What business investment can cost you thousands of dollars to make - and thousands more if you don't?  You guessed it:  training. 

Training can be a double-edge sword.  It's expensive in both time and money.  But, not offering sufficient training and on-going education can be just as costly, resulting in poor product quality and unhappy employees. 

No matter what you do, there's always the risk people will end up leaving anyway; so where's the balance?  Many small business owners waste money on training that is provided too late, offered to the wrong employees for the wrong reasons, and used as a Band-Aid with no lasting value.  All of this can be avoided with five simple guidelines.

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appeared in Business99, October/November 1999