Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I was scanning the website and came across the Coaching link. In there are courses available to anyone who would like to start a business or improve on a existing. But the funny part about this is I saw the price tag of $995 and immediately clicked out of there thinking: WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY. After about two minutes I began to laugh at myself.

Here is a product/service that could possibly make the difference if I open a business, and if I do if it survives or not. And here I am thinking that $995 is way to much.

So now I sit and think to myself......HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH TO ME?(This by no means is trying to take away the value of such a course! I hope the way that I wrote this does not read wrong) I find it very interesting of the thought process that I went through in th whole ordeal.

We had a neat topic awhile back, about bootstrapping. It went along with the then-current topic about perhaps starting a SuN business. Between those topics came an important observation...I think by MiteyMite.

Entrepreneurs have almost a definitive characteristic of wanting to do something themselves. They don`t like the employee role, hate working for someone else, don`t often want someone else to interfere, and generally like the idea of being Robinson Crusoe.

Is it that the $1,000 price tag is too expensive? Or do you think maybe you clicked out of it because you want to try it yourself before you "let" someone else tell you what to do? ;-)

Then there`s the almost cliched suspicion that if someone is out there charging money for lessons on how to get rich and successful, they`re making their money by selling books. "Those who can, do; those who can`t, teach," and that line of thinking.

Don`t get me wrong, there`s a good reason for mentors and coaches, but you`re asking how much is that formal training worth to me. Before I can answer that, I have to wonder if it`s not a value right now because it`s too expensive.....or because I want to try it all myself first, just to see if I can do it. :-) Y`know?

Excellent post CraigL ... yes, I think that many of the people who launch their own business are the "leaders" not "followers" .. they`d rather make their own rules instead of listening to others! I`m not sure how I ever got my degree ... the thought of sitting in a classroom now just makes me *sigh* already!

In comparison to other coaching programs out there, this is quite reasonable, especially for what you get. i work in the field and it is a cost to hire a coach. there is research of someone, developing, alot of back and forth...alot of things go on, and you don`t move to each step until you "get it". There are also offerings to folks who choose not to pay for a coaching service, such as score, local development center....office of economic growth etc.

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I have to admit. I am a student at University of Phoenix, and the average course is $1300. If you are looking for course, try one course from UOP or attend a course with SCORE. You can be mentored for Free by veterans. I rather be taught by someone who went through all business situtations versus someone that may not have the experience.

I have consulted with someone at SCORE, and they were helpfull. I think that it goes along the lines of defeating the monster on my own. I got very frustrated taking college courses because they dont teach you how to start up, and run a business. They teach you how to manage people at someone elses business. Granted there are colleges out there that offer such classes I wasnt fortunate to take them.

Here are some of the free  resources that I have found:

http://www.score.org/

http://www.trumpuniversity.com/learn/index.cfm

I will post more when I find them all.

 

Frankly, I think reading novels that explore the successes and failures of a character building a business also is a good way to go.

People think authors just make stuff up out of nowhere. But the fact is that few people would read a book if it didn`t compare well to reality. I can`t count the number of stories I`ve read about all sorts of entrepreneurial ventures, all of them giving me ideas.

CraigL, Not only are there entrepreneurial lifestyles and views in these novels. But I get the most out of character building.Meaning: I like to see different views of things, or better put another way to look at things. The following website has some pretty neat info on the way we all think about business and how some are stuck in the "natural" way of thinking, instead of outside the box.

http://www.joelbarker.com/

That is a quote that I needed to bring right back up because it soooo worthy.

it was once said that a picture is worth a thousands words.

I say, an experience is worth a thousands lessons 

... if you have the time and you`re good enough to identify them.   There is nothing saying that these experience have to be your own ,  they can be experiences of other people, as noted above by Craig,

I`m very much like Craig in this area, I have read the business experiences  of others and my minds starts to fly with ideas and new thoughts,  many are beyond that what was told in the story.   Like how I can use that principle in other situations.

There are few business opportunities that I will not review,  for the same reason.   How Can I use this information?   We all know it takes  just one little idea,  just an extra mile,    just one little factor  that can make the difference between  failure and an invention like the light bulb.    the story I read was that he had 10,000 failures before realizing his dream.  The difference between  going home a failure and success in this case was  just one more try after his 9,999th attempt at it.

There is little doubt in my mind that  hiring a coach  will give you something extra, but can you get it from another source  like "Think and Grow Rich" ,, "SuN"  

Michael T