If it’s free, it’s me

Did you know that there are a lot of free resources available for entrepreneurs and small business owners?  Small business counseling, business mentoring, business plan assistance, marketing and financing options, government contracting, just to name a few.  Perhaps you want to run your business idea past someone, learn how to do financial projections or find out about microloans – there is someone locally that you can talk to.   Not sure where to start or who to call?  Click here to see local service providers or give me a call and we can determine which provider(s) best meets your needs.

Once you get a business license or sign up for certain services (like a DUNS number)  where the information is public, you may suddenly have many offers to ‘help’, for a small fee, of course.  There are businesses that offer a variety of fee-based services to the small business owners.  Keep in mind that many times you can get for free what they are selling.  For example, I ham working with a client on getting government contracts.  He was contacted by a firm that said they would prepare all of his paperwork and search for bids for him, for a $3,000 fee.  It is still a business decision whether or not to hire a firm, rather than take advantage of free assistance, but for the start-up entrepreneur,   

In addition to free business services, there are some excellent free reference materials online.  E-newsletters, magazines, blogs – there are so many that you could spend all day reading – I think the trick is to narrow down to a few good ones that have applicable information for you or your venture, such as Inc. (The Daily Resource for Entrepreneurs) or Alltop (All the top Start-up news).  I enjoy the daily ‘Smart Brief for Entrepreneurs’ which surfs the internet for top entrepreneur stories and then sends me an email brief with links to those articles.

Buyer beware with things you find free on the internet – sometimes you get what you pay for and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!