Why Being An Entrepreneur or Small Business Owner Means Being a Lifelong Learner
“BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THIS WORLD.” ~ GANDHI
Many people start their businesses and then become so immersed in the busyness of their daily work that they forget just how important upskilling and continual learning is for them and those they work with.
Working ‘on’ your business also equates to working ‘on’ yourself, since your business cannot prosper without those in control of it growing both personally and professionally. Most people will claim they don’t have the time to spend on learning and training, but bettering yourself is key to your success. Learning new things and acquiring new skills also brings with it a sense of excitement and an increased sense of fulfilment when these new skills are applied to whatever it is we practice.
Something most entrepreneurs need to work on is the improvement and adjustment of their mindset, changing their belief system so that it supports their entrepreneurial and aspirational hopes and dreams, in addition to making vital changes to how they think and how they behave.
Successful businesses are ran seamlessly, with perfectly devised systems and processes, meticulously crafted by the people who created these businesses. The more educated and knowledgeable those people are, the better equipped they are to implement systems which will be effective in catapulting the success of the business to extraordinary levels.
By nature, human beings are goal oriented, they strive to be many things, but when consumed by the daily grind of running a small business they forget that to reach these goals, time must be dedicated to training and learning, which is as natural and necessary a part of the process as anything else.
Small business owners assume multiple roles and responsibilities, thus could benefit from training in a wide range of areas, including leadership, management, tech, design, marketing, social media, writing/blogging, graphics, website building and coding, accounting, editing and proofreading, customer service, time management, organisation, sales, negotiating, the list goes on!
Of course, it’s important to stress that the key to effective learning is to put what you’ve learnt into action!
According to Travis Wright in Inc, ‘What you become in life is infinitely more important than anything you might get’.
So many of us are obsessed with materialism and ‘having’ things, but ‘having’ things isn’t the reason we were put on this earth, we were put here to make a difference and to have a positive impact on the world and on those around us. The method we use to do this is by focusing on our personal development through setting goals and bettering ourselves.
It’s important to remember that learning is an ongoing process and it requires work and dedication. To avoid overwhelm, it’s sensible to break it down into small steps and give yourself time to monitor your progress as well as put your newfound skills and knowledge into action.
A noteworthy point was made by Michael Simmons in Inc, which claims that ‘The long-term effects of not learning are just as insidious as the long-term effects of not having a healthy lifestyle.’ Thus, It’s as important that we integrate learning into our life-style at it is to exercise.
I recommend scheduling time into your calendar to study/learn daily or weekly. In addition to setting yourself weekly business and fitness goals, set yourself weekly personal development goals. It’s exciting to plan your learning knowing the impact it will have on your life/business.
If you’re keen to get going on your learning straight away, here’s some useful sites that offer (many free) online courses on a whole array of different topics:
If you’re keen to invest more time into your own personal and professional development but are concerned about having the time to support it, get in touch to discuss how I could free you up by handling some of your key marketing tasks to ensure the continual smooth functioning of your business.
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