Society pushes teenagers to go to college after high school to acquire a more advanced and higher specialized education. They promote this so that the teenager can acquire a higher paying job or start their journey into a career. This journey can start with an associated cost of $15,000 and up for tuition and then you need to add a few thousand for books and supplies. On the low end, a college student can easily spend $17,000 per year. Most students do not have the funds to pay for college outright so they are encouraged to apply for grants, like the Pell, as well as student loans.After a four year stent in college, a graduate can leave with their bachelor’s degree and $68,000 in debt. Once again, this is a conservative estimate.

From my wording in the previous paragraph, you may surmise that I am speaking negatively about college. To be clear, this is not true. I believe that if you want to learn or require a specialized knowledge, then college is a great institution to facilitate this need. However, what if the college does not teach you the specialized knowledge you require or the type of skill that you need?

Many times, this is the predicament that entrepreneurs are subjected to. Some colleges have entrepreneur classes. Let’s be honest, entrepreneurialism is not something you learn in a classroom. It is a passion that you acquire. Being an entrepreneur, your needs for specialized information may vary depending upon your market segment, marketing strategy and even geographic location.

So, what is an entrepreneur to do? They seek teaching from other entrepreneurs that have done it before. Entrepreneurs love to solve problems, get paid and give back. The successful ones often times do all of the above through books, seminars, workshops, coaching and mentorship. This is where I have the issue. Why is it ok to spend $17,000 to learn from a professor at a college who has a specialized knowledge but it is not ok to spend $17,000 on seminars and workshops?

Society, in general, does not see the value in this avenue of teaching. How much value building does a college have to do? None when the educational potion is concerned. They just have to convince you to attend their college instead of another one. Now, flip that over to the seminar or workshop world. If an entrepreneur tells someone that they spent $15,000 for a year long program that included seminars and coaching, they would be looked at like they are crazy. This goes to you entrepreneurs as well. When is the last time that you were told that a particular seminar may cost $500 to attend or even $5,000 to attend and you immediately thought “how expensive?” This is a stigma that needs to be changed. And it starts with you.

I recently attended a seminar that hosted nationally known speakers. In order to get people to attend, they had to make the door ticket price $10. $10 for an all day event. You pay that much to watch a movie and the movie is only 2 hours long. After you leave the movie, you do not take information with you that can actually increase your profits by increasing your revenues, cutting expenses or both. Yet you happily pay for the movie. You will also pay $35 to go to an amusement park for the day and spend another $65 on junk. By the end of the day, you are $100 down and yet you think nothing of it. But, when asked to spend $100 on an all day specialized seminar most people balk at the price and complain.

Let’s get one thing straight, most entrepreneurs that are successful have a continued need to learn as part of their core and they do not mind to pay for quality information. These seminars, coaching, workshops, books, CDs and mentorships are your college. Paying for them is your tuition. If you are not where you want to be it is because there is something that you do not know. Entrepreneurs understand this and never stop learning. Not ones that stay entrepreneurs anyway. If you never stop learning, doesn’t it make sense that you would budget a portion of your revenue for your continued education? Run it through your company and it is 100% tax deductible. Go to college without a company and pay personally and your deduction is only 15%. Which one sounds crazier to you?

Remember, life is your classroom and experience is your teacher. The coaches and mentors are your tutors and the seminars and workshops are your specialized tutored classes. Help stop this stigma and pay your entrepreneurial tuition.

Today I am proud to announce the launch of a few new services both directly through Barfield Management, LLC and indirectly through Barfield Associates, LLC. We are very excited about them and we feel that we can truly help many more entrepreneurs through these offerings.

Barfield Management has been helping entrepreneurs worldwide with education and information through the medium of this website. We are now taking it to another level. We are offering personal coaching. If you have read this blog for very long, you are aware that we believe in the utilization of teams. We are officially offering the ability for you to add us to your professional team. Through Barfield Management coaching you receive direct access to an entrepreneur that has extensive experience in coaching and helping other entrepreneurs. In addition, you also receive the full benefits of the collective knowledge and experience of the extended professional team that Barfield Management utilizes. You subscribe to a coach but gain an entire network of resources. We can help whether you are a start-up and feel isolated and alone, a new company seeking growth assistance, or a mature company that could use innovation assistance to generate new products, ideas, and services. To find out more, contact us with your inquiry.

Barfield Associates, LLC is operated by a retired United States Department of Defense Contracting Officer. Together with other team members,  trained by the United States Department of Defense, they offer you the benefits of a governement or corporate level purchaing team without the expense. The international procurement team at Barfield Associates has extensive contingency contracting experience and they act in a capacity as your remote purchasing department. Their primary area of operation is within, but not limited to, Southeast Asia. Barfield Associates has major contacts in Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand. On top of all of that, they offer you a Zero Up Front cost for normal procurement tasks. You receive all of the benefits without any of the expense.

Because of the international reach of Barfield Associates, they also offer international data collection and consulting. Searching to find information on the Internet is fast and convenient. But it does not compare to having someone physically collecting information for you in the location that you are inquiring about. Barfield Associates can facilitate your ability to have a physical presence in another country without having to leave the comfort of your own city. Entities big and small benefit from this service. Whether you are seeking a new manufacturing or distribution center abroad or you simply need to know the popular fabrics being utilized in a foreign marketplace, Barfield Associates can put a person “on the ground” for you.

For more information about any of the services that Barfield Associates offers, please utilize our contact page to submit your inquiries.

In this day and age, the world is shrinking and countries are becoming closer through the instant communication of the Internet. As the world shrinks, many entrepreneurs make new contacts but still feel alone in their endeavors. Do not let this happen to you. You do not have to be alone. Entrepreneurs are more successful when they utilize teams. Add Barfield Management to your professional team and you won’t be alone.

**Note of Mention: In case you did not read the memo posted on March 17th, 2009, Barfield Management created a website for all entrepreneurs to list their products and services for free. The site is called BIEN Online. Please visit the site (http://bienonline.info), list a few things and send me feedback on your experience.