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It's important to continue growing and improving with/through your business. This is how you'll ensure that you never stop learning to be a better business owner! Take your goals by storm and put yourself on the path to success with these easy steps to continue your learning: 

Make sure that you actually learn from your mistakes: 

Learning from our mistakes helps us grow as people, but can also help a business grow, progress and continue to do better. 

When something goes wrong in your business, take some time to calm down and come back to recollect the event with a clear mind. Try to think of the issue without emotions involved - what really went wrong? Where did the issue stem from? Then, once you have an accurate idea of what happened, how it happened and why the issue became a mistake, move on to resolution. Begin by asking yourself: How can this issue be properly resolved? Do I need to contact the customer and offer some kind of reparation? Do I need to discuss the event with the staff members involved in it? How can all involved move forward with positive feelings from this event? 

After you have resolved the issue at hand, move on to the learning process. Try asking yourself questions like: How can I ensure this issue never happens again? Do I need to make any changes to my business model to avoid things like this from occurring? Do my staff need additional training to stop this event from happening in the future? What important information and insights can I gain from this mistake? The goal here is not to criticise yourself of your staff, but instead to make sure that a lesson is learned and your business changes for the better! 

Utilize the resources that are available to you: 

Not every business owner is going to need the same set of information to learn from. Each business is unique and therefore the information that you seek out to benefit yours should be equally as unique! Firstly, start by ensuring you have created a business plan (click here for our blog post on how to do this if you don't have one) and get super clear on your goals. Once you have those in place, seek out your resources by: 

1.) Browse Instagram for businesses, business owners, coaches, etc that align with your goals. Check their accounts for tips and tricks, read their blog posts, watch their reels, or even purchase their offerings if you think you'll find them helpful to your business. Follow as many or as little as you'd like - as long as you find their information and content helpful! 

2.) Use sites like Skillshare, Udemy and so on to learn new skills and gather helpful information in a cost-effective way. 

3.) Make connections in your community! Try joining local small business groups and organizations to network while meeting other local business owners to chat with and learn from. 

4.) Read, read, read! Similar to the first tip, seek out authors who inspire you and have written about achieving goals similar to the ones you are aiming for. Then purchase or check their books out of your local library and read up on their tips and tricks! 

Listen to your customers: 

Even though this may seem obvious - it's still an important tip! Your customers are your greatest source of learning as they are the ones who will be buying and consuming your products and services and can give you a most truthful review of how your product/service actually works in real life. From this information, you can: tweak your business's offerings to better fit the needs of your customer base, create new offerings that replace ones that are simply not working or selling and even learn how to alter your business model to better suit the needs and wants of your customer base! ⁣You can do this in many ways, such as leaving out comment cards that are collected regularly, talking in person to customers at your brick-and-mortar store, interacting with customers via social media, and reading reviews online.⁣

There are so many resources available to you at all times to help you and your business thrive. Take advantage of them to ensure that your business continues to evolve and grow into exactly what you want it to become. Happy learning! 

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