One phrase I really loathe is “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Learning is absolutely essential for us all. Businesses need to encourage learning, and therefore make time for individual learning. Only by finding out about new things can we grow as people and just as importantly ensure our businesses will flourish.
For many professional bodies, CPD is a mandatory requirement. Whether it is mandatory or not, you should always be looking for the chance to learn something. This may be something directly related to your area of specialism or a more general skill. Perhaps some management training or a short course on finances would be ideal. It could be something like learning how to use a piece of software better. It might also be something like how to get the most out of social media. If you are not learning something new, you can be assured that your competitors are – and that they will out-perform you as a result.
Above all, take your opportunities. There are hundreds of short seminars or full blown training courses available on every subject under the sun. You should certainly go to some of them. Maybe even just listen to a video or a TED Talk online. You will find that this is not only interesting and often quite inspiring or eye-opening but will be invaluable to the success of your business.
No need for a lot of expense
Don’t look upon it as an un-necessary cost, look upon it as an essential part of running your business well.
I am not just talking about you, the owner, here. Apply the same principles to your staff. They should all have some sort of personal development plan or training plan. You should regularly carry out a skills gap analysis or training needs analysis. You should be reviewing progress with staff and as a result identifying training needs as part of this.
Encourage learning, right across your business – it will pay off.