Nebraska SBDC Blog

No doubt, as a small business owner, you bring an incredible amount of value to the table. It’s a huge task to get a company up and running and make it profitable. Most certainly, it requires a lot of attention and dedication. You might get so busy running your business that you forget about yourself. However, as your business grows, you should, too.

According to career and personal growth coach Kathy Caprino, “Personal growth is the process of growing stronger, more confident, and more effective as a person and an agent of change for your own life. It relates to how you see and perceive yourself, interact with others, engage with the world, and envision your future and your possibilities.”This is why it’s important to cultivate a lifestyle that encourages personal growth alongside business growth, to allow for multiple levels of success. When you care about personal development (your own and that of any employees you oversee), you’ll foster a more engaged workplace, more efficient employee performance, and greater profitability over time.

Why Business Owners Should Focus on Personal Development
Here are significant benefits of personal development for business owners like you:

• It sharpens your hidden skills and gives them room to shine. You’ll never know until you try, right? A personal development journey might expose some hidden talents in you— something which you excel in and could use to grow your business.
• It helps build not just personal but client and employee confidence. Better workers result in a better workplace. This healthy environment allows for a more positive experience for a client and will eventually prompt the client to recommend your business to someone else.
• It improves productivity and effectiveness. Improving your personal skills improves your work life. If you gain knowledge and acquire skills through personal development, you are empowering yourself to produce better results.
• It boosts work motivation and job satisfaction. Working on personal development will motivate you to work harder. You’ll experience higher satisfaction when you have a clear path to follow. You’ll see a domino effect on your productivity and the overall productivity of your business.
• Personal growth equals professional growth. Your personal development journey is the root of your growth as a business owner. An investment in yourself is never wasted!

How to Get Started with Personal Development

Clearly, personal growth leads to career development. Having all these things in mind, here are 5 ideas to get things started.

1. Read. You probably hear this often, but only because so many successful business owners can attest to it. Read often. Read as much as you can. Set a goal to read and finish even just one book a month. Not only does reading expand your knowledge and vocabulary, it also helps stimulate your mind and improve your critical thinking skills.
2. Enroll in an online course. Online courses are a great way to develop a new or existing skill. You will never run out of options about what course to take. The options are nearly endless. You can sign up for classes on learning another language or a new software program. Some classes teach how to write creatively, basics of graphic design, tips on improving your business’ social media marketing, and SO much more. You can take a course that is the closest to your business niche or just your personal preference.
3. Keep track of your progress. Small progress is still progress! Keep a journal and reflect on recent events, decisions and conversations. Through this, you will gain self-awareness that will help you set goals and assess progress.
4. Talk to a mentor. This could be a business coach or a life coach. If you feel stuck in your role or feel like you aren’t growing, talk to someone who can help you uncover and take the next step. A professional mentor can help you achieve real improvement and help set up attainable milestones to get you out of that rut.
5. Be inspired. Instead of looking at other people’s successes as a competition or something “to beat,” try to look at them as an inspiration to work harder and better. This is a healthy mindset to imprint into your day-to-day life. Lift the pressure of comparison from your shoulders and allow more space for clarity and contentment.
   
   

The Takeaway
Personal growth will look different for every individual. For some business owners, it might be pursuing long-term educational goals or developing a skill. For others, it could be more abstract, such as improving self-confidence or relationships with other people.

When you take the initiative to pursue your journey of personal development, you create far more value both personally and professionally.

“When someone pays careful attention to their career development, they identify their own strengths and blind spots, then work hard to improve their skills. It also involves learning about different roles and industries to find a match to their abilities, seeking out opportunities to advance, and maybe even changing careers altogether if they find a more suitable one.” – The Balance Careers

Resources:
Why Personal Development Is Crucial for Your Career — and How to Tackle It
What Is Career Development?

Printed with permission from ASBDC. For the original article, click here.