One for you, one for me…

When I started Spinning Plates I did it with just the knowledge I’d gained during my corporate career, I learned everything I know today on the job and it was a pretty steep learning curve.

There were tasks I picked up that I had no clue about so I had to read help articles, did free courses…

There were things that clients were keen on me learning to help with their specific needs so they furnished me with a course they had bought or I kept trying things until I learnt what I needed.

However all of those were quick fixes, a course on social media (that promises to solve all your problems) today will be out of date within a few months thanks to the pace that the marketing industry moves at. This was especially true with ‘free’ courses that worked as loss leaders for advertising campaigns- the promises are big but the results that you get from this free learning will be minimal, it’s the paid upgrades where the value really lies.

That said, how do you know which course is right. On any day I can be scrolling through Facebook or LinkedIn and get a dozen adverts for guide books, courses, cheat sheets and solutions to making social media/paid social advertising grow your sales exponentially. It’s hard to know where to start.

As a VA in lucky enough to belong to a community of other virtual assistants who are incredibly supportive and as a community we were recently offered a change to study for a certification course. The cost was high but the value was certainly higher, which if you’re cash rich isn’t an issue (although giving away cash is always painful!). I was immediately excited by the idea, it’s the next move for me and my business but I had questions - that’s how I knew I had chosen the right course. Dawn from Beyond the Dawn spent 30 minutes talking to me, answered every question I had and gave me more information than I thought I needed.

That open transparency was the reason I chose to move forward. I’m currently embarking on a 12 week programme to up-skill myself and up-level my business and I can’t wait to get started!

I think that learning is important, picking up what you need to know as you go along is 100% necessary but sometimes you need to stop and assess where you are, where you want to be and decide how to get from A to B… and sometimes that means making a big investment in yourself.

But trite motivation quotes and haircare references aside- you are worth it.