WHAT TRAINING DOES AN ENTREPRENEUR NEED?

Accelerate your business with these expert tips "What training does an entrepreneur need?" Analyse and discover this TIP!

An entrepreneur needs a wide range of skills and knowledge to make his business a success.

Some of the important aspects of the training that an entrepreneur needs include

1. Business skills: It is essential for the entrepreneur to have knowledge on how to create a business plan, conduct market research, manage a budget and understand business laws and regulations.
2. Leadership and management skills: An entrepreneur must know how to lead his or her team and make important decisions, as well as have effective negotiation and communication skills.
3. Financial skills: It is important for the entrepreneur to understand the basics of accounting, finance and budgeting to ensure that his or her business is in good financial shape.
4. Marketing and sales skills: the entrepreneur must be able to promote his or her product or service and develop effective marketing and sales strategies.
5. Technology skills: Most businesses today need to use technology in some way, so the entrepreneur must have basic technology skills to be able to manage their business online, use digital marketing tools and operate accounting and management software.

In addition, It is important for the entrepreneur to have a continuous learning mentality, which means being willing to learn new skills and knowledge as their business evolves. Training for an entrepreneur can be formal or informal, and can include university courses, accelerator programmes (such as mentorDay), ONLINE training, mentoring and business advice.

Learning methods for entrepreneurs

There are several learning methods that can be useful for entrepreneurs, some of them are:

1. Learning by doing (+): As we have already mentioned, this method is based on learning by doing and experience. Entrepreneurs can apply this method by working on real projects, making decisions and facing the challenges that arise.
2. Mentoring: is to have a mentor or advisor to guide and advise the entrepreneur on different aspects of the business, from planning and strategy to financial management and expansion. This method of learning can be very effective in acquiring specific knowledge and skills.
3. Online training (+): There are a large number of online platforms that offer specific courses and training programmes for entrepreneurs. These courses can range from general topics such as business management to more specific areas such as digital marketing or programming.
4. Attendance at events and conferences (+): events and conferences can be an excellent opportunity to learn from experts in the field and connect with other entrepreneurs. These events can be face-to-face or virtual and can cover a wide range of business-related topics.
5. Reading and study (+): reading and study can be an effective way to learn about different aspects of business, from planning and strategy to financial management and decision-making. Entrepreneurs can read books, study success stories and learn from the experience of other entrepreneurs. 

Each entrepreneur can choose the method or combination of methods that best suits his or her learning style and specific needs. It is important to remember that continuous learning is key to success in the business world and that there are always opportunities to keep growing and learning.

How much time should an entrepreneur devote to training?

The time an entrepreneur should devote to his or her training depends on many factors, such as the stage your company is at, your level of knowledge and experience in the sector, your availability of time and resources, among others. However, It is important for the entrepreneur to understand that training is a continuous task and that learning is never finished. In general, se recommend that entrepreneurs dedicate at least a couple of hours a week to education, either by reading books, attending courses, seminars or conferences, or simply researching their sector and current trends. It is also important that the entrepreneur has a long-term training plan that allows him to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve his goals and grow his business.

It should be noted that training is not only about acquiring theoretical knowledge, but also about applying it in practice. It is therefore advisable for entrepreneurs to seek opportunities to put what they have learned into practice and to get feedback on their performance. This may include participating in acceleration or incubation programmes, collaborating with other entrepreneurs or carrying out pilot projects in their company.

High-performance learning for entrepreneurs

High-performance learning for entrepreneurs focuses on acquiring skills and knowledge effectively and efficiently for the success of your business. This involves the use of learning techniques such as the gamification (+), on microlearning (+), mentoring and ONLINE collaboration to maximise learning and business performance. By applying these techniques, entrepreneurs can learn faster, increase their ability to solve problems and adapt to market changes, and achieve greater success in their business initiatives.

What is learning like for entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurial learning is a continuous process and vital to the success of any new venture. Entrepreneurs must be willing to learn constantly and adapt quickly to changing market conditions and the new challenges they face. Entrepreneurship learning can range from the acquisition of specific skills and technical knowledge to the development of soft skills, such as effective communication, leadership and problem solving.

Effective forms of learning for entrepreneurs include acceleration and mentoring programmes, webinars, networking events and participation in entrepreneurial communities and groups. It is important to stress that learning should not stop after the creation of a successful business, but should be a continuous process throughout an entrepreneur's business life in order to continue to grow and evolve in a constantly changing market.

What is lifelong learning?

Lifelong learning refers to the practice of acquiring knowledge and skills constantly and throughout life, not only in formal education, but also through everyday experiences and situations. In the context of entrepreneurship, continuous learning is essential as the business world is constantly changing and evolving, and entrepreneurs must keep up to date and adapt to new trends and technologies to be successful in their ventures. Continuous learning can be through various forms, such as online education, reading books and articles, attending conferences and events, interacting with mentors and peers, among others.

How does an entrepreneur learn best?

Throughout history, some people have devoted themselves to trying to understand the way we learn and improve it as far as possible, applying different methodologies or techniques. Considering as a starting point the idea that the current educational system based on the memorisation of content does not work, it is understandable that when we think about adult education, we seek to compensate in some way for the bad habits acquired during our childhood. The best way to learn is to teach: "If you can't explain something simply, you haven't understood it well enough yourself". Albert Einstein. "The best way to understand something is to explain it." Richard Feynman. 

When two scientists of the stature of Einstein and Feynman explain to us that the best way to learn something is to have to teach it to someone else, they are giving us the great key to learning. And the best thing is that you don't have to be a genius for this to apply, because many of us have found that when we have the opportunity to teach about a specific subject, we put more interest in it, because of the commitment it implies towards other people who depend on what we are going to transmit to them and how we are going to do it. 

This is undoubtedly where our didactic ability comes into play, which is something that has to be learned and improved with experience, but there is no doubt that specific knowledge about a subject is what the student is looking for in the teacher and what the teacher has to be able to convey based on the understanding he or she has achieved about it. I recommend you to see the entrepreneur learning pyramid (+) which gives us very good results in mentorDay.

Curiosity > Interest > Enthusiasm > Steadfastness

This could be a good flow in order to establish a personal learning process, starting from someone who is curious to discover new things and train to become a better professional. It could start at a point where the person is exposed to a lot of information and interactions, driven by their curiosity, which will lead them to read a lot, talk to a lot of people, participate in events... From here they will move on to specific topics that awaken their interest, they want to go deeper into them to learn more about them and check if it is something worth dedicating time to, for the possible benefits it can offer them in the future. 

This punctual interest in a specific subject may disappear over time if it is not useful or is too complex, but it may also grow if the person finds connections with other aspects of his or her life, to the point that he or she becomes enthusiastic about it. It will then be the enthusiasm that will make them want to go deeper into it, enough to be able to face the difficulties that the learning process itself may have and, above all, to achieve the constancy that is so necessary to learn something properly.

Sharing and collaboration. "If you tell me, I forget; if you teach me, I remember; if you involve me, I learn". Benjamin Franklin. 

We once again stand on the shoulders of giants to discover another of the ideas that can help us learn the most. Let's start with sharing, for example, by considering something that is very common, such as writing in a blog the new things you have learned about the subject you are working on. Even sharing the opinion you have been able to build on the subject you are working on. And then comes the part of collaborating, because many times that article does not remain a one-way thing where the writer and the reader do not interact, but fortunately in the internet era we have many options to get feedback from the people who read what we write and we can even establish a debate about it in order to enrich the points of view of each of the people who participate in that debate. 

