The When & Where of Entrepreneur Training
Entrepreneurs work 24/7 and may be spread geographically throughout your local ecosystem. Finding the right time and place to schedule training within your incubator or startup community can be difficult.
photo credit: wohlford via photopin cc
Programming should be:
1. Across the Map – Don’t have workshops take place only within the incubator, but throughout the startup community as well.
(For rural communities, consider offering online webinar sessions.)
Switch-up your physical programming locations from time-to-time — this may just keep things fresh, inspire creativity for the participants, and expose more of your community to what you do (“Hey, I wonder what those people are meeting about over there? We should go check it out!”)
2. Across the Calendar – Programming should be held throughout the year, throughout the month, and throughout the week. Maybe some of your entrepreneurs are only available on the weekends. Perhaps some migrate north/south for part of the year. Others might be particularly busy during the holidays. When setting dates for programming, make them work for the entrepreneur — not just for you.
3. Around the clock – Entrepreneurs can’t always make sessions held Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. Offering early-morning, afternoon, or evening sessions may also be necessary.
So often incubators and other entrepreneur-focused service providers will schedule lectures only later to cancel them due to low attendance.
When this happens, you should be asking yourself at least two questions (very similar to the ones that entrepreneurs ask themselves about their startups)…
1. Is there demand for what you are providing?
Are you providing the kinds of programming opportunities YOU think they need — or do you provide needs-based programming — focusing instead on what the ecosystem expresses and/or demonstrates a need for? How do you find out what the ecosystem needs? You ask them.
2. Are you providing it in the right way? (Across the map, across the calendar, and around the clock?)
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