You’ve got your business going and things are looking up. You’re now looking to grow and that means learning more. But what kind of professional development can you really do?

I’ve found it’s really tough out there and lots more snake oil salesmen than actual great products to help you.

So where do you go to find the best information to help you grow and become a better business owner?

In-person conferences

As a person who has worked in tourism, I LOVE in-person conferences. But there are two different types.

Customer conferences

The first are where your customers are. It is very rare that I learn anything from presenters at these conferences, but it has happened. I mostly spend my time connecting during those off-moments. These are great for realtime feedback on your services. But even better is listening to your potential customers talk about their pain points. Although it may not be strictly professional development, but the amount that I learn at these conferences has been invaluable for creating products. It might as well be called professional development as far as I am concerned.

Business owner conferences

And then there are the conferences specially designed for business owners to learn. Those have been a VERY mixed bag for me.

The first few I went to were with peers who had similar businesses and who were at similar places in their careers. It was invaluable. There were a few sessions that were actually relevant. But mostly the conversations between sessions were what really made these conferences work for me. We could each go through what was going on and get great advice on our particular issues. But the person running these conferences could never make money off of them, so they went away. I’ve never found anything that connected me to people who could help me so efficiently. It was a huge loss for me (and many others).

So I was excited when I heard about another opportunity to go to a conference with agency owners. I spent loads of money on the trip and conference. I was excited to have a few friends going as well.

And then I sat at a table for those whose focus was tourism. I realized everyone at the table wanted to get into the tourism industry, and I was the only one actually working in it. It went downhill from there. A couple presentations that were super helpful, but most were either outright wrong or just not great. And the people… They were either wanting to break into doing this kind of work or they were so high up that they ended up not really talking to anyone not at their level. So I left with no new information or new contacts. A huge waste of a lot of time and money.

Takeaway: Definitely go into selling conferences with the idea that you can learn a lot from your customers. Don’t just focus on the selling. Listen as well. As far as learning conferences, only go after a referral from someone in the same position as you are in and make sure attendees are at least somewhat similar to you. Otherwise, you may come away with nothing after throwing a whole lot of money at it.

Online

To be honest, online professional development opportunities have been my biggest source of learning, and I haven’t paid a dime for any of it.

Blogs

I read blogs daily. Some I have been reading for years, some are written by friends and some have just been recently picked up. I use Feedly to make the blog reading pretty seamless. And I force myself to do this by having to fill social network slots. The only way to do that is to read all the articles so I can pick the best ones. It works for me.

Communities

I participate in online communities. It started with one, and then someone suggested another and another and another. I’ll be honest that I got into too many at one point. Then I scaled way back to the ones that kept me the best informed and the best connected. I wish I could tell you how to find the best ones for you, but it’s really something that you luck into based on your preferences. All I can say is keep connecting on your network of choice. You’ll eventually find those communities you need.

Social media buddies

And then I pick the best members of those communities. “Best” is certainly subjective. They may not be the smartest, but we’ve connected. It could be because we just have the same sense of humor. Or it could be because we have a lot to give each other professionally. I get to know these people as much as possible. We talk through developments in our different industries, and we bounce things off of each other. It’s easily the best professional development I get. But it’s the hardest to find.

Takeaway: Getting your professional development online can be absolutely worthwhile. Free options are generally fantastic, but know that they come with the cost of your time. And you won’t see the results right away.

Professional coaching

I have friends who swear by this. So I found a coach who was highly recommended and it ended up being a disaster for so many reasons. I now know that I did quite a few things wrong, so this was more on me than the coach. (But it was enough to scare me off of ever doing it again.)

I do think people could benefit from this. Just not me.

But if this is the route you want to go, make sure your coach understands you definition of success. For me, it was never big growth. I like the day-to-day of working with clients too much to give that up. So having a coach try to work with me to make my business much bigger was never going to work.

And like therapists, you’re probably going to have to see a few coaches to get to the one that will give you the right tools to grow and succeed. So make sure that you have a try-out period where you can really feel out what this person has to offer. Anyone that tries to lock you into a tight package right away is likely selling snake oil and not the kind of support you need.

Takeaway: Just because this didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Just be very smart about the person you trust in this situation. Don’t jump in with both feet and be sure that you are on the same page with all of your goals. Because your goals shouldn’t be cookie cutter so neither should your coach’s advice.

And with that said, there is no cookie cutter approach to professional development when you run your own business. With a lack of time and resources, you usually just fit it in when you can (which is probably not often enough). But if you keep at it and figure out your own approach, it really can make a huge difference for you and your business.

What is your approach to professional development? Has it worked well for you?