Small business advice

Whenever you need some small business advice, there seems to be someone there that is ready and more than willing to share some "advice" with you. Of course, this person may or may not have had any actual experience in the business world, but that doesn't seem to stop them.

When it comes to small business advice, everyone seems to have some. All it requires is that you mention your small business, and the advice will start rolling in. And you may be impressed that someone who has never had any experience with a small business knows exactly what it takes to succeed in your industry, but it probably won't stop there. They can tell you how to get more customers, what you should be selling, how to survive in an economic depression, and how you can beat your competition once and for all.

If it was all so simple, how come you hadn't thought of it yourself?
Obviously, this kind of small business advice isn't going to be that helpful. For one thing, advice from someone without any actual experience is going to be dubious at best. For another, this advice, you may find, will most often come in the form of "what you are doing wrong" rather than "what you could be doing better." It seems to be easy for outsiders to pinpoint exactly why you're not making a fortune with your small business, even if they don't have an actionable plan that you could use to do it better.

So what small business advice can you trust? Where can you go to find help when you really do need it? Every small business is going to go through some rough patches, whether it's from dealing with difficult customers, managing the cash flow, or dealing with growing pains of expanding your business. There has to be somewhere you can turn to find advice you can actually use.

Online resources are going to be a strong temptation in these times, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The Internet offers a wide range of articles about running a small business. You can find tips and suggestions, business success stories, and other resources for your company. The danger of turning to the Internet for advice is the inherent anonymity of the online environment. Where did the advice come from? Did this experience really happen to this company, or is it just a fanciful example of storytelling? A rule to live by when you turn to the Internet for advice is: always check your sources.

There are, of course, some more reliable sources you can turn to when you need small business advice for an immediate problem. You can turn to consultants if you can afford them, or go to conferences if you can't. If neither of those options is available to you, then you can always ask another small business owner. If you turn to someone who is actually running their own business, they will likely have advice you can actually use.

Consider the non-experienced advice like an untested theory. There may be some common sense behind it, and it may sound like a great idea, but a theory can only take you so far. If you really want to succeed, you need to get your business advice from business owners who have a foundation in real experience.