars are available. The PEI Business Women’s Association offers webinars, lunch and learns and other training which are open to all (not just women!) on a variety of topics from how to create Instagram Reels to Small Business Bookkeeping.
3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Other Universities
You may not know that this world-class institution offers free online classes in a variety of subjects, including business. Check out a listing of available courses. The University of California has some solid offerings as well. Also, check out Open University for even more.
4. YouTube
You may assume that the courses on YouTube would be conducted by fame-seeking teenagers but that’s simply not the case. There are a lot of good resources available on this channel. You could create a playlist of videos and share it with your marketing team/person, for instance.
5. TedTalks
You might be surprised at the kind of things you can learn in a TedTalk. While they may not teach direct skills, they teach ways to think and reframe problems that can be advantageous in a lot of roles. Your employees may also learn stronger empathy through watching a few of these.
6. Ahrefs Academy
Lots of great courses here including SEO for Beginners (who couldn’t use that?) and several marketing courses. Good information that every business can use.
7. LinkedIN Learning
If you want to check out a subscription course offering, there’s LinkedIn Learning. After your free month trial, there’s a $19.95 per month fee for unlimited access to their courses. Courses include advanced work on popular software like Office and Google as well as technical things like learning coding languages such as Python.
There are plenty of free training options out there for your staff. The difficulty is in giving them the time for professional development. Offering the courses won’t do you any good if they don’t take them, so make sure you communicate that this is an important part of your business. Your best employees will appreciate the challenge and the additional training. And best of all, it won’t cost you a thing, and will most likely result in greater efficiency and profitability for your organization.