Building a business as a Independant Trainer.

Lots of time in the last couple of weeks has been spent working at working.

This means that I am starting to rebuild a business to have an ongoing revenue stream that will support me. This does not mean I spent all day every day working at it, I did need to start getting the lawn back under control and thats a major battle in its own right.

But on the business side I started thinking about what makes for a successful Independent Trainer business and it is just like what it makes for a successful business.

Skills, Contacts, Reputation.

Those three things make for a successful business.

For a trainer the Skills portion is without doubt the one we focus on the most, we get certifications, we take classes, we study technology in its earliest stages, the earlier we can get at it the better we like it. But skills are not just technology, you could be the best technologist in the world and a terrible teacher if you don’t have the presentation skills and empathy necessary to interact and understand students. The best teachers are a combination of knowledge, empathy and performer.

Contacts are absolutely necessary and need to be nurtured and grown. It is not enough to just meet someone at a show, give them your card and think that they will automatically follow up with you and bring you business. You have to make sure that you contact them, keep in contact with them regardless of what you are doing and make sure that you keep in the front half of their brain so that when they do have an opportunity that falls into your line of expertise that you are the first one they think of. Many trainers that I know of have a great network of other trainers who they know and interact with but forget that it is the CPLS people who hire and get them work. Need to make sure all that plants in the contacts garden are well fed and taken care of.

Reputation is a more difficult thing to build, it can only be done with constant attention and vigilance. You need to be great at telling your own story without being a braggart. You have to pay attention constantly to anything that will impact your reputation to make sure that you know what is said and have your view be the one that stays with your garden of contacts. It is a slow and hard process that builds a reputation and it can be easily destroyed by careless work on your part. Keep your word in all that you do and make sure that you are always scrupulously honest in all your dealings. Be the better party in whatever you work on. Recognize that others will be competing with you, both as partners and as opponents, react to all with honesty and honor and it will be reflected in your reputation.

All of this is the part of the business that leads to success. It does not guarantee it but rather is the path that leads to it.
Skills, Contacts and Reputation, regardless of whether you are a trainer a doctor or a widget salesman are your basis for success.

Being good at what you do is just not enough to succeed.