The Business of Training

What are those things in your training business (university, division, unit) that you believe will help you achieve a successful outcome to your business strategy? They may be related to cost reduction, corporate objectives, new technology, process changes, etc. What will help ensure your success? They may be unique to your training business or new products for your customers. The standard things for a successful training business are adequate capital, cash flow, good employees, and customers. These are not the success factors for your business - they are the result of your success factors. Again, you need to establish the key success factors that will complement your business strategy. What gets the customer to choose your product and - call you ; browse your web site; meet and buy from your sales person; or come into your training center?  Call Me! Success Factors fall into several categories : Set realistic business objectives and goals Understand your unique va

Presenting your business results.  This chart, created in MS Excel, is a very simple way to report any number of different metrics.  This is an example of revenue verses budget by month.  The chart is updated monthly or quarterly to the appropriate management team and posted to all team members.  It is an easy way to show a Pareto Graph of the root causes of the deviations from budget and the planned actions, when necessary, to correct.  Easy to read, easy to do.  Fig. 1 - Metric - Revenue Report Chart  Let's look at each area of the chart separately.  The first area is the Revenue/Budget Graph (Fig. 2).  Plot your budget (Revenue Forecast ) out by month for the year then add actual revenue results as they are documented by month.  Be sure this is posted for all team members to see.  It is important for everyone to feel ownership for the business results. Fig. 2 - Revenue Report Graph  The next area on the chart is the Pareto Graph (Fig. 3) for the root