Investing in yourself is very important and now is a great time to pick up on a couple of skills that will help you go a long way in the future. In the previous article, I mentioned that the lockdown could be utilized for getting some online courses done. In this article, I am going to list out some useful courses recommended by Team Vendo, specially handpicked for entrepreneurs in the packaged ‘Food & Beverages’ (F&B) category. We will follow this up with a list of courses for tuning or picking up general business principles.
Some of you may be good at one thing but not so adept in another field of business. Most of our recommendations are from common online platforms like Coursera or Udemy. The list entails all types of courses: Free, Paid, Short & Long. Setting up a packaged F&B business needs some special skills that can be broadly categorized into the following topics, especially once you know what your product is going to be.
1. Market Research
(a) The Economics of Agro-Food Value Chain Course Duration: 15 hours, spread over 6 weeks (b) First Steps in Market Research Course Duration: 1.5 hours On-Demand Video (c) How to Conduct Market Research in Startups and Small Firms? Course Duration: 5 hours On-Demand Video
2. Product Pricing & Unit Economics
(a) Pricing Strategy Course Duration: 14 hours, spread across 4 weeks (b) Customer Value in Pricing Strategy Course Duration: 14 hours, spread across 4 weeks (c) Top Product Pricing Strategies & Competitive Pricing Methods Course Duration: 35 mins
(d) How to Price Consumer Products? Course Duration: 1 hour
3. Brand Positioning
(a) Brand Management
Course Duration: 17 hours, spread across 4 weeks
Course Duration: 10 Hours, spread across 5 weeks
Course Duration: 1.5 hours On-Demand Video
4. Packaging & Packaging Design
(a) Learn Blender
Course Duration: 2.5 hours On-Demand Video
Course Duration: 3.5 hours On-Demand Video
5. Digital Marketing
Course Duration: 14 hours spread across 4 weeks
Course Duration: 18 hours spread across 4 weeks
Course Duration: 1-hour On-demand video
6. Retail & Distribution
Course Duration: 10 hours spread across 4 weeks
Course Duration: 31 minutes On-Demand Video
I totally understand that in these uncertain times, the Business Continuity Plan is the top priority, where a lot of things are not in your control. That still leaves enough time in the day, and there is nothing wrong in leveraging it by learning what you do not know. You can also recommend this to your teams or managers, handling respective fields in your organization. These are only a few handpicked and recommended ones, and there is much more to explore on these platforms.
Happy Learning!
Nachiket Kulkarni
Co-Founder, Vendo