part time business start up course?

bacon?

Hi, can anyone recomend a good part time business start up course... in the dublin area

BenjAii

Check out the Dublin Enterprise Board - "Start your own business" course - 200 euro odd & 1 night a week over 2 months.

I did it earlier this year & would thoroughly recommend.

http://www.dceb.ie/

Darragh29

There is the School of Hard Knocks, that I would personally recommend, or the University of Life, you can't beat an honours degree from either of these institutions OP...

boomshackala

I was just on to Dublin enterprise board and they're booked out on the current one and no new one starting till Jan. I want to get started asap, so was wondering if anyone knows of anything else?
Thanks

Cringer

Darragh29 wrote: »

There is the School of Hard Knocks, that I would personally recommend, or the University of Life, you can't beat an honours degree from either of these institutions OP...

I have to agree with this point from Daragh. I've learnt my business skills this way. No formal business education, did a Physics degree and that taught me nothing about business.

boomshackala wrote: »

I was just on to Dublin enterprise board and they're booked out on the current one and no new one starting till Jan. I want to get started asap, so was wondering if anyone knows of anything else?
Thanks

I have one online business and a couple of "real" businesses and all three are successful.
Everything I have learnt is through trial and error and determination.

While some people may not have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, I was young, care free with no ties and had no one to answer to if I made a mistake.

I guess my only main concern when starting a business is trying to raise the money myself. My last business startup cost me 8K but it's now profitable after 5 months.

I always try to read something inspirational too. Re-reading Richard Branson's "Screw It, Let's Do it" also gets me motivated.


I can't really recommend anything in particular for you to read, unfortunately. However, why not try offering your services now (even if you dont have them ready) and see if you have any takers. I remember when I started my most recent one, I rang around everywhere sussing out the interest.

Oh there is one thing I would recommend. Brush up on your sales skills and negotiating tactics. This is a particularly useful article about Higher Authority


Good luck and look at it just like looking at going to the gym... Keep at it and it will start to look good!

byrne0f56789

Learning by doing is the only way to go. A lot of start your own business courses are generic and may not match what you need to do in your business. Most of them quite are expensive. They are also too "classroom" to be of any real benefit.

I would suggest finding a good business blog in your industry and reading it regularly.

There is a danger with many start your own business courses, that they try and fit a square peg into a round hole. For instance, they may cover a marketing strategy that is not optimal for your business. How does this benefit you?

This is understandable because you will find people from different industries that have different business models at these courses. The instructor can't cover all strategies at once. I would say go ahead and start your business now. By all means go on the course but don't let it determine when you start up.

Darragh29

I couldn't agree more OP with the two previous posts. What I'd also advise you to do is have someone who is experienced in business as a friend, that you can ring up when there is a problem, someone who can give you some outside direction when you need it. You wouldn't believe some of the problems that creep up on you when your running a business. Very quickly it can become an isolated position, and I think it's very important to have your own kitchen cabinet of trusted people that you can sit down on the phone with for half an hour with a cup of tea, when the sh*t hits the fan over something in your business (and it will!), and you can use as a sounding board for ideas...

Also, as Cringer pointed out, regularly read books that keep you inspired and positive.

BenjAii

byrne0f56789 wrote: »

Learning by doing is the only way to go. A lot of start your own business courses are generic and may not match what you need to do in your business. Most of them quite are expensive. They are also too "classroom" to be of any real benefit.

I would suggest finding a good business blog in your industry and reading it regularly.

There is a danger with many start your own business courses, that they try and fit a square peg into a round hole. For instance, they may cover a marketing strategy that is not optimal for your business. How does this benefit you?

This is understandable because you will find people from different industries that have different business models at these courses. The instructor can't cover all strategies at once. I would say go ahead and start your business now. By all means go on the course but don't let it determine when you start up.

While I would agree most of what you are going to learn of value you are going to learn yourself by just doing it, there is still a place for doing the "Start your own Business" courses as offered by the various EB's.

They aren't expensive, in the €200 range. If you have no exposure to them, they do cover the basics of law, accounting, marketing & business plans. The one I went to was very discussion based, so I learnt a lot from everyone discussing the ins and outs of their business plans as they were developed, most people on the course felt it was very worthwhile too.

Bu it's true, that ultimately you learn most from actually doing things.