Help je startup te groeien. Leer een 'nieuw onderwerp' - snel!

Ben je net begonnen als freelancer of start je een zakelijk idee? Misschien staat u op het punt lid te worden van een collega-ondernemer en moet u partnerschapsovereenkomsten begrijpen? Of staat u op het punt om uw eerste werknemer aan te nemen?

Hoe het ook zij, u verkent onderwerpen die u in het verleden nooit nodig had (of nog nooit had gehoord!) .

Y ou set-up op uw eigen, want je hebt een geweldig idee, niet omdat je een expert op elk gebied van het bedrijfsleven zijn, toch ?!

Maar of u nu freelance bent, een ondernemer of een kleine ondernemer, er zijn een breed scala aan onderwerpen die we moeten begrijpen om ervoor te zorgen dat we niet betrapt worden.

Door snel te leren, bedoel ik zo snel als je aankan en waarschijnlijk over een paar maanden. Door 'een nieuw onderwerp te leren', willen we niet zulke experts worden dat we van loopbaan kunnen veranderen. Maar genoeg leren om uit te vinden welke vragen je moet stellen aan een specialist en wanneer je moet uitbesteden. Of genoeg om gedetailleerde budgetten en voorspellingen te maken. Of genoeg om je in te wikkelen bij het inhuren van je eerste werknemer ...!

Dus hoe kun je snel kennis opdoen terwijl je je op al het andere concentreert? Het is tijd om te enten.

Deze 7 tips zijn mijn januari-cadeau om je leeravonturen een vliegende start te geven.

1. Maak de balans op

Schrijf op waarom je dit onderwerp wilt of moet onderzoeken. Als het enige antwoord 'omdat ik moet' is, zal het een uitdaging zijn, omdat je de geekistische fascinatie mist die leren zo veel gemakkelijker maakt. Als je je hoofd moet wikkelen over nieuwe wetgeving, beschouw het dan als een hulpmiddel om je te helpen doen waar je van houdt (start je app of zoek anderen om je te helpen je doel te bereiken) met nog meer nauwkeurigheid en duidelijkheid.

Noteer alles wat je weet (of denkt te weten). Neem vervolgens afscheid van uw aannames en bevestig dat alles waarvan u denkt dat u weet, correct is.

Aan de slag gaan met een nieuw onderwerp is behoorlijk uitdagend, want je weet niet wat je niet weet! Maar noteer alle hiaten in uw kennis die u kent. Het is een geweldige plek om te beginnen.

2. Divide and conquer

Your goal might be to ‘learn everything about hiring my first employee’. But if you write that on your daily to-do list then the suffocating enormity of the topic will mean you’ll never get started.

Scribble down some broad research topics and start with the area that naturally grabs your attention.

I recently attended an app development focus group led by a brilliant facilitator. He encouraged us to speak up about weird and wonderful, ‘off-topic’ ideas as they arose. But anything not strictly related to the core app idea went onto a post-it note and into the ‘car park’ (a ‘parking lot’, for my American cousins) on a whiteboard.

I’ve adopted this personally and it’s AWESOME! I have a ‘need to find out now’ list when I’m writing articles about niche topics, but I use the mini-whiteboard on my wall to write larger topics, questions, or ideas to research. A few of these (based on my new-ish area of Tech copywriting) are:

• •Virtual Reality — how does it actually work?
• •Medical Tech and/or neural lace tech/brain-computer interfaces — who’s monitoring the ethical side?
• •Do I want to be able to upload information directly to my brain instead of needing to research and remember… Is anyone trying to do this…?

Whilst researching, you might stumble across sites related to your topic. Index is my favourite tool to keep links organised by topic or hashtag labels. I love it becasue I can stop emailing myself links that I forget to read.

Create a glossary of definitions as you discover them and keep adding to it. If you see a quotation or statistic, follow right back to the source report, book, speech or article — you might uncover a goldmine of information! Learning leads to learning and you’ll absorb so much more information when you continuously drill down to the source.

3. Immerse yourself

Kids don’t learn grammar and syntax when learning to talk. No, they mimic the way Mummy or Daddy or Auntie or Nanny talk. They learn through immersion.

Carve out sacred, protected learning time and don’t let anything distract you.

