Building Up Your Business Knowledge: 10 Ways To Educate Yourself

Contributed post.

Whether you’re thinking of launching your first startup or are an experienced entrepreneur, it’s important to continuously take steps to expand your business knowledge. You can never know too much about running a business.

Even the most successful business leaders are constantly learning about how to adapt to new legal requirements, emerging technologies and changing customer expectations. It’s a constant learning curve.

Just how should you expand your knowledge as a business owner? Ideally, by trying out a variety of different learning methods from courses to books. This post delves into 10 ways to build your business expertise and the benefits of each method.

Take Courses

A great way to learn the intricacies of running a business (and gain a qualification in the process) is to take courses. This could be a short course on specific aspects of business like marketing or accounting, a course that leads to a specific certification, or a multi-year degree dedicated to more general business administration.

The likes of MBS online have many flexible courses that you can study from home in your own time. These are great options for studying around your business or another job while you prepare to launch your startup. Just make sure you’re still fitting in some leisure time to rest and recharge.

Sign Up for Workshops

Workshops are typically interactive events that last a few hours or a day in which you can learn different business skills from an expert. Among the skills you may be able to learn at professional development workshops are sales tactics, IT skills, conflict resolution, meeting management, team building, and general leadership skills.

These skills may be taught via computer exercises, completing a set of group challenges, or through role play activities. You’ll typically not get certification for completing a workshop, but you’ll leave with valuable knowledge and potentially some new connections.

Attend Seminars

Seminars are less hands-on than workshops, and are generally delivered through expert lectures and presentations. There is still the option to ask questions, allowing you to seek out personalized advice and learn from other business owner’s unique problems.

Some seminars are paid while others are free. In the case of free seminars, be wary of events where the speaker may also be trying to sell you a product or service. The most productive seminars are primarily educational rather than promotional, and they can also be a great opportunity for networking, making them a worthwhile experience.

Sit In on Webinars

Webinars are online seminars, similarly presented by knowledgeable speakers in a video conference. Attendees can ask questions virtually – either via group video call, a one-on-one video breakout session, or via instant chat.

While you may have to travel to seminars, webinars don’t require any traveling. You can attend webinars hosted by speakers based all around the world from the relative comfort of your desk chair. This makes webinars a great option for learning about all kinds of global topics affecting business.

Read Books

There are typically around 10,000 new business books published by major publishing houses each year; including self-publishing, the number tops one million. One obvious benefit of books is that they can be consumed in your own time and are easy to refer back to.

You can buy physical books, download e-books to read on your digital devices, or listen to audiobooks. When researching books to read, read reviews and look into the background of the author.

New releases are ideal for learning about trending topics like AI in the workplace or managing Gen Z employees. But it’s a great idea to start with the classics, like the 100 best business books of all time.

Listen to Podcasts

There are a huge number of podcasts dedicated to business topics that can be useful to listen to for expanding your knowledge. Podcasts are often free to access and you can listen to them while doing other tasks like driving or exercising.

Not sure which podcasts to listen to? Search for topics that interest you and look for podcasts that have high ratings online.

Watch Videos

Video content can help to visually demonstrate how things are done. Online video like YouTube and Vimeo are of course free to use and have videos on all manner of topics. Software tutorials, TED Talks, recorded seminars, business product reviews, and industry news videos are just some of the different types of education content worth consuming.

Try searching for top vloggers related to your industry to find content that is likely to be useful to you. Always read comments to make sure that the advice you are getting is seen as valuable.

Follow Blogs

There are many business blogs that are great sources of information on everything from digital marketing to health and safety. Blog posts are another free source of educational content and you can easily skim-read to the parts that are relevant to you.

It’s worth finding trusted blogs that you can follow – either by subscribing to their mailing list or following them on social media. This article at Detailed lists 50 business blogs that could be worth looking into.

Talk to Advisors

It’s possible to hire advisors or consultants to help you with many aspects of business including HR, health & safety, finance, digital marketing, IT, and security. Talking to an advisor can be a great way to seek out personalized advice that you may not be able to find online.

Many advisors charge by the hour. There are sources of free advice out there, but if you want to talk to someone in person and go through documents or data with them, it’s worth investing in paid services. Compare the reviews of different consultants in order to choose a professional who is reputable.

Learn From Your Customers

Finally, it’s so important to learn from your customers. Their behaviors and feedback can teach you how to improve your company’s marketing, customer service, and general product/service quality.

Conducting surveys, encouraging reviews, analyzing customer data, and asking for feedback in person/over the phone can all help you to learn from your customer. While it’s debatable as to whether the customer is always right, they can reveal many important truths that could be otherwise overlooked.