Part 2 . . .
Marketing Your Practice With
Small Business Training Programs
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 Need Better Clients? Higher Fees?
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Continuing with your research, the next thing you will do is start looking in the local libraries, much more so than going to the internet at this point in time. Magazines will have a variety of sources, which you can’t get access to online without a paid subscription. Things like scholarly journals, abstracts, microfilms and subject files. You also can usually get some valuable assistance from the reference librarian.
Once you have identified the material available, your next step is to evaluate what you have. And, you will probably find that you have enough material for several different workshops or training courses. You will wind up combining some of the information you have gathered and expanding on a theme, or discarding some.
If your research results in an organized product, then that is wonderful. If not, then as you gather your material, be on the lookout for patterns that emerge. You may also find that the materials you gather would be good reading for your workshop participants. Be sure when you are selecting your reading material to select interesting and informative materials that will reinforce or support your workshop objectives.
Your Instructional Method
After you have selected your objective, gathered your research and identified your recommended reading materials, your next step is to determine the best method of delivering this information to your participants. When discussing “method” of instructional delivery, I am talking about the combination of techniques you can use to keep your workshop participants engaged in the workshop.
A technique on the other hand, is a specific skill or procedure used in implementing a method. The skill of using a PowerPoint presentation is a technique used as part of a method of instruction.
Of the many different methods you can come up with which are suited to your workshop participants, you should use a method suited to their skills. Take your time and watch how your target group learns. Is it by discussing, listening, observing, participating or some other method.
As you begin to develop client and prospect workshops, you will soon determine that there is no “one” single method sufficiently flexible for the needs of students in every learning situation. Some of your participants will learn best by observing, listening or performing a task. If you want them to learn a fundamental principle, then they may learn best by solving a task that requires them to implement that principle. The method you select for one topic and one target group may be different from the method you select for another.
Format of Your Lesson Plan
Designing your lesson plan is the step that will set you apart from your competition; those competitors of yours who also decide to give workshops and training classes also. A well written lesson plan will keep you organized all through the workshop, and will allow you to expand the number of workshops you will be able to hold by allowing you to assign staff members to give certain workshop sessions.
They also act as a convenient record of what you have covered with any particular group of prospects and clients.
As a side note, members of the Instant Practice Builder membership website have access to a variety of complete pre-written and planned small business management training courses that are designed to be given in a series of one or two hour sessions over a period of six weeks. Each training course can be downloaded and contains an instructors guide, lesson plans, handouts and case studies.
The lesson plans available to IPB members come in a PDF format, but you can develop your own in a variety of formats.
Organizing Your Workshop
After you have researched and found a topic, decided on what instruction method you want to use, and identified the format you will use for your lesson plan, you must decide on how you want to organize the instruction you will be giving.
Typically, you may want to organize the workshop content by identifying the main and sub-points you wish to cover by time, cause and effect, problem and solution, pro or con, or topic. In addition, you can work your lesson from the known to the unknown, or the simple to the complex.
How do you decide which strategy to use? Your workshop topic will usually give you ideas as you work your way through the process of developing your workshop. You will usually see that the material will lend itself more easily to one pattern than another.
When you have completed these steps, you will be ready to start developing a statement about your strategy. This is a detailed plan, which you will use to explain the overall lesson objective and the steps you will take to achieve that goal. It should be written in a way that will walk you through the entire lesson, giving you the opportunity to focus on each important point, one item at a time.
Finally you will begin with your lesson plan by determing how you will begin and end your workshop. You can get a sample introduction and conclusion with your free subscription to the Practitioner’s Daily. Unfortunately the Practitioners Daily is really only weekly at this time, but it gives a goal.
Complete the form below to get your subscription. In addition to the remainder of your guide to creating lessons for your workshops and training sessions, your subscription will include more tips on how to build your practice using seminars, workshops, and other training classes, along with tips on public speaking, getting published and how to use the internet to attract clients.
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