Wanting to learn without dedicating time is the same as buying a new gym kit and hoping that, by carrying it around in your bag, the extra festive weight will melt off you and you’ll run the marathon. Yeah… Life’s not that kind! Rapid learning doesn’t happen via osmosis, so you’ve gotta put the hours in.

Learning can be a fantastically meandering adventure so give yourself permission to wander off topic. But, remember to keep chucking the ‘not strictly relevant’ things into your car park for exploration — avoid falling down the bottomless rabbit hole of information!

4. Find your own style

Work out how you learn best, but step back and mix your sources to speed up the learning.

Take advantage of every spare moment by saving books or articles on your phone for unexpected train delays, or to read while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. Of course, we all need to relax, and that’s what Candy Crush is for, but why not replace a few Candy Crush sessions with TED Talk..?

Handwritten notes and the ‘chunking’ technique both help us to absorb information.

But I find that storing information visually helps too. Drawing spider diagrams or flowcharts instead of sentences helps me remember different types of information, and colours really help me. My two most trusted learning companions are my highlighter and my cheap, multicolour pen (a curse on anyone who steals it!).

5. Find the best information

We’re so lucky. Digitisation means we have access to more information than ever before, from sources all over the world. Not only that, we have access to all of this information in our pockets, 24 hours a day. But there’s a lot of rubbish out there too — be careful.

The iPhone 6’s clock is 32,600 times faster than the best Apollo era computers and could perform instructions 120,000,000 times faster… there’s no excuse not to learn!

So, it’s time to kneel in the Temple of Google and get geeky!

If you establish industry websites with ‘real’ or verified information about your topic, then you can focus your Google search to just reveal articles from that site.

In this example, I’ve identified the World Economic Forum as a great source. All I need to do is search the site (by typing ‘site:’), insert the URL (www.weforum.org) and then type the word or phrase I’m searching for (ethical). Bam! Information I want, from a site I trust.

Use advanced searches, time-specific searches and all sorts both on Google and on LinkedIn/Twitter. Tiny tweaks to your searches make them more accurate and will save you valuable time.

Speed reading is another great way to plough through vast amounts of information. But if you know you tend to dwell on each word, then hit ‘ctrl+F’ to search within any webpage for the keyword/s you need. It also helps to quickly read every heading and subheading within the article to avoid missing any important content.

6. Don’t aim for perfection

There’s no way that you can learn as much in a few months (in your spare time!) as you would via your a degree or formal studies. So, be brave.

• •Turn your learning up a notch by attending industry events. Why not be honest and tell other attendees “I’m new to the field — do you have any advice for me?". Enjoy the liberation of inexperience and nurture your blossoming knowledge!
• •Stalk the experts online (in a non-creepy way…). Use advanced searches on Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with or follow influencers in the field and see what they’re writing about. Explore the information they post and don’t be afraid to ask their advice or ask them to clarify something they’ve written. Explain that you’re learning as much as possible about the field — you know they’re an expert so you value their advice (flattery goes a long way..!).

You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how many people are willing to help by offering advice or guidance.

7. Dig, dig and keep digging

If you reach a point where you’re stuck, ask for help. Or embrace the topic more formally and take a course, or start a distance learning degree.

Yes, to become true experts we need knowledge that’s inch wide and mile deep. But whilst learning about a broader topic we have to explore far and wide!

Let’s imagine that you dream of a career in Art History, but currently just love art. You could start with your favourite period or artist. Who did they learn from, who were their influences? And who influenced their teachers? What was happening in local politics at that time/when they were adolescents/in the wider world? Were they popular, or were they forced to paint in secrecy…?

What would it feel like to be in their position? What type of brush did they use to paint with? How were brushes made and, more to the point, how was paint made?

Get really specific, get geeky and then you really have something to talk about.

Knowledge is power and, as your startup grows, you’ll need to grasp the basics of a vast range of topics. Sure, you’ll hire experts along the way and you’ll always need to seek advice from specialists. But without a basic understanding of every area of your enterprise, how will you know what ‘good’ work looks like?

Yes, this all means extra work on top of the long hours your undoubtedly already putting in. Is it worth the extra effort? That’s up to you….

Focus on the bigger picture by learning fast, now.

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