When you run a small business, there are many opportunities to take courses and webinars to enhance your knowledge of your industry. The problem is, the Internet is completely saturated with courses, webinars, and even eBooks, and it can be challenging to know which one is the best one to take.
My own personal Facebook news feed is filled with ad after ad for various marketing webinars and sponsored posts. Sometimes it’s overwhelming to figure out which one would be the best for me. However, I’ve learned a few ways to assess each opportunity and figure out if it’s right for me. Here’s how:
Price
Price is always a huge factor for me when it comes to investing in my business. I’ve spent as little as $20 on an eBook for my business and as much as $12,000 on private coaching. Sometimes the investments I’ve made have been worth it and other times they haven’t been. It’s all a form of trial and error.
A colleague of mine told me a good way to determine if something is worth the risk or the price is to assess how you would feel if you lost that amount of money. So, if you’re okay losing $30 then it might be worth the risk. If you have $10,000 in your business checking account then losing $1,000 might not hurt as much.
I’ve also found that allocating a certain amount of money aside each month in your business account specifically for more expensive business investments helps a lot when it comes to making purchasing decisions.
Time Commitment
Time commitment is extremely important when determining whether or not to invest in a class, webinar, or even a book. If a webinar is going to take 30 minutes of your time, the investment might be worth it. However, some online classes that can help you with different aspects of your business can take several hours every week.
The last thing you want to do is make a big financial investment in a course and then not have the time to really devote to it. So, weigh your options and try to figure out how much time each of these opportunities will take, and if you have the time and the money, then it might be worthwhile.
Return on Investment
Return on investment is one of the hardest things to predict when buying a course or sitting down to watch a webinar. I personally sell an online course that teaches people how to get writing jobs, but I priced the course where someone could make their money back within 1-2 months of taking the course.
Sometimes you won’t be able to determine a return on investment until you’re actually in the webinar or course, but a good rule of thumb is to talk to others who have taken the webinar or course before you or read testimonials to see if it would be helpful to advance your business.
Ultimately, investing in online courses or webinars can be very valuable for improving your business and increasing your income. You just have to weigh the price, time commitment, and return on investment before purchasing one of them.
