Not Doing this Could Destroy Your Small Business

If you want to destroy your small business, stop learning and start dying. When you and your leadership team stop learning, it’s the death knell for your business. Holding on to doing business the way you’ve always done will eventually lead to a time when those methods are no longer viable; just ask Blockbuster, Polaroid, or Borders. The only thing that is constant in small business is change, and if you don’t keep up with the changes in your industry, you’ll soon be passed by and eventually forgotten. So, where does learning begin? It starts with you.

Not Doing this Could Destroy Your Small BusinessYou Can’t Know it All So Don’t Be One

No one person can know everything, and that holds true for small businesses today. So, do you believe you know everything about your small business? You might, but it also might be that your accountant, attorney, insurance carrier, marketing manager, installation crew, and facility maintenance crews know things you don’t. So, stop talking and start listening. Quit telling and begin asking. You never know what you might learn. You don’t know what you don’t know. If you want to destroy your small business, keep believing you know everything.

The 5-Hour Rule

Have you heard of this? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey ascribe to it. It’s a simple plan—commit to five hours of learning per week. One hour a workday. The five-hour rule isn’t new; it was Ben Franklin’s plan, “Throughout Ben Franklin’s adult life, he consistently invested roughly an hour a day in deliberate learning. I call this Franklin’s five-hour rule: one hour a day on every weekday. Franklin’s five-hour rule reflects the very simple idea that, over time, the smartest and most successful people are the ones who are constant and deliberate learners.” — Inc.com: Why constant learners all embrace the 5-hour rule. 

A friend listens to podcasts on her daily 30-minute commute, and another reads business books five or more hours per week. You can take an online course, attend a seminar, or go to class, but commit to and follow through with the 5-hour rule. How I Stopped Putting Off What I Wanted to Do.

Teach, Coach, Mentor

If you want to learn a subject inside out, teach it. Anyone who has responsibly taught, trained, or coached has learned this. Preparing to be a good instructor teaches trainers more than their students learn. A good mentor not only shares what they’ve learned but also learns from their mentee. Mentees often share new perspectives and ask questions that mentors may have never considered.

Fail

Wait What? Yes, fail. If you never fail, you’re not trying hard enough. The key to failing is to learn from it. Failure might be the greatest teacher there is, and the fear of failure is a close second. In his book Failure: The Secret to Success (which I highly recommend), Author Robby Slaughter quotes John Powell, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing”

Leading Your Business in Learning

If you’re not leading your small business in learning, then who is? Hopefully, someone on your team is, because if not, you might be in more trouble than you know. I’m reminded of an owner an offset print shop. Although he delivered a good product, the business failed after more than 25 years. He sat down with a few friends shortly before he closed his doors and shared that he didn’t know what to do because online stores were putting him out of business. He didn’t have a website. It’s easy for all of us to identify what he should’ve done, isn’t it? But consider this: if you don’t commit to continuous learning, you might end up exactly like the print shop owner and never see the end coming until it’s too late.

How Can I Help You?

I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me. 

So, does your business have a management training plan? Because if not, many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook, a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. Check it out.

If you enjoyed this post you might also like, 10 Business Social Media Good Manners to Follow

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

 

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