What’s your CPD?

Did you know that I used to be a sustainable construction consultant? The construction industry really likes its CPD. CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development, and it means that if you have a job that is regulated, you have to do a certain amount of training each year to keep your regulated status.

Of course, this is not limited to the construction industry. Medical professionals are required to do CPD or they could be struck off. Solicitors and barristers also have to go through the same process in order to keep working.

However, entrepreneurs aren’t required to do CPD. You can set up a company or become a sole trader without knowing the first thing about business. And in those situations, many people get it wrong and find themselves in trouble, so it’s important to do your own CPD.

What made me think of this is a guy I met this weekend on a speaker training course run by Joanna Martin. His name is Simon Coulson and he was on the course too. We got chatting at the Saturday night party, and he told me that he ran no less than 11 businesses! The man is a multi-millionnaire. He is also currently speaking to audiences of 3000-6000 people, yet he was still on the ame speaker training course as me, doing his own CPD and working on his skills.

You might think that it’s easy for Simon to see what he should be spending his time learning about, and I’ll show you how to do the same.

So you want to keep your business education up to date, but you don’t know where to start? It’s actually a simpler process than it first appears:

1. Assess your business priorities. What does your business need right now? What is it going to need in 1, 2 or 3 years’ time? Write a list. This could include topics such as ‘new marketing campaign’, ‘better financial management’, ‘new website’, ‘social media presence’

2. Identify the knowledge gaps. Look at your list and assess which items you already have the know how to implement and which you need more knowledge of or support to acheive.

3. Eliminate. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to learn everything yourself. Look at your list and identify the areas where it would be quicker, easier and cheaper to buy in or delegate the learning. Put a cross next to these items.

4. Prioritise. Look at the remaining items on your list. Which is the one that it would be quickest for you to learn? Which is the one that will have the biggest impact on your business? If the answer to both questions is the same – this is your focus! If the answers are different, make a judgement call.

5. Find learning resources. Look for courses, classes, books and other learning tools around your priority subject area (such as the Social Media Training Course I’m running next week)

6. Take the training. Book yourself on the course, download the podcasts, watch the webinars, or do whatever you need to do. Only do 1 course at a time though, and give yourself time to implement what you’ve learned before starting the next one.

If you go through this process every 6 months, you will be streets ahead of the majority of other entrepreneurs in terms of your business knowlege.

Remember: Everyones learning style is different, so you have to find a way of learning that suits you. This is why I run a range of different types of training, including seminars, 121 mentoring, and my new online course, which I’ll be telling you about very soon!