"Experience is enough! Isn't IT?"

Many experienced investigators will tell you that experience is critical to your success as a private investigator. Experience provides valuable learning lessons. Often, lessons that are learned from mistakes made in the field. But is experience enough? 

Those who have been in the profession for a while will tell you, emphatically, "No". Continuing education/training is important to private investigators. Training helps you shortcut, and speed up your work processes. Learning new techniques, refreshing your knowledge of fundamentals, reduces errors you may make in the field, improving the quality of your work, which results in increased client satisfaction. Remember that the best advertising you can ever get is word of mouth...it's free, and best of all, convincing for a new client.

Think of continuing education as an opportunity to refresh your knowledge, return to the basic fundamentals, while learning new processes or procedures. Often, courses are built on the experience of several investigators with years of experience. What better way to learn than from the mistakes of others without experiencing the growing pains yourself!

At ProPIAcademy, we promote continued learning. Not just in industry specific topics that we offer, but we encourage all of our students to continue their education in other topics such as; learning tips and tricks for using common software such as Microsoft Office or Google Apps; studying how to grow a business through marketing and advertisement; budgeting; and other topics that will improve your ability to accomplish your job tasks. 

So how do you choose what to learn about? 

1. Learning should result in actual real-life application - In other words, you should be able to apply what you have learned in the field or in the office. 

2. It should make your work easier - Ever struggle with formatting a document in a word processing program? Spent hours trying to get margins aligned or paste graphics in a document? Then look for learning opportunities that will help you improve those skills to save you time when completing the next report. Streamline your processes to not only save time, but to provide you with more satisfaction in doing a great job. 
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3. Build your business opportunities - As a private investigator it is about helping others, but it also includes the bottom line - Getting paid, and being profitable. Saving time in completing your tasks saves you money, and you can also learn about new business offerings. 

Consider that continuing your education is an opportunity to improve your skills, increase your knowledge, and ultimately, build and streamline your business processes and procedures to save you time and money. 

Conclusion

Still not convinced? Consider that spending a few hours refreshing your knowledge, or learning a new skill can translate in thousands of hours of business opportunities. Often an investment in one hour of learning can translate into increased profits!

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