How to justify the cost of training when you're the one who decides

For anyone who found something worth taking and assumed the money should go somewhere else in the business instead.

People send me this question more than any other, usually phrased as whether it is worth the money. If you have a business partner or a spouse you share the books with, this is about making that case to them. If you are the only one who decides, it is about making it to yourself, which is a harder audience to convince, not an easier one.

Businesses your size already budget for this — you are probably underspending, not overspending

The Association for Talent Development tracks what organizations spend on workplace learning. In its 2022 State of the Industry report it put the average at $1,280 per employee, on 2021 data. That number is a few years old now and it is an average across organizations of every size, so treat it as a rough sense of scale rather than a figure about your business specifically. If you are a business of one, you are that organization's whole workforce, and this is the number most businesses your size would already be spending on you without a second thought.

Held against that scale, a $39 seat or a $297 workshop for you or your team is not an extravagant line item. It is a rounding error against a budget that, if you ran a company with employees, would already exist without anyone questioning it.

If someone else has a say, you are likely wrong about the odds

Francis Flynn and Vanessa Lake found across six studies, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2008, that people underestimated by as much as 50 percent how likely others were to say yes to a direct request for help. The reason is a lopsided calculation: you are adding up the cost of yes, and they are also weighing the social cost of turning you down face to face.

So if you are checking this with a co-founder or a partner, the base rate is better than it feels. Most people who decide not to ask are not reading the room. They are reading their own nerves.

The case, in five parts

Say it out loud if you have someone to say it to, and write it down either way. A written case is easy to talk yourself out of later; a written decision is easy to stand behind.

1. Name the problem in the business's terms, not a professional-development term. The problem is the pricing conversation you keep flinching on, or the client call that stalls at the same point every time, or the new hire who needs onboarding by next month. It is not “training.”
2. Name one specific thing, with a price and a date. Not “some training in communication.” A named session, a cost, a date you have already checked against your schedule.
3. Say what you will bring back. This is the part almost everyone leaves out and it is the part that makes the spend easy to defend. One process you will change. One number you expect to move. A specific conversation you will handle differently next time it comes up.
4. Make the decision small. One line item, one number, no committee. If a partner is involved, offer to book it yourself and share the receipt.
5. Leave a door open, not an escape hatch. “If the money is not there this month, I still want to go and will find the ninety minutes.” Time is a budget too, and it is usually the one you control outright.

What that sounds like, if a partner is involved

Hey — the thing I keep running into is the pricing conversation. I talk myself down before the client even pushes back, and it is costing us real money.

There is a 90-minute session on exactly that, live online, on the 26th at 9 a.m. It is $39 and it does not touch anything we have booked. If it makes more sense for both of us to go, the group version is $297 and can run on a date we pick.

If I go, I will write up what changes about how I quote, and I want us to try it on the next three jobs and compare.

Can I book the $39 seat this week? If the money is not there right now, I still want to go on my own and just need the ninety minutes.

If it is only you

There is no one to ask, which means there is no one to blame the delay on either. Treat it as the business decision it is: write the one sentence that names the actual cost of not fixing this — the client you talked yourself out of pitching, the rate you undercut before anyone pushed back — and put it next to the $39. Decide before you are mid-hesitation again, because that is the worst moment to trust your own math.

If the answer is still no

• Ask what would make it a yes. “Is it the money, the timing, or is this just not something we spend on right now?” Those are three different problems and only one of them is closed.
• Trade money for time. Covering it yourself and blocking ninety minutes is a good deal at $39.
• Revisit it once, with a result attached. If you go on your own and something changes, that is the strongest version of the same case, and it is a different conversation from the first one.
• Write down the answer. If the reason was “not this quarter,” put a note in your calendar for the first week of the next one.

Where this is thin

The ATD figure is an industry average from 2021 and does not describe your specific business, and I am labeling it as dated on purpose. The Flynn and Lake studies were about requests for help in general, not spending decisions with a real partner, where a genuine constraint can sit behind the answer. A no can be a real no. The narrower claim is the one I stand behind: people talk themselves out of spending on their own skills more often than the actual odds or the actual money justify, and a specific case with a price, a date and a payback is a different object from a vague one.

Common questions

How do I justify spending on training if I am a solo entrepreneur with no manager?

Treat it as a business decision like any other. Name the specific problem it solves, its cost, and what you will change afterward, then hold that against what it is already costing you to keep avoiding it. If a business partner or spouse shares your books, make the same case to them out loud before you decide alone.

Is $39 for a workshop a reasonable business expense for a small business?

Held against the $1,280 per employee that organizations of every size spend on training in a typical year, per the Association for Talent Development, a $39 to $297 workshop is a small fraction of that norm — not an unusual line item for a business your size.

What if my business partner says no?

Ask what would change the answer. Money, timing, and a flat no on training are three different problems, and only one of them is closed. You can also cover it yourself and ask only for the time, or revisit the case once you have gone and have a result to point to.

Sources

• Association for Talent Development (2022). 2022 State of the Industry. Reported average of $1,280 per employee on 2021 data. Industry report, not peer-reviewed.
• Flynn, F. J., & Lake, V. K. B. (2008). If you need help, just ask: underestimating compliance with direct requests for help. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 128–143. Peer-reviewed.