This happens in a very significant way in the world of software, for example, where thanks to the ideas promoted by the Open Source movement, working procedures have been established based on collaboration when people who do not know each other and who may even have different interests as to why they decide to collaborate in a project of this type work on the development of the same project. Perhaps some collaborate because they want to use the software to be developed, others do it to learn about a real case, and others because they see that it can produce some kind of economic or reputational benefit for them in the future. When the learner is ready, the teacher appears. What happens on many occasions is that the necessary spark does not ignite for a person to decide to start a learning process, or the spark that is produced does not have enough energy to light the fire necessary to keep the bonfire that will drive this process going. This can happen because the right connections must be made in our brain to awaken the excitement and interest, once curiosity has been aroused. 

Since most of the time we don't get past that first phase of curiosity, we have to understand that there will not always be the right motivation to learn about a certain subject, but also that once we achieve that motivation we should make the best possible use of it to progress in our learning process. In this way, what happens with the teacher and the student is that no matter how much the teacher wants to, the student will not learn if the right moment for it has not arrived. Fortunately, the saying "the letter enters with blood" is a thing of the past and what happens now is that we have our whole lives ahead of us to learn, so what we must do is expose ourselves to many possibilities in this respect and take advantage of the opportunity to delve into those subjects that motivate us most at any given moment. Never stop learning. All of them can help us to learn new things and, thanks to the format they propose, they do so in an entertaining way that can facilitate both the consumption of the information they propose and its subsequent assimilation.

I have good news for you, ¡¡YOU DON'T NEED A DEGREE TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR!There is no specific degree for entrepreneurship, although many entrepreneurship-related degrees are starting to appear, and there is a need for a new degree in the field of entrepreneurship. analyse very carefully before deciding. The best university for entrepreneurs is the street, walking the market. An entrepreneur without any previous experience has to focus first on planning his or her own business and this training can be acquired through 100 hours in a pre-acceleration programme such as mentorDay. You have to differentiate between your training needs when you only have an idea and want to start a business and the training you will need when the business is already up and running.

In the first phase of your project, in order to take your idea forward, you must have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. sector at which your project is aimedYou need to learn everything that can influence and/or affect the process of its development. This type of training for entrepreneurs, in most cases, it is self-taughtLearning about the area in which we are going to work should be on the top of your to-do list. A pre-acceleration programme is a great help.

Nowadays, there are a lot of courses that give us the knowledge and tools to start shaping our idea, to turn it into a business. ¡In the mentorDay programme we give you everything you need for free!

Once the enterprise is up and running, make a MBA (see MBA ranking) can be very good for you, but perhaps the best advice for not having to train in everything is to learn to delegate (+) and, above all, to delegate those activities that require specialised knowledge and are not the "core business (+) of your business(such as tax, labour...) that do not add value to the client, that do not differentiate you. 

Once the company is up and running, you will have to decide on the position you want to take in your company; Obviously, if you are on your own, you will also have to learn to delegate so that you don't have to learn from everything. However, if this is not the case, we recommend that you should primarily professionalise only in your future job. There are many cases in which you have an idea, but no knowledge about the business role you are going to occupy in the future, and don't worry, it will become clearer as you progress and see where you are most productive. A 90% of all people with projects and ideas, lack knowledge about how to manage the day to day running of a company and this is normal. Te also recommend that you do not go it alone and form a promoter team (+) covering management, technical and, above all, commercial aspects. To acquire this training you need to live experiences with other entrepreneurs that give you an introspective look at the real entrepreneurial life.

For this, the networking you have every first Thursday of the month. Therefore, training for entrepreneurs beginsfirst of all, for becoming true experts and connoisseurs in their sector. (of your customers, competitors...), and, subsequently, focus all the content on the job we are going to do in your own company. When it comes to training, it will influence what role you will play within your company. It is clear that your training will also depend on what your profile will be within your company and what you are going to do for a living: If you are going to manage a more commercial side, it would be good for you to be trained in commercial matters; if you want to manage a more internal, administrative side, it makes sense for you to have some basic notions. You know a lot about what you do, but you don't usually know what the day-to-day running of a company is like. The more you plan, the safer you get and the more aware you are of the dangers you face, and the more you spot the key factors for business success. If you are an economist, you will control more. But if you have a technical profile... you have to detect what your weaknesses are in terms of your training. You may have studied business management, but you have never sold. You may find that you don't know what an income statement is.

