Back to School for YOU: How to Get Smarter and Grow Your Business
The kids are headed back to school and you can let out a sigh of relief. Now you can get back to focusing on running your business, am I right? But before you get too comfortable, consider that this might be the ideal time for you to "go back to school" as well, so to speak. The more energy you put into boning up on your industry, technology, trends, or even different aspects of running a successful business, the better your business becomes. You don’t have to enroll as a college student all over again to grow your business. In fact, you don’t even need a degree to get business-smart. Let’s look at how you can move to the head of the class this fall without spending too much time or money doing so.
Decide What You Want to Learn
We all have our to-dos that have been put on the back burner. Think about those areas you have been wanting to improve in; maybe teaching yourself QuickBooks or learning how to better use WordPress. Figure out ways to market your business without spending any money. This is the place to start in your quest for higher learning.
Look for the Right Learning Opportunities
You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your office to get smarter, what with content marketing creating a deluge of useful information online just waiting for you to dig in. Start with:
- Blogs
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Slide presentations
- Online courses
Here’s a bonus tip: check out MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). They are courses at real universities (all held online) that you can take for free. Sites like Coursera offer courses in writing, management, business, you name it. You can take them at your pace and grow your business without spending money. How cool is that?[TMM Note: We also recommend CreativeLive. They offer lots of free and budget-friendly courses to further your professional development.] You can also look in your local community for more ways to learn. There are resources all around you! Get connected with the community college down the street. They may offer continuing education courses for business owners or there might be a great conference or workshop coming up that you can attend to get both knowledge and networking opportunities. If you don't have luck there, check out your local SCORE or SBA office to see if they’ve got free or affordable events on topics like starting a business, marketing, and business planning. In between your courses and workshops, continue learning at home. There’s always the old-fashioned way to go: read books from your library or bookstore!
Grow Your Business
Start consuming! The more you consume knowledge, the better business owner you become. Look for learning opportunities everywhere, both online and off, and take advantage of free and affordable resources. Soon you will be able to put that knowledge to action and watch your business grow!
How about you? What resources have you found helpful in growing your business? Tell us in the comments!