Successful Small Business Owners Know That Education and Training Are Investments Not Costs
Successful Small Business Owners Know That Education and Training Are Investments Not Costs
During the last 100 years, training has been viewed by some as the "necessary" evil cost. The prevailing belief was "We gotta to train them." And when sales plummeted or companies merged, the leadership's or management's belief was to cut the training budgets as well as the human resource department. Now does this really make sense?
If your people are the key to overcoming current challenges, then why cut their resources when you are experiencing significant issues. This is the time more than ever to invest (key word here is invest) in YOUR people. And successful small business owners understand that training and development are investments, not costs.
Slashing the training budget is in many cases a reaction to a symptom instead of the real much larger problem or problems. That problem or those problems may include the following:
1.Inability to define the desired results HINT: If you can't define the desired results that you want from the training, then why do the training? This is now a management problem, not a training problem.
2. No Strategic Plan HINT: If there is no strategic plan (who does what by when), the you and your people are on some one else's plan and the problem is poor planning, not training.
3. Outdated Strategic Plan HINT: If you haven’t revisited your plan within the last 30 days, then the problem is not training, but again poor planning and poor execution.
4. Poor Communication HINT: If 100% of your people cannot tell you what the top 3 goals of the organization are for the current year, you have a communication problem not a training problem.
5. Inconsistent Leadership HINT: If your actions are not consistently focused on the end results and your behaviors are not demonstrating the shared common values, then you have a leadership problem, not a training problem.
Now is the time for you to use your leadership skills to assess what the real problems that you are facing and not just the symptoms. Look to training as an investment in your people and therefore in your organization. For without those most advanced systems (your people) in your business, you wouldn't be able to conduct business, would you?
Successful Small Business Owners Know That Education and Training Are Investments Not Costs - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
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Training is not new to small businesses or to the Fortune 1000 corporations. Employees must be trained to learn specific skill sets within their job functions as well as policies and procedures. This is especially true in today’s technology driven 24/7 business world.
During the last 100 years, training has been viewed by some as the "necessary" evil cost. The prevailing belief was "We gotta to train them." And when sales plummeted or companies merged, the leadership's or management's belief was to cut the training budgets as well as the human resource department. Now does this really make sense?
If your people are the key to overcoming current challenges, then why cut their resources when you are experiencing significant issues. This is the time more than ever to invest (key word here is invest) in YOUR people. And successful small business owners understand that training and development are investments, not costs.
Slashing the training budget is in many cases a reaction to a symptom instead of the real much larger problem or problems. That problem or those problems may include the following:
1.Inability to define the desired results HINT: If you can't define the desired results that you want from the training, then why do the training? This is now a management problem, not a training problem.
2. No Strategic Plan HINT: If there is no strategic plan (who does what by when), the you and your people are on some one else's plan and the problem is poor planning, not training.
3. Outdated Strategic Plan HINT: If you haven’t revisited your plan within the last 30 days, then the problem is not training, but again poor planning and poor execution.
4. Poor Communication HINT: If 100% of your people cannot tell you what the top 3 goals of the organization are for the current year, you have a communication problem not a training problem.
5. Inconsistent Leadership HINT: If your actions are not consistently focused on the end results and your behaviors are not demonstrating the shared common values, then you have a leadership problem, not a training problem.
Now is the time for you to use your leadership skills to assess what the real problems that you are facing and not just the symptoms. Look to training as an investment in your people and therefore in your organization. For without those most advanced systems (your people) in your business, you wouldn't be able to conduct business, would you?
Successful Small Business Owners Know That Education and Training Are Investments Not Costs - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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