Work at Home Idea:
Start an Online Learning Service
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Online learning(or computer-based learning) is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world today. It's an integral part of K-12 and higher education classes. Companies, too are turning to online learning as a cost-effective solution for employee training. And an increasing number of high-tech professionals are relying on online learning to sharpen their skills and acquire the newest certifications. The result? Online learning entrepreneurs are raking in tremendous profits. And you can, too.
Just about anything people want to learn you can turn into a product-from computer training courses on CD to Internet degree programs to online gardening tutorials. Our guide shows you how.
You learn how to get started in the three top online learning markets. Get insider tips from industry experts and founders of online learning ventures. And discover how successful e-learning entrepreneurs turn their ideas into dollars. Order your guide today, and stake your claim in this multibillion-dollar industry.
This guide from Entrepreneur.com is necessary before diving into this home business venture.
Book Excerpt
Knowledge is the coin of this realm. Unless you’re a movie star, professional athlete, or perhaps the founder of a start-up company, what you know is far more important than just about anything else in the business game.
To hold your own in the marketplace, you’ve got to keep learning—everything from changing social norms to the latest management theories to mastery of technologies that didn’t even exist a few years ago. That’s equally true in boom times and bad times. In this chapter, we’ll look at the circumstances that make education so important in today’s economy and how they open up opportunities for you, the entrepreneur.
A Degree Of Confidence
It’s increasingly difficult to keep up with the faster pace of U.S. business, the constant push for ever-higher levels of personal productivity, the use of ever-more-complex technology, and the obsoleting of not-so-old job titles. This forces us to become more knowledgeable and work smarter—and, in many cases, to prove that we’re making progress via degrees and certifications.
At the beginning of the 20th century, if you had even a high school education, you could get a good job. After World War II, a high school education became a necessity. Through the 1960s, if you had a little college—not necessarily even a full degree, but some post-secondary training—you enjoyed an edge that would get you a white-collar job. Now, a college degree is just the ante you must have to gain meaningful employment—and ongoing education is a must-have for economic survival.
Do you really need a bachelor’s degree to handle most entry-level jobs? Probably not, if you took introductory business courses in high school, know computer basics, and have some common sense. But an increasing number of companies require the bachelor’s degree even for these jobs. Why should a company hire an accounts payable clerk without a business degree when there are so many people who have one willing to fill that position? Why should a company invest in someone who hasn’t invested in his or herself? That person isn’t going to stay an accounts payable clerk forever. When the time is right for advancement, it’s better to have someone who has the necessary credentials—namely, a degree.
Additionally, job applicants often find it advantageous to show that they have some specific technical experience in the job for which they are applying. An increasing number supplement their college degrees with post-graduate work, technical certifications and specialty training such as management seminars.
If you get a professional degree—if you’re a doctor or lawyer, for example—you’re likely to make three and a half times what a high school dropout will. Get that high school diploma, and you’re likely to tack another $7,400 onto your salary. A bachelor’s degree? That’s worth another $17,500 a year.
Once you’ve got a degree (or maybe an advanced degree), you’ll want more education and training. That may involve another degree, certification courses, or just learning all the details of a particular task.
And corporations need to make sure their employees are up to speed on all job requirements. That may mandate technical training, guidance on meeting regulatory standards, or management courses on issues such as sexual harassment and hiring/firing. The corporate move into online learning is buttressed by extensive research showing that the new technologies often can deliver learning just as effectively and at a far lower price than conventional methods can achieve—and do so far more quickly and flexibly. Ongoing education can be as ambitious as getting your MBA. Or it can be very fine-grained. “A lot of the online training is just getting people familiar with Microsoft Word,” says John Dalton, analyst with Forrester Research, a technology analysis firm. “It’s not high-level stuff.”
Training can be refreshers on “basic” material, since “the basics” often change every year. For instance, software tools are constantly being upgraded, with new versions of Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Outlook as well as new tools for videoconferencing, Web page authoring or instant messaging. That gives you ongoing opportunities to sell CD-ROM tutorials or Web courses to audiences who officially graduated years ago and even those who think they “know” Outlook. And this scenario is in no way limited to computer training, since society’s entire body of knowledge is growing and changing.
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This guide from Entrepreneur.com is necessary before diving into this home business venture.
Disclaimer: The information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent the views of Work-at-Home-Business.com and/or its partners.
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