With spring just around the corner, a gardener’s thoughts turn to fertilizer. Although its’ application would seem to be fairly simple, it really isn’t. Every garden is different, and the types of fertilizer needed could vary greatly. Additionally, depending on what the gardener is growing, the type and amount of fertilizer required will be different, as will be the timing of its application, and both dependent on current environmental conditions.

 

How do you know if your garden needs fertilizer? Well, if its’ growth is stagnant, it’s not thriving or living up to its’ potential, it needs help. 

 

The majority of fertilizers belong to one of two types: quick-release versus slow-release. As you can imagine, quick release fertilizers provide a fast growth spurt, but, if applied too often, they put too much stress on the plants and they eventually burn out. Slow-release fertilizers provide for steady sustained growth that avoids burn out, makes your plants less susceptible to disease and maintains an environment that supports long-term gardening success.

 

Just as every garden is different, every business is different too. Just as different gardens need different fertilizer regimens, the needs of your business, including your educational needs, require a specific approach. Some businesses will require a quick-release solution to get something jump started. For example, an educational burst might overcome a particular hurtle for a needed growth spurt – and growth spurts can be great, but if uncontrolled, they often result in burned-out plants or burnt-out businesses.

 

Other businesses may not need a quick-fix solution but require a long-term approach when it comes to education. Anyone who has started a new garden knows that it’s a long-term project. Even if you’re starting with great soil, or in the case of your business, a great idea or a remarkable product, there are a lot of steps involved to secure long-term success. If you’re trying to decide on what type of bank account you’ll need, you probably shouldn’t start by picking out the design of your checks.

 

As with gardening, the first thing you need to do is to ascertain what your businessneeds, or more specifically, what you need to know. You need to ask what the current environment is like. What are the conditions you’re operating under and what do you need to learn to deal with them?

 

The right fertilizer, or the right education, applied at the right time can provide your business with the right nutrients which in turn will supply the right energy to initiate and sustain business growth.

 

The long-term success of your business depends on what you know, when you know it, and how you apply that knowledge.

 

But knowledge, or its’ compilation, can be complicated and expensive. I don’t usually recommend shortcuts, but in today’s technological climate, they’re available, cheap, and targeted. Less than a generation ago, if you wanted to be educated, pretty much the only approach were the traditional educational institutions, which were costly, slow, and, if you were running a business, very intrusive, but that’s not the case anymore.

 

Google has developed an educational product called Coursera, which provides for targeted educational needs, accomplished in 3- or 6-month blocks. Over 100 community colleges, as well as major universities and employers are taking part. Currently, the offerings are limited, but there are other structured platforms available that offer pretty much anything you need to further your business acumen. These include Skillshare, Masterclass, Udemy, edX, and Alison. Skillshare and Masterclass are online learning communities that provides educational videos via subscription, Udemy is an open online course provider with a global reach, while edX, created by Harvard and MIT hosts online university classes, some at no charge. Alison, founded in Galway Ireland is a totally free, self-paced online platform mostly focused on work-place based skills.

 

Almost whatever you need to learn to sustain business success is available. You just need to determine what you need to know, when you need to know it, and go out and learn it.

 

If you would like to know more about how to maintain your competitive edge by ensuring that your employees know what they need to know and where to go for it, we can help guide you. Give us a call - we would love to talk with you.

 

Will Durant, an American writer, historian and philosopher said, “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance”.