And how much time should you invest in training?  

The minimum amount of time, but every day, because you don't have a lot of time to spare, so you have to value very highly the programme quality and, above all, the experience in business creation of their professors. ¡Training is time consuming! You have to value the investment and the return. It is, above all, a question of time and quality rather than resources. It's not so much a question of price: it's a question of timing (+). I recommend that you dedicate at least 30 minutes to it every day, taking advantage of the benefits of microlearning.

What basic training content does an entrepreneur need?

The basic deficiencies with which most new entrepreneurs start out. 100 hours is enough to get you started and to be aware of your weaknesses - and, of course, to be able to decide whether you need more training.

We tell you what to look for in a course:

BUSINESS START-UPS

• WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LEARN?

Knowing what it will be like to day-to-day management of a company.

A course of this type has to provide the student with the general knowledge of what a company is, as well as of all the elements that must be considered, both in the creation process, as well as in the development and formalisation of the project and business plan.

• WHAT KIND OF CONTENT DOES SUCH A COURSE HAVE TO HAVE?

First-person experiences of entrepreneurs. One of the most common complaints of those attending this type of course is the lack of teaching staff with entrepreneurial experience. However, there are courses that offer, in addition to theoretical content, practical experience of entrepreneurs. Some Business and Innovation Centres also have business simulators so that future entrepreneurs can practice in a business environment, but without taking risks. They have to guide you on how to set up a business plan.

• RECOMMENDED DURATION?

Maximum 30 hours.

FINANCE FOR NON-FINANCIERS

• WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LEARN?

Learn how to forecast future cash flow to anticipate cash flow problems and be very clear about your cash flow. economic profitability (+). Sources of funding (+)

SALES AND COMMERCIAL NEGOTIATION TECHNIQUES AND COMMERCIAL WORK PLANNING

• WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LEARN?

Even if you are not directly involved in selling, when you set up your business you will have to 'sell' your idea at different stages - banks, business plans, private investors, grant applications... (TIP different types of pitch) And if you hire a commercial team, you will need to have elements of judgement to analyse their way of working and their productivity. You need to know, above all, how it works the sales process of your service or product. You cannot delegate the sale to a person you hire as a salesperson, if you have achieved many sales for us before.

• WHAT KIND OF CONTENT?

Stages of the sale, how to prepare an interview, making successful contact, getting to know your customer segment in depth, buying psychology, tools for commercial dialogue, negotiation skills, negotiation styles, negotiation strategies and tactics, commercial time management, productivity in commercial activity, route management and planning, dealing with unforeseen events and emergencies. In my opinion, the most important training that all entrepreneurs need to have, even if they are technical or managerial, is that of to enhance your commercial capabilities. There is no point in having a novel product or service if we do not know how to sell it. Let us remember that many fantastic ideas have fallen on deaf ears, while very absurd ideas have been resounding successes. If we do not sell, we cannot start a business and our project will be relegated to ostracism.

It is key to learn to lose the fear of being a tarmac commercial. This is because of the bad reputation that has grown up around all the jobs that have been dedicated to offering commercial contracts that lack poor coverage and, above all, fixed remuneration. But Our case is different; we are going to be us with our business project, we are in love with it and we have the best fuel that exists to move anywhere, to be able to make a profit: passion.

• RECOMMENDED DURATION?

Maximum 20 hours.

ELABORATION OF A BUSINESS PLAN (+)

• WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LEARN?

Basically, in a first phase, to interpret the necessary information that will help you decide whether or not to start your business. Lean Canvas (+).

• WHAT KIND OF CONTENT DOES SUCH A COURSE HAVE TO HAVE?

It has to help you identify your project and teach you how to develop an marketing plan (+), how to plan a timetable for implementation. The reality is that the good entrepreneur is always trainingbut not in all subjects, but in those that are strategic to your business. Google alerts (+) can help you a lot.

Ranking of MBA that encourage entrepreneurship.