Decision Making for Business

This topic is something which I personally have wanted to get off the ground for years after seeing how a lot of large corporate management training could help with small business if they ever got it.


A lot of this corporate type training as you know is aimed at people with larger teams than most SMB owner/managers and who have specialists you can call on. Although it can always be handy to check with the specialist or analyst in an area to get the required information, before arriving at a decision, ultimately, the buck stops with the person making it. Although if you are clever, people can spread the load (read: blame) in a large enterprise.



In an Small – Medium Business environment that cycle is repeated – a lot, on a smaller scale, but one where the impact of an incorrect, or hastily made decision based on gut, can be substantially more. A mid or high level manager in a Large Enterprise rarely gets fired for screwing up – if you are a sole trader, or have a team of 4-5 people, a bad mistake can force you under.



That is mainly why this course focuses on the one area which is essentially the foundation of running a business, and that is how to make decisions. When you run your own business, or are a team member in a group of less than 10 people, your decisions matter – whether you realise it or not!

A lot of SMB owners and managers aren’t ever shown the mechanics of business decision making, let alone how to make them. This is in much the same way people are never ever taught how to buy a house, or other major purchases. Or raise kids! They just get stuck in and try figure it out as they go along.



I have also seen a lot of the existing courses for SMB owners or those wanting to start their own business focus on the mechanics, which is great. The mechanics are important, really important to get right. The only problems really happens when push comes to shove. Whatever training course you attend in a speciality such as say bookkeeping or marketing etc., is that the person training you won’t go and give you a step by step for your business (nor should they). The most you can end up with is a series of targeted options, again, which may be great, but – ultimately, the decision rests with you. You can chose to take them all, take some, take none – win, lose or draw, the buck stops with you on which you chose to take or ignore. It isn’t the fault / credit of the specialist whose skills you paid for, it is yours as the SMB owner or manager. And yours alone.



Ideally, I have set this course as a primer for someone who has never received any formal training in business strategy, or decision making. It is aimed at someone who is already running, or in the startup phase of a business. As time is important to this type of audience, I am whittling the course delivery down to THREE bite sized pieces.

Workshop.

This is the grounding foundation of the course and delves into how decisions are made, some tools you can use, and how they can be used if you have a small (or no) team working with you.

The face to face workshop (if you are attending one) takes place in one morning over about 3.5 hours. We aim to run webinairs of this also, so that those who cannot attend a workshop in person can attend one virtually. As of yet, we are trialling the times and durations of these, however content wise, it will be the same as if you are sitting there in person.

Online course.

This is different to the workshops in that it covers the Presented portions of the workshops, and is designed to be reviewed as and when someone needs it. Also if a past attendee has team members they may want them to purchase the online course so they can review the material, the terms and get acquainted with the thinking approaches so that your team decisions can be made faster. No one would dream of just giving their team member their own logon to the course of course. That would never happen!

This course can be taken before, or after the Face to Face or Virtual workshop. As the course, technology, and the FAQs of attendees expands, this course will be updated with new content as it is needed. There is no additional charges etc., for accessing this for those who already have access.



Closed Facebook Support Group for the course attendees.

This is an invite only, closed Facebook group for those who have either done the online course or attended a workshop. This is an open forum where people can post their questions or concerns, and hopefully get help from the community. This, again, is a way to help spread the burden, and to allow attendees who may work alone have access to other decision makers that could have insights to help.

So, I hope you find it interesting so far (if you have read this far, great!), and if you want to know more about the content, view the online course, or register on a Face to Face or virtual workshop, please click on the EVENTS section and pick a date that suits you. If there isn't one, please let me know what general availability you would prefer, and I can set one up! Otherwise, you can follow the links to the Online Learning version of the course.

Enjoy, and I hope that you will count taking this course as one of the BEST decisions you have ever made! :)