Emma Thompson is a member of Appoint Better Boards and the Public Relations Institute and they send recommendations for extra training and links to articles or webinars. Photo / Tim Cuff
Emma Thompson is a member of Appoint Better Boards and the Public Relations Institute and they send recommendations for extra training and links to articles or webinars. Photo / Tim Cuff
Upskilling and training help keep you on your toes in your business.
How do you know what you don't know? Many small business owners find out the answer to that question the hard way. They make mistakes, drop the ball or end up having some similarly uncomfortable experience that highlights a gap in their knowledge.
"Learning experiences", though, can be the prompt for business owners to seek out further education, such as enrolling in courses, reading blogs and business books or reaching out to networks.
This week I spoke to small business owners about some of the things they have done to educate themselves.
Craig McFadyen and business partner Derek Good founded online business training company LearningPlanet.
They are experienced business owners, having developed other companies including the traditional business training firm Rapid Results, which they sold.
They decided to enrol in Massey University's Sprint Programme, which helps entrepreneurs develop their ideas. They thought it was the right move, given that LearningPlanet was taking the pair into relatively unknown territory.
"It's one thing running your homegrown business that's dealing with local people, but it's another to be going into a technology business you want to take global," says McFadyen.
"You need completely different skill sets and there are different pitfalls you can fall into."
Daniel Sadler bought the Newmarket branch of Office Products Depot three years ago, and is now also a director of Silver Fern OPD.
He spent the first year and a half getting his head around how things worked, including time management and how to make the best use of staff and resources.
He signed up for the Owner Manager's Toolkit course run by the Employers and Manufacturers Association, for weekly three-hour classes over three months. Sadler said it gave him the confidence to make "hard, strategic decisions".
In terms of tangible business results, he cites sales expansion at the company last year of 9.5 per cent compared with previously flat growth.
One challenge many of the business owners talked about was finding time in their schedules for taking on learning opportunities, but they found the time.
Like Sadler, Kim Voon, founder of Auckland-based online marketing agency Insight Online, completed the Owner Manager's Toolkit course.
He has also had a business mentor, completed sales courses, networks with a range of groups and is a "fanatical reader".
• Coming up in Small Business: Brand Partnerships, a powerful way for businesses to leverage off each other. Send me your stories of local examples of different small businesses teaming up: nzhsmall business@gmail.com
Emma Thompson is managing director of Etc Communications
Emma Thompson of Etc Communications. Photo / Tim Cuff
Q. Why have you looked to further educate yourself?
Part of my role as a PR consultant in Nelson is to advise people at board and CEO level. A few years ago I found I was spending a lot more time around board tables. That sparked my personal interest in governance. I was also a founding co-director, with two others, of a service called Bizboard, where we work with small-to-medium-sized businesses on their challenges or possible opportunities. That motivated me to upskill in governance with the Institute of Directors, to improve my PR and Bizboard consultancy advice, and to get a good foundation for my own governance roles.
Q. What did the training involve? The institute's company director's course I did is a week long. There are different topics each day, led by experienced facilitators. Preparatory reading needs to be done before the week starts. You are appointed to a mock board on the first night, with the first board meeting on the second night, so there are a heap of board papers to read before you get there. I probably spent about a month reading through it bit by bit as the course week neared. Then during the week I read the information again the night before each session, as well as socialising with everyone else on the course. It was intense.
Q. How do you resource your training, in time and money? I made the decision to go about eight months ahead of time, which meant I could plan having that week away. In terms of money, I applied for the NZTE capability building voucher (the IoD is a provider of the scheme) so 50 per cent of the course costs were covered. I paid about $4000 for the rest of the training, accommodation and travel.
Learning while working can be difficult when you have a small business. The trick for me is to not let the learning distract from meeting work deadlines, so I now block out Fridays as a non-agency work day. It means when something non-client related comes in the door during the week, I add it to the Friday list and can keep focused on client work for the rest of the time. I do some reading, move our own business plan forward, get some admin done, meet new contacts, or do my board work.
Q. What impact has the IoD training had on your business? I was offered a board role immediately after doing the course and I've taken on another two board roles. The governance course and my IoD membership have been crucial to getting those roles. It's one of the first questions you get asked when applying for these roles, or talking to others in governance. Also, it has strengthened the strategic advice I give my clients.
Q. In what other ways do you educate or upskill yourself? I'm a member of Appoint Better Boards and the Public Relations Institute and they send recommendations for extra training and links to articles or webinars. I read articles posted by contacts via LinkedIn. Good PR and governance comes mostly from experience.
