12/ 07/ 2005
by Steve Strauss
Q: I hear that small-business owners are supposed to take continuing business education courses. Training is fine I suppose, but who has time? I don’t see how it benefits us.
A: Generally speaking, I cannot disagree with you. Training for training’s sake may not do you a lot of good. That said, I would suggest two areas where training can make a big difference, where it would affect the bottom line.
The first includes areas of your business that might need brushing up. Entrepreneurs like to think they know everything, but that isn’t true, of course. It’s sort of like that old story in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when a man cutting down a tree with a dull saw says he doesn’t have time to stop and sharpen it, even though it would make his job faster. Likewise, courses that help you bone up on weak areas of business can speed up rest of your job.
The other area where training can make a difference is in growth. Any small-business owner could take classes in these three following areas, and the result would be increased sales and revenue:
1. Sales: There are some natural born salespeople, but for most of us, sales is an art learned through trial and error. It doesn’t have to be that way. People who have studied sales extensively have devised systems that enable you to fairly easily learn what they have discovered. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You can learn how to sell just like you learned how to read––by having someone who has already mastered it teach you.
Thus, a sales course can make a big difference in your business. Sales training can be done either in person or online and can cover a wide variety of topics, depending upon your needs:
- Cold calling
- Sales techniques
- Making the offer
- Presentations
- Sales forecasts
- Closing a sale
2. Technology: It’s no secret that technology has radically altered the face of business
during the past generation. But, as with sales, many of us learn either by knocking around on our computers or by observing our tech-savvy friends or the computer repair person.
The fact is, computer hardware and software makers spend a lot of money figuring out what small-business owners need, and they’ve created some incredible products to make us more efficient, more productive and more successful. But unless you take a training class and find out what is out there and how to use it, the business revolution will not be televised in your office.
3. Marketing: Far too many small-business owners fall into the rut of running the same marketing tricks up the same flagpole again and again, getting -- you guessed it -- the same results. If you want to grow your business, you will need new tricks. You can learn new and better marketing techniques online, at community colleges or through private seminar companies. The important thing is to get out there, learn some new marketing or advertising strategies, then try them out. Training, if focused, can significantly impact your bottom line.
