Entrepreneurship Training

As a budding entrepreneur it can be tempting to jump right in but entrepreneur training and taking the time to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship will likely increase your chances of success and with a failure rate of 55% of small businesses failing within five years, learning relevant skills is critical to your success.

What Skills Will You Learn in Entrepreneur Training?

It depends on the type of entrepreneur training you are taking. If you are taking a two hour entrepreneurship class, obviously you won’t learn as much as if you are taking a series of entrepreneurship classes or an entrepreneurship degree, but in general, the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and the type of skills you should be looking to learn may include:

• How to write a business plan
• How to finance your business
• How to manage growth
• How to position your business in the market place
• How to market and promote your business
• Product development and navigating the patent process
• The type of business you should set up, i.e. sole proprietorship, corporation, etc. and the pros and cons of each type of business
• Business law and tax
• Labour relations and human resources skills should you decide to hire employees
• Building a network of other entrepreneurs which can provide much needed support
• Entrepreneurship case studies, examining case studies of real businesses is an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and should be included in any entrepreneurship training you are taking

What Types of Entrepreneurship Training Opportunities Exist?

Fortunately there are lots of different types of entrepreneurship training opportunities ranging from a couple of hours that just covers the fundamentals of entrepreneurship to Masters degrees in Entrepreneurship.

• Entrepreneurship classes – include two to three hour classes at libraries or small business week events which may consist of the speaker sharing his/her own entrepreneurship case studies from their own experience to a longer series of entrepreneurship classes leading to a an entrepreneurship certificate offered by colleges, universities and government organizations
• Entrepreneurship degrees and Masters of Entrepreneurship – these are relatively new and were created to reflect the growing demand for entrepreneurship training. Entrepreneurship case studies will likely be studied. Most entrepreneurship degrees can be completed with four years of full time study, while Masters of Entrepreneurship can typically be completed within two to three years on either a part time or full time basis.

What Type of Entrepreneur Training is Right for Me? It depends on where you are in your entrepreneur career. If you are just considering the idea of entrepreneurship but haven’t committed to it yet, you first want to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and may want to consider free to low cost entrepreneur training initially until you are confident that being an entrepreneur is the right career for you. Free to low cost entrepreneur training is often found at local libraries which frequently offer two to three hour entrepreneurship classes on a variety of topics of interest to entrepreneurs. These are usually free if you are a member of your local library or are available at low cost and may include the speaker's personal entrepreneurship case studies which can be useful.

Small business weeks are also popular events that are held in multiple cities throughout the world each year and offer free to low cost entrepreneurship classes, covering the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, networking opportunities and the chance to talk to other entrepreneurs to see if entrepreneurship is right for you. There is usually an entrepreneurship competition as well in which you get the chance to see successful entrepreneurship case studies jumping to life. See Reasons Not to Become an Entrepreneur and Random Entrepreneurship Facts for more information.

If you have already done your preliminary research, have a basic understanding of the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and are confident that entrepreneurship is right for you then, then you may want to consider more advanced entrepreneurship training such as taking a series of entrepreneurship classes that cover the key areas critical to an entrepreneur’s success (see list above). Entrepreneurship classes are available through many colleges and universities. There may also be entrepreneurship classes available at a discount for women and unemployed or underemployed individuals through government initiatives. Entrepreneurship classes are also not just for wanna be entrepreneurs, they can also prove valuable for existing entrepreneurs who are wanting to increase their knowledge in particular areas.

On the other hand if you are wanting formal education related to entrepreneurship, there are some innovative entrepreneurship degrees and Masters of Entrepreneurship that allow you to obtain a degree while at the same time gaining relevant skills. Entrepreneurship degrees may provide some security in that if your business doesn’t work out, you will still have a degree to fall back on which will be valued in many industries. On the other hand, if you already have a degree and don't want to pursue a Masters of Entrepreneurship and are wanting to focus your energy on your business, an entrepreneurship degree probably isn’t necessary and you can focus your energy on taking entrepreneurship classes which can be completed much more quickly than an entrepreneurship degree can.

Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial endeavour, there is likely entrepreneur training that will help you achieve your goals, even starting by reading entrepreneurship case studies is a start to your entrepreneurship training. I wish you the best of luck with your entrepreneurial goals.