PMI Online Business

Business Success Tip – Never Stop Learning

By Courtney Buell

Business owners sometimes have a hard time with change. Setting up a business takes a ton of work to begin with and changing the way you’ve decided to do business means even more work. Chances are, when you set out to start a business, you didn’t do it because you were interested in making your life as tedious and laborious as possible. On the contrary, you wanted to do something you loved and were good at and make some money from it. Unfortunately, change is the only thing anyone can count on in the future. The good news is that the more open you are to changes, the better your business will ultimately be and the easier it will become both to do business and to keep adapting. Cultivating a love of learning and a willingness to apply it is the single best thing you can do for your business.

Learning new things everyday and staying on the forefront of technological and business trends will help you keep your business relevant and competitive. Learning as much as you can about your industry, business in general, and your customer’s wants may inspire you to make changes in your business, and making these changes might not be fun or easy, but every time you make a change and learn from the outcome, your business becomes sleeker and stronger. Also, many of the technological innovations that appear every day are created to make business easier. So, if you can summon the motivation to make a change now, you can potentially save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Many of the largest companies in the world are able to remain viable because they are willing to make necessary and sometimes painful changes to their structure and business model. Bill Gates is the CEO of one of the largest and most successful companies in the world and he is a self-proclaimed lifelong learner. He attributes his success to his desire to learn new things all the time and his willingness to make changes based on his learning.

If you stop learning, innovating, and advancing, you fall behind; because the rest of the world is thundering on like a juggernaut and they have no problem leaving you and your silly little company in the dust – more cake for them.

If you can learn to love learning, your responsibility to stay on top of business trends will be met with ease. Then, you need to be humble enough to open your mind to the possibility of changing the way you live and work for the better. Easier said than done, I know, but not only is it helpful to your business to keep learning, it’s absolutely vital.

Success Tip: Never Stop Learning (employees)

We’ve been admonished our entire lives to learn. From the time we enter kindergarten to the time we graduate from college, our main purpose in life is to consume information and regurgitate it on demand. The practice is admittedly beneficial, but exhausting. By the time we reach our early twenties and leave the hallowed halls of education (some of us for good), we are kind of burnt out on learning. A shocking number of college graduates seem to avoid books altogether once they aren’t being graded on their knowledge of them. It seems fair, right? We pay our dues to the educational system for our developmental years and when we finish, we lay that part of our lives aside in order to (hopefully) put our learning to action, make money, and contribute to society.

This system works fine for the average Joe. But you are not this average Joe – this mediocre schmuck willing to skate through life unnoticed and perpetually replaceable. You crave success. Unfortunately, the only way to achieve success is to get back on those books, figuratively speaking. You don’t necessarily have to re-enroll in school for an advanced degree (though it couldn’t hurt) but you do have to cultivate in yourself a passion for learning.

Whether you want to land your dream job, get promoted, or break out and start your own business, your success depends on your willingness to learn. Learn from your mistakes, learn from the people around you, find a mentor, and seek out as much information as you can about your industry, your ideal career, and how to get what you want.

The next step is to use what you learn to change the way you act. We’ve all heard the proverb “Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome”. To change, we have to admit that we don’t have it all figured out and that there may be a better way of doing things. Once you can take the information you learn and apply it to your life effectively, you will be able to adapt well to any new demands your career will put on you, and you will be able to figure out a way to succeed at anything you want to.

Not sure where to start in your new journey of lifelong learning? Start small – set a goal to pick up a new hobby or learn a new job skill. Chances are you’ll catch the learning bug and want to keep going for your own enjoyment. Along the way, make sure you set realistic, quantifiable goals to help you get closer to your dream. Also, take a moment every day to remind yourself of your end goal when the going gets tough and the changes hurt. Making the choice to be a lifelong learner isn’t easy, but it’s definitely worth the trouble.

Courtney Buell is a writer at Professional Marketing International. Prior to joining PMI, Courtney obtained a bachelors degree in Humanities and wrote for various print and online publications in Salt Lake City. Professional Marketing International helps people achieve their dreams.

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Working at home offers many wonderful benefits. At the same time, it can be difficult for some people to detach themselves from their everyday activities and focus on work. Your home is so full of distractions that it is important to formally identify a room or portion of your house as an office and to stick to it. Here are some tips for decorating and designing your home office (on a budget) so that your workspace has a distinct feel to it and is separated from the countless distractions provided by the rest of your home.

1. Redesign: New furniture is nice, but if that isn’t in the budget you can still rearrange the existing furniture with positive results. Try to maximize your space and give your office the freshest feel possible.
2. Stay Organized: A cluttered desktop usually leads to headaches. Take the time to arrange your office paperwork and develop a system that works. If you are dreading work each day, a healthy dose of organizing may be just what the doctor ordered.
3. Decorate: Add a piece of art to your office. This could be as simple as moving a piece from another part of your home. Or you can go shopping specifically for an inspiring piece of art that will define your office. Don’t stop there. Add curtains or drapes and a rug. Make your office a place that you enjoy.

Hopefully these tips have been helpful. The experts at Professional Marketing International have years of experience when it comes to designing and developing your home office. Take a moment today to check out PMI Coaching and see what they can do for you. And here’s to your success!

Running an Internet business requires an ability to manage time and be organized. To that end, here are some tips for how to do better at each:

• Plan each day. Use a planner or online calendar to help you see what appointments you have each day so that you don’t over book yourself. Also consider having a daily to-do list included in your daily planner or calendar. Seeing what needs to be done each day can help focus your energy and keep you on track.
• Prioritize. Many people unknowingly spend a lot of time on things that are not very important. For example, you may spend a large amount of time checking emails or updating your social network profiles (Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin etc.) and checking on friends there when you have much more important tasks to complete. Having a prioritized list can help you stay focused on the things that will help you build your business.
• Say “No”. When non-essential things come up that will take a lot of your time and make it so that you can’t accomplish many of your tasks, simply say no to them. Sure some of those non-essentials will be more fun than your important tasks, but you need to ask yourself if they will help build your business; if they don’t gracefully decline.
• Delegate. This is one of the secrets to some of the most successful people in the world. See, no matter how organized and focused you are, there are still only 24 hours in a day. Sometimes you just can’t do everything on your own; when that is the case, let others who are capable help you out. You’ll find that you can reduce a great amount of stress by delegating to trusted helpers.
• Practice the 10-minute rule. As you build your business, there will be important tasks that need to be done, that you simply despise. However, rather than avoiding them, work on them for 10 minutes every day until you either finish the task, or learn not to hate it so bad.
• Get plenty of sleep, have a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Maintaining good health not only increases your ability to focus, but also reduces “sick days” and “lazy days”; those where you really can’t get much done even if you try.