One of the best small business and entrepreneur strategies you can embrace is learning.
When it comes right down to it there are many people who are hesitant to start doing anything new because they never really learned how to learn, how to absorb and assimilate new information and how to translate that new information into actions and changes in their lives.
This includes learning about marketing your small business - the more you can learn, integrate and implement, the higher your chances of success will be.
So, how do you master the learning process?

1. Commit to It - find mentors and teachers in your area of interest and commit to buying then reading or listening to their books or programs or attending their live events.
   Schedule time in your week, every week, to consume information and practice implementing it.
   In the book "The Google Story," by David A.
   Vise, Google's 20% policy is discussed, they give all employees 20% of their time to research and develop a project of their own interest, it can be related to what they do for Google or not.
   When I read this I interpreted it for myself and decided to give myself a 20% learning and implementation day.
   I now spend most Fridays studying with a teacher's materials in the morning and using what I learned that afternoon on one of my own projects.
   So far, it's working wonderfully - what would work for you?
2. Repeat It - with anything that you really want to learn, you will need to hear, write, read and speak the material up to 6 times to really retain it, and even then, research shows, you will still only have a 62-65% retention rate.
   Go over material multiple times, highlight, listen repeatedly, read it out loud - whatever will work to help you really retain it.
   
3. Use It - Make a decision to consciously use the material that you are learning.
   Putting it into practice gives you practical knowledge that makes everything more real and will make retention increase dramatically because you will have a framework for understanding and remembering the material.
   
4. Share It - Sharing the information with others, teaching what you remember, will increase your retention rates as well, and quickly show you which areas you don't remember or understand as well so that you can review.
   Find someone who can benefit from the same information and start sharing what you have learned.
   
5. Reinforce It - Go back on a regular basis and review the information.
   Create quarterly or bi-annual 'review days' where you go back and read through your highlighted notes on books, courses, seminars etc.
   The more you review and reinforce the more likely you will be able to utilize more and more of the information.
   

When you commit to your own learning and go out and get the information you need to become an expert in your area of interest or business you do what multi-millionaires do, you create a reference library.
You want to fill that library with books you have read on success, business, and your specific topics.
Become a student of these subjects.
Turn your car or commute into a classroom and listen to books, programs and seminars.
Whenever you listen to someone speak take notes - become an avid note taker, note taking increases retention.
Then, put your notes in your library and once each quarter, or once a year, do what all professionals do - start with the basics.
Every year take out everything you read and studied and go over it looking at what you highlighted - those are the true pearls of wisdom, and if you do it that way, you will get all the pearls in much less time.
Every year you need to reinforce your learning.