Sometimes entrepreneurship can feel like a never-ending struggle to keep your head above water – with time, money, inspiration, relationships, you name it. Heck, even when things are going well with your business, it can feel like there’s still so much more to learn and do. Which is why I’m sure pouring time and money into professional development is the last thing on your priority list. But, those are also the very same reasons I will always argue that it’s so important to constantly further your professional development. Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart and if I’ve learned something that might help you, I’m going to share it! So, after reading this article, hopefully you’ll feel inspired to intentionally budget (like an actual line item) for and commit time (as a business goal) to professional development opportunities because you’ll see all the ways it can empower you to build a successful, growing business.

Growth Coaching & Community

The friendship and support from my business buddies is always appreciated and means the world to me, but only surrounding myself with people working at the same level as me is not necessarily going to help me level up. That’s why I budget the most for development and training opportunities from people who have already accomplished what I’m aspiring to do. Usually this takes the form of 1:1 or group coaching that also serves as a great way to build my professional network or potential future collaborations. Some of the subject matter may overlap with job-specific skills or running the business skills, but it’s also very much about bigger picture mindset and strategic planning for my needs and my clients’ needs 2-5 years down the road.

Job-Specific Skills

I have this nightmare from time to time where I think I’m crushing it in my tidy little world and then suddenly, I look up and don’t recognize what’s going on around me. It’s called the comfort zone. In my world, if you succumb to the comfort zone for even the shortest period of time, you’ll fall ages behind because of the speed at which new trends and technology are developing. So, the only way I know to avoid that is to constantly learn new skills in the core area of my services and offering. What’s new in my industry? What are the emerging design trends? What new software, platforms, and tools do I need to be aware of? When I want to dive into a particular skill or tool, I tend to focus on paid courses from places like Udemy, Coursera and Skill Share. But I’ve also purchased courses from resources I’ve followed and admired on social media. Because of how vital these skills are to the value of my offerings (and therefore pricing), this is where I budget the second largest amount of money and time for professional development.

Running The Business Skills

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I’m not a big fan of investing a lot of time and effort to improve my biggest weaknesses. I’d much rather double down on what I’m good at and interested in, and then surround myself with people who are better at those things where I fall short. BUT, when you run a business there are some areas where you still must have a precursory understanding in order to perform as the CEO. I call these the running the business skills because they aren’t core to my offering, but they are vital to the health of my business. For me they are things like financials, marketing metrics and measurements, building client experience automations, etc. I prioritize what gives me the most heartburn and then find a course to help me understand it better. I may not become the expert or the do-er for all of these topics, but I at least know enough to set a path and find the right resource to manage it for me.

If I’ve learned anything from entrepreneurship so far, it’s that nobody is an island – you will never know everything there is to know, and you can’t do it all alone. The only way to improve your business and keep it growing is to continually learn, which is why it’s critical to invest time and money into professional development. If this article got your wheels turning, go follow me on Instagram for more tips from my entrepreneurship journey along with some invaluable brand and website design offerings.