Not only could continuing education in your speciality help your business to compete in the marketplace, participating in continuing education can also provide you with skills to help you run your business.
For example, if your home business is accounting or bookkeeping, taking a continuing education course in accounting could help you perform your assignments better. However, any home business owner could also benefit from taking business courses to help them to manage their records better.
Likewise, if your your home business is writing, a writing course could directly improve your skill set. However, any home business owner could benefit from learning better communication skills.
Some professional certifications even require regular continuing education as a condition of certification.
In fact, I think that a commitment to lifelong learning, whether it be formal or informal, is a key characteristic of an entrepreneur.
The good news is that there are a lot of continuing education options available. Not only are there traditional classes available through colleges and local traning centers (these can be great for networking), there are excellent online options as well.
The United States (U.S.) Small Business Administration (SBA) website is one of several sites that offers free online training courses. Topics available through the SBA include:
- Starting A Business
- Business Planning
- Business Management
- Financing & Accounting
- Marketing & Advertising
- Government Contracting
- Risk Management & Cyber Security
- E-Commerce
- International Trade
- Federal Tax Training
- Small Business Retirement
What about you? Have you used continuing education to improve your business skills?
Leave a comment and let us know.
I think continuing education is vital - perhaps especially these days, when everything is changing so fast. I'd like to say I learn something new every day ... it might not be quite that often, but I think my learning curve has been steeper over the last five years than at any time in the past.
I've done online distance learning courses, and provided you are able to motivate yourself, then they work well. I don't think they'd work so well for people who like to learn in a group.
Posted by: Lucy | November 15, 2007 2:07 AM | Permalink to Comment