Courses & Training / Meeting Notes June 2019
Location: Alloro Restaurant, Burlington
Attendees: Janet, Crystal, Pam, Angela, Jacquie, Robin, Jan, Christine
Announcements
Website Transition
Overall, the transition has gone well so far. A few glitches have come up, as is to be expected, and have been dealt with. If you notice anything that’s not working properly or the way you’d expect, please let me know so I can fix it or clarify how it works.
Upcoming Events
July 16 – meeting in Hamilton – Discussion Topic: Pricing Strategies
August 20 – meeting in Grimsby – Discussion Topic: Contingency Planning
September 13 – “Work on Your Business” Day – in Hamilton or virtual, whatever works for you
September 17 – meeting in Hamilton – Working with a Coach
October 15 – meeting in Burlington – Losing a Big Client
November 19 – Holiday Social
December 17 – webinar – LinkedIn presentation by Salma (We realized it would be difficult to do a presentation requiring a screen in any of the restaurants)
Discussion: Courses & Training
There are thousands of learning opportunities available these days: free and paid, online and local, self-study and facilitated, long term and short term. This, plus the fact that we all have different needs, learning styles and interests, makes it impractical to say “everyone should take this” or “no one should take that.”
Instead, we came up with the following.
Guidelines to help you select your courses:
- Instead of taking a free or cheap online course, find someone who is an expert at what you need to know, and hire them to teach you. It may cost more, but you’ll learn exactly what you need and it will take less time than going through a course that covers material that’s not relevant to you.
- Always check a trainer’s reputation before investing your hard earned funds in a course.
- When you sign up for a course, schedule time in your calendar to complete the lessons and assignments. Even the best course in the world won’t help you if you don’t do the work!
- Only take courses when you have a genuine need to learn something. If you won’t use the information right away, you’ll forget everything, and if it involves technology, it will likely change anyway.
- If a client wants you to learn something, get them to cover the cost of training and/or your time. You might have an opportunity to use it with another client in the future, but you might not (and you might not even want to).
Recommended online resources:
- YouTube (free)
- Udemy (free and paid)
- Lynda (subscription-based, but available though some libraries, including Hamilton Public Library)
- Marie Forleo’s B-School
- Digital Marketer
- Amy Porterfield
- Lisa Wells
If you missed the meeting (or if I didn’t include your input), feel free to add your two cents worth in the comments!