If you are a business owner, then training courses can help you to hone and develop your skills. Courses can also help you to improve your staff’s performance, which can, in turn, result in increased profitability.
Before you can benefit from training courses, however, you need to find the ones that are right for you. Not all training courses are worth your time. In fact, some training courses are a complete waste of money and teach nothing of value.
This post will tell you how you can avoid poor-quality courses and find the one that’s right for you:
Course Type
Before you can begin searching for training courses, you need to know exactly what you are intending on training your staff in. There are many different types of training courses that you can take, from supply chain classes to marketing and sales courses. Identifying the type of course that your staff need will make it easier for you to find the one that’s right for them. Work out what your team’s individual needs are, how they could improve, and what areas are most in need of improvement.
Online Feedback
Before purchasing a course, you need to read what previous attendees have to say about it. You can learn a lot about a course’s value from reading its reviews. If its reviews are all bad across the board, then it’s probably better that you avoid it and find a better one. You should be aware that a lot of course providers employ the unscrupulous tactic of publishing false reviews in order to dupe people into doing business with them. If a course’s reviews are all good and all appear to be written in the same style, then it’s a strong indication that they have employed a false review publication agency.
Industry Testimonials
Most sites also have testimonials on their own site, which are worth checking out. In particular, you should look for testimonials from industry leaders. A course that has the industry’s most innovative CEOs giving testimonials for them is one that you can trust. An industry leader won’t put their name on something unless they are confident that it has value and is worth your money. You could also consider reaching out to the industry leader co-signing the course and asking them for more detailed advice.
Professional Referrals
If you have been running your business for a while, then it’s very likely that you will have friends and colleagues that have a lot of experience in your industry. You could consider asking them for referrals. Be wary of any referrals made that are accompanied by a special one-time link. A one-time link usually indicates that the person making the referral is in some way connected to the company to which they are referring you, which means that they could be doing it purely so that they can make money off of your referral, not because they want to refer you to a high-quality course.
Conducting Searches
If you don’t know anybody to ask for referrals from and you aren’t familiar with any leading course providers, then you can always go ahead and use a search engine to help you to find the course that’s right for you and your staff. If you are going to conduct an online search, then make sure to always read each site’s reviews, even if they appear on the first page of Google or Yahoo’s listings. It is easy to manipulate search engine algorithms, meaning that you can’t always trust that first-page sites are worth your time (or money, for that matter).
Watching Reviews
You don’t always have to read reviews—you can also watch them. Video reviews are becoming more and more common. Something that you should be aware of is that many video reviews are sponsored, meaning that the company being reviewed has paid the person reviewing them to create a video about their content. With that said, just because a review is sponsored does not mean that it is going to be biased or even that the person reviewing them is going to try to be nice and talk up their course even when it’s not worth your time.
Networking Platforms
You can use networking platforms like LinkedIn to meet other business professionals and ask them for their advice on courses. As mentioned previously, you can reach out directly to industry leaders and ask them for their advice about a course that they have endorsed. You can also reach out to industry leaders and ask them about other specific courses, to try and gauge their opinion on them. You should always conduct your own research, too. Don’t just take somebody’s word for something because they are an expert or have more experience than you.
Promotional Offers
Whenever you are buying anything, you should always try to reduce the amount that you have to spend by as much as possible. One way of doing this with courses is to ask the course provider if they will give you a discount. Some course providers hold regular sales, allowing people to access their courses for less. It is a good idea to conduct a little research online about a course provider before buying their product so that you can see whether or not they hold sales, and if so, when. If you can identify when a course provider holds sales, then you can wait until then and get access for less.
Affordability
If you want to find a training course, then one important factor to consider is the course’s cost. Unfortunately, a lot of professional training courses are expensive. The reason for this is that the information provided by them is very valuable and can help businesses to achieve success. If you are going to buy a course, then you need to find one that’s within your price range. Only you know how much is a reasonable amount for you to spend. Make sure that you don’t exceed your budget once you have formed one.
If you are looking for a training course, then you need to consider your options carefully. Rushing into a course could lead to you making a bad decision, and since courses can be very expensive, it could also result in you wasting a lot of money.
About the Author
Darien Wright is a freelance writer, business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.
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