Entrepreneurship is fun, but it has the potential to be not-so-much fun. Many people think that it is stressful trying to build their business. I agree; it is.

But that stress doesn’t go away when you start realizing a profit. In fact, it can become more stressful when this happens.

Keeping customers happy, getting new customers, monitoring competition, staying innovative, and keeping employees happy can take its toll. It is easy to get stuck into a routine of complacency. We all go through it; I know I have.

I wouldn’t consider myself a business coach or anything along those lines. I am just someone who has traveled the entrepreneurship path and has seen a number of trials and tribulations along the way. If you are thinking about starting your own business (perhaps by selling online courses or helping others build them) then you will likely come across similar challenges in your journey.

The one thing that I have found that helps me to stay motivated is to seek learning opportunities continually. I don’t just mean taking courses but learning from others in a similar situation.

To do this I prefer to attend industry conferences and always schedule to go to a handful each year. Learning from your peers (heck, even your competition) is a great way stay current. Be it in formal presentations or from casual hallway conversations the amount of knowledge capital at conferences is sometimes staggering.

But learning is only one part of the equation. It is what you do with your newly acquired knowledge that really matters.

Whenever I learn something new with regard to our industry or business I ask myself, “is there an opportunity to adapt?”

If the answer is “yes”, then it is time to plan the implementation. Everyone does this in their own way and how you do it probably will depend on a variety of factors. If it’s an easy adaptation then I set aside some time on the weekend and create a calendar reminder.

For bigger projects, I break things up into more manageable chunks so as to build a “snowball of momentum.”

You will never thrive as a business unless you are learning, adapting, and implementing. Conferences offer fantastic venues for learning and networking. You will leave with new ideas and motivation.

But just as a word of warning: don’t overdo it. Conferences are great but it can be easy to get caught into the “conference cycle.” Remember that you are going to these events to supplement your business, not to distract from it.