5 Essential Training Courses For Solo Traders

What happens when you decide to launch your first business, as an independent trader, and completely on your own. Panic is the first word that comes to mind. Panic and excitement. But if you dig a little further, you’ll soon discover that being your own boss means that you need to acquire a variety of different skills to make your business work. Ultimately, you can’t just focus on delivering what you do best. You need to run a business, manage your finances, communicate with clients, negotiate with partners and customers, and finally make your space in the market. How are you going to do all of that? Easy, with tailored training courses for solo entrepreneurs.

Even successful solo entrepreneurs need training

Meet your accountant and analyst

Do you know the only tool you can use to analyze your current customer list and prepare your account? It’s, of course, Excel. As surprising as it might sound, the young generation of professional has lost touch with the smart spreadsheet, leading to costly mistakes when they try to use it. Ultimately, being able to use the right formula for your projects and to run complex calculations in a matter of seconds can not only save you a lot of time in the long run, but it can also help you to become more efficient.

Promote yourself like a pro

If you’ve never had sales training, it’s fair to say that you probably don’t know how to sell your services productively and effectively to new customers. The responsibility of a sale manager in a company is to identify and approach potential clients, engage in a conversation with them and finally convince them to purchase. You need to be able to present your services and interact with leads to gain clients.  

Get your data right before it’s too late

Unless you’ve been living under a stone until now, you’ve probably heard of the GDPR regulations that are coming into force end of May. You may not be running a Facebook-like enterprise, but it doesn’t mean you don’t collect customers’ data. There is a heavy fine for not comply with the data protection regulation that touches every customer based in the EU – regardless of where your business is. Consequently, you’ll find an explanatory course much helpful. If you’re unsure whether you’re using customer data, let’s say that if you have sent an invoice or if you use analytics tools, then you collect and keep data.

No more dull content

As an independent professional, you need to maintain your online presence carefully. Blogs are a great addition to your website, as you can update these more regularly. But if you want your articles to be read, you might want to take on a creative writing course to help you through content generation. Nobody wants to read boring content!

Defuse conflicts in no time

Last, but not least, you might have to deal with difficult clients, partners and suppliers. It’s therefore essential that you get trained in conflict management. In stressful situations, even professionals can lose their temper. Whether it’s something that went wrong in the delivery or whether your client is refusing to pay, effective conflict management can help you to find the best solution for all.

In the end, there’s only one question left to ask: When is your next training?

Add These Things To The Office For A Productive…

Do you want to make sure you create the ultimate productive work environment? Then you may need to rethink things a little from the way they are now. There are lots of things you can add to the office for a more productive environment, but much of it will depend on your budget, how much space you have, the work you do, and so on. Here are some suggestions that most companies will be able to implement:

Stand/Sit Desks

Most people are used to going into an office and seeing everybody sat at their desks. However, sit down desks can actually hamper productivity. People are far more productive when they are standing up, which is why stand/sit desks were invented. These could be a fantastic addition to your office environment, as employees can choose whether they’d prefer to stand or sit while they work. Standing more will burn more calories, keep their minds productive, and vary the working day.

More Plants

Plants add some lovely greenery to the workspace, and not only that, they actually have lots of benefits that can make people more productive. They tend to make people happier, and purify the air too. Include as many office plants as you can in your workplace and you might just notice the difference when it comes to productivity and employee health – not to mention aesthetics!

Natural Light

Natural light is a must in the office. If your employees are relying mostly on artificial light, it’s no wonder they’re not being as productive as they could be! Open those blinds and make sure as much natural light can be let into the space as possible. It will make a difference to happiness and productivity levels.

A Better Design And Lay Out

Perhaps your design and lay out leaves a lot to be desired. Office interiors should be carefully designed to ensure each employee has plenty of space, and that they can collaborate easily if they need to. It should also contain some color, and perhaps even pictures and quotes that will inspire while working. It should match your brand too, so thinking about what you’re going to do carefully is crucial. Include the same colors and fonts and make sure that your brand is clearly communicated through your design in the office.

A Chill Out Area

Having a chill out area for employees can help them to take some much needed time away from their work to come up with fresh ideas and de-stress. In some cases, it could be a place for them to take a 20 minute nap, which has been proven to help productivity levels! That is, unless you’re willing to fork out on sleep pods. It might seem like you’re giving your employees the green light to slack off, but you’ll be doing just the opposite.

Which of these things will you add to your office for a productive work environment? Leave any of your own thoughts and ideas in the comments below. Thanks for reading!