Want More Money? Take Free Online Business Courses

It seems to be a near constant lament of new lawyers and those that hire them, that law schools don't teach lawyers any business skills or how to actually practice. But have you ever considered going back to school to learn to be better at business?

Sure, legal business may be a bit different. But many of the skills you'll learn are highly transferable. And thanks to the world we live in, you can do that without actually having to go anywhere or pay anything. Simply put, if you feel like you're not making enough money at your practice, you might want to consider taking a few online business courses to give your business a boost.

Where to Find Free Online Business Courses

Like many online CLE providers, countless major universities offer online courses, many with free enrollment options, for individuals and professionals seeking continuing professional development skills education.

A recent list over on Entrepreneur.com has several great recommendations, from Harvard's free course on how promoting a Culture of Health is good for business to Northwestern University's course that teaches people how to close deals.

While many universities will have their own online education portals, you'll likely find more options through online institutions like Coursera, edX, or a large aggregator like Class Central.

Legal Business

When it comes right down to it, small firm and solo practitioners spend a good chunk of time on marketing and business activities, which often just gets lumped into the broad category of non-billable work. It must get done if the business is going to continue on, but often improvements on the business side of a practice fall by the wayside because it's just more non-billable work.

But given the massive amount of time some lawyers spend on business activities, rather than legal work, it might not be the worst idea to look at implementing your own mandatory continuing business education requirement, either personally or firm wide.

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