
Among small-business owners in Togo, psychology beats business training - jkuria
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21729454-among-small-business-owners-togo-least-psychology-beats-business-training-when-it-comes
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ucaetano
_One group served as the control. Another received a conventional business
training in subjects such as accounting and financial management, marketing
and human resources. They were also given tips on how to formalise a business.
The syllabus came from a course called Business Edge, developed by the
International Finance Corporation. The final group was given a course inspired
by psychological research, designed to teach personal initiative—things like
setting goals, dealing with feedback and persistence in the face of setbacks,
all of which are thought to be useful traits in a business owner. The
researchers then followed their subjects’ fortunes for the next two-and-a-half
years (the experiment began in 2014)._

Big news, training focused on small-business owner skills beats training
focused on management skills when applied to small-business owners.

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shock
> Big news, training focused on small-business owner skills beats training
> focused on management skills when applied to small-business owners.

I consider that _setting goals, dealing with feedback and persistence in the
face of setbacks_ are not skills that are focused on small-business owners and
can be used by BigCo management also.

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ucaetano
Yes, but the other group didn't receive them...

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analog31
In my observation, people with business training tend to have a shared set of
information processing and communication skills, and a shared set of beliefs
that makes them cohesive as a group.

These are two things that solo entrepreneurs are unlikely to use, because
they're not working in an organization.

