Small Business Saturday Blog

Badge Your Brilliance with iDEA

Thursday, January 10 at 09:00

Superstar Karen Sheppard of #SmallBiz100 People First Mobility has completed not only her Bronze iDEA Award, in November 2018, but also her Silver, just a month later, in December 2018. We caught up with her to find out how out more about her approach to the awards and whether she’d recommend them to other small business owners.
What appealed to you about the iDEA award?
I am always looking at ways to learn and keep my brain active. Also I am a cancer survivor, and my treatment included eight rounds of chemotherapy, which can give you something called ‘chemo brain ‘,making you more forgetful. One of the best cures for this at the moment is to keep your brain active.
The iDEA award appealed because not only would it help with keeping my brain active, it was also very flexible. It can be done at home, at work, on the train, anywhere, and at any time and any pace and on many different devices. Being able to stop and start any badge at any time allows you to fit them in around other commitments. Being able to redo the badges at any time, to be able to refresh on any skills that you need to at any point is very useful.
I also wanted to enhance my skills in the digital world. The digital world is becoming more and more used in everyday life and part of the business world, so to have something that increased my knowledge in that area was fantastic. Receiving a certificate on completion and also having a record of achievement that I could use if I had to seek employment were valuable assets of iDEA. The iDEA is so easy to use, so much fun, it was not really like studying or learning at all. The way in which the badges are presented make it an easy way to learn.
What would you say is the most valuable aspect about iDEA for your business?
The most valuable aspect of iDEA is learning new Digital Skills that are helpful in the day to day running of the business. The digital world is fast advancing and to stay on top of the knowledge is a way to be a step ahead of your competitors.
Can you give us an example of when you have used knowledge learnt from iDEA in your business? What advantage has it given you?
I have used knowledge from a few badges already. I have used social media badges to change how I am going to approach my customers through the use of social media. Social selling and advertising have again given me different perspectives on how to approach these areas of my business. The Web Designer and Making Websites badges have given me much better streamlined designs that I am now using to redesign my website. The advantage of these are that I am able to reach out to more customers in a much more professional manner and it gives me an edge over my competitors.
Which badges did you enjoy the most and why?
I can honestly say I have enjoyed all of the badges, and looking back through them I am finding it difficult to answer this question. Admittedly there were a few that took me a few days to do as they were challenging and I had to keep coming back to have another go to be able to complete them. This just added to the fun, excitement and also the determination to finish them and get that sense of achievement. The coding badges were probably the hardest for me to achieve but also the most rewarding because of this.
The Silver badges were very addictive to do as you had to complete each level to get to the next level. You had to solve puzzles and challenges. At times I spent a few hours on the badges and could not put the laptop down, thinking: I will just do this one more, then another, then another.
Would you recommend iDEA to other small businesses?
I would recommend iDEA to anyone who is self employed, has their own business or works for someone or is even still in full time education who wants to invest their time in learning more about the digital world in which we now live. The world is evolving very fast in the digital age and there are many of the badges that can help in all different kinds of job roles and situations. The badges are easy to understand , can be done at your own pace and at your own time. When each module is completed there is also the sense of accomplishment. Just be warned that once you start you may find it very addictive!
Thanks Karen, and good luck with the gold award!

Interested in writing a Blog Post for Small Business Saturday? Here are our guidelines.

Categories:

Latest Posts: