Way back when I was gathering my thoughts to write my first book, I indulged in a lot of thinking and research time. I knew that the content I wanted to write was specifically about being a small business in a big-business world – and how to make that work. But that content had to be in the wider context of how to run an SME successfully – all the basic stuff. It’s no use trying to win work with a big organization if you haven’t got solid foundations in place.
At the time, our region was in a severe downturn, and I was working with a group of very clever, experienced people on how to build the capacity and capability of our regional businesses. In those conversations, we identified Nine Core Business Skills:
- Business/strategic planning.
- Finance management.
- Sales and marketing management.
- Operations management.
- IT/digital capacity.
- Human resources management.
- Procurement/supply chain management.
- R&D, product or service development/innovation.
- Leadership development.
That was a huge breakthrough in our thinking. Now we had a framework to shape the business skills development activities around.
I then took that thinking a little further, every business will be at a different stage of maturity in each of those business skills over time. I use a sporting analogy to describe the skill levels:
- Novice (Early/Beginning/Establishing): This stage represents the business owner who is just starting out, learning the basics, and building foundational skills.
- Competitor (Developing): At this level, the business owner is actively developing their skills, gaining experience, and starting to make significant contributions, much like a competitor who is in the race and steadily improving.
- Pro (Developed/Established, Advanced): This label is for the seasoned business owner who has honed their skills, achieved significant success, and is recognised for their expertise, similar to a professional athlete who performs at the highest level.
Here’s the important part. Not every business will require every skill at pro level.
For example, one of our group owned a shoe store. She did not need a high-level, International standard, workplace health and safety system, so she would never need advanced skills in that area. Someone starting out, with no online presence, would look for an introductory website-building workshop. A business owner contemplating a contract to supply a large company might look for an introductory workshop on creating a good capability statement, while someone more experienced would look for advanced tender-writing training. Businesses with a very mature social and digital profile may be interested in advanced workshops on Facebook marketing techniques, or webinars on building the best possible LinkedIn profile. You get the idea.
Hence, a business owner can pinpoint:
- What level of skills they need in each skill category.
- Where their skills are at the moment.
- What training/courses/mentoring they need.
- Whether a particular skills development opportunity is worth them spending time and money to enrol.
Using this framework, every business owner can choose the most appropriate business development opportunity, without wasting time and resources on hit-and-miss training opportunities.
Now you can research and identify available resources that align with both your current skill level and your business’ needs. There is a plethora of online courses, workshops, webinars, and mentoring programs tailored to various skill levels so I’m not going to even start listing them here. Talk with other business owners – what have they found helpful? Can they recommend some resources to you?
If you honestly evaluate 1) the skills you really need in your business and 2) where your skills are now, you can save a ton of wasted money and time. You all know that getting out of your business for a training day is hard, so make the time you do spend on gaining new skills really count.
