The importance of learning for retailers is often lost in the daily grind of running a business. If you are a retail owner, you are probably thinking that there is not a single minute left in your day to devote to even thinking about the Importance of Learning. We know that your day starts before your store opens and it doesn’t end when you lock the front door. This is especially true if you are the only one running your store.

Why is it important

The hard truth is that continually feeding your brain is not only important, it’s critical. It is critical for brain health, but it is critically important for you as a retail owner. What are some of the benefits of continued learning?

• You will find fresh ideas. It is easy to do the same thing over and over, but our customers want a retailer that stays fresh and current.
• You will find encouragement in seeing that you are not alone. Learning opportunities can help you see that others face the same issues that you are.
• You will stay current with issues that might be easy to overlook. “Back office” issues with human resources, bookkeeping and legal changes are so important but not always readily available.

How to Choose When Time is Limited

The first thing is to admit that your time is limited and to give yourself the grace to limit the time you will allot to learning. It might not always be this way as your business grows or as your children grow up. Make your plan for where you are right now and adjust as you can.

When time is a factor you want to make sure that you get a variety of learning to cover multiple areas. The only time when you might consider focusing on one area for a limited time is if you are going through a guided learning event such as a webinar or if there is an area you need extra help on such as improving your social media presence.

Tips to help you get started

Look at your schedule with a critical, and honest eye, to help you see where you can plug in times to allocate to learning. Whenever possible, it should allow you to have uninterrupted time to maintain focus for best learning results. Some have found it helpful to do a time audit for anywhere from a few days to an entire week. This will show you where there is wasted time that could be put to better use.

• Make a list of the areas you want or need to focus on and prioritize them. If you are new in business the list might seem endless. That is why knowing what you need to know and do first is so important. When it is just expanding your knowledge with limited time you will want to consider what is most important. Some knowledge needs to be part of a building block type of learning so you will need to know what to learn first.
• Decide how you learn best with limited time. Will it be podcasts or audible books that you can listen to when things are quiet. Maybe it will be email newsletters or blogs that you can read when it is convenient. You might find that they have a powerful social media presence that provides for learning in smaller, but information-packed small bites. Some of these are delivered in smaller, bite-sized pieces, making them easy to plug into tight spaces of time. Email newsletters are generally shorter and easier to get through in less time. The same is true for social media posts. The only caveat is that once you are on social media it is easy to get lost down that rabbit hole of fascinating information. Before you know it, you have been on there for hours. Knowing this you can limit the time you are there. Podcasts and reading blogs are usually not too long and easy enough to consume in an hour or less. Audible books are obviously more time-consuming, but they generally will give you a deeper dive into a specific topic. Because they are in chapters you might be able to limit yourself to consuming one chapter at a time. Webinars and Facebook Challenges are generally limited to a specific amount of time. You will be guided through the content
• Make a list of resources to pull from. These could be leaders in your industry. It might be thought leaders or influencers that you can glean incredible knowledge from in a limited amount of time. If it is for a specific focus, find “that person” who is the best in their field for the same reason. Trial and error might help you find the person and the method that is right for you.

How to Make the Time

There is a saying that “We all have the same 24 hours a day” so it is up to us to find the ways to best use that time. If you are a small retailer your 24 hours will be used up differently than one that has employees. It might be different if you have young children compared to one that doesn’t. The point is that, throughout the seasons of our career we must make choices and even sacrifices to achieve what we want to achieve.

There is the age-old question, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” That might be the best advice I could give you. Instead of thinking about how much you have to learn or need to learn, break it down into bite-size pieces that are doable in your current situation. Set yourself up for succeeding rather than failing. How can you do this? Here are a few tips.

• First, be honest in evaluating how you are currently spending your time. Where are the wasted moments? Moments, in fact, can add up to opportunity when they are maximized.
• Start by blocking even small blocks of time. As we said, reading a newsletter or blog or social media post can take very little time. Set a timer and block 15 minutes and focus your attention completely during that time. Take notes and make actionable steps if possible. Find ways to apply and implement what you have learned.
• Think of times when you might be watching TV or listening to music and switch some of that time out to be a tie of learning. I have found that I can listen to a podcast while I am getting ready in the morning. I keep a pad of paper and pen and jot down things I want to remember. I might jot down the podcast number so I can print out the transcript. This can help to embed what I have heard or something I might have missed.
• Standing in a check-out line or waiting in a doctors’ office can give you moments you might have wasted on old magazines or TV shows.
• Cleaning house or your store gives you the chance to turn on a podcast or audible book to listen to.

Realize that these choices are in fact your choices. They are your priorities, but they are your success as a result. Invest in you and your business. You’ll be glad you did.