7 Of The Best Small Business Learning Resources

Tweak Your Biz » Management » 7 Of The Best Small Business Learning Resources

7 Of The Best Small Business Learning Resources

by Tara Hornor on June 13th, 2012
17 Comments

Running a small business can be a daunting task for first timers. It takes more than just a handful of business cards and a company bank account to get your small business off the ground. In all honesty, it can be a daunting task even if you’ve been around the small business block a few times already. The best tool you have on your side to prepare yourself is knowledge. There are all kinds of free Internet-based resources out there to help you get started.

Great, but I have a business to run, you may argue. I understand – you don’t have time to surf half a dozen sites to find what you’re looking for. Often, you don’t even know what you’re looking for. In these situations, a process for gathering information quickly and efficiently is critical. So check out these free resources when you find yourself stuck or trying to learn more.

# 1. Wikipedia

I know the age-old argument that Wikipedia isn’t a credible source. But let’s face it – you’re not writing a doctoral dissertation here. You just need information quickly. Instead of reaching for a search engine, sometimes the best way to get a grip on an issue is to learn about the concept as a whole. For example:

If you’re struggling with some accounting issues, specfically how to tell whether or not your finances are getting better, you can start with a high-level overview of accounting concepts on Wikipedia first.
Once you learn some key terms like balance sheets, income statements, and other critical accounting concepts, it’s much easier and more efficient to look up more information via Google or other search engine.

# 2. Entreprenuer.com

A community that is full of wonderful tools for small business owners can be found at Entrepreneur.com. They have a huge repository of quality training and educational pieces to get you up and running fast. While you can subscribe to the paid magazine, many of the articles on their site are absolutely free.

# 3. SBA.gov

The Small Business Administration (SBA) also has a treasure trove of content you can use to educate yourself. Even better, for free you can meet with advisors and counselors who can provide you a vast list of resources in terms of both content and people who can help.

# 4. Score.org

While not an online resource, Score provides free small business counseling – they’ll come to you and their counselors are all vetted, experienced personnel who offer their advice free of charge. If you want a long-term mentor who can coach you as you go and guide you to the right resources, Score is an excellent resource.

# 5. BusinessKnowHow.com

A little known resource, Business Know How is chock full of information regarding marketing and finance for your new small business. They too have a blog with additional articles and resources regarding troubleshooting and Dos and Don’ts. Their goal is to help small business owners understand how to be as effective as they can with their marketing strategies.

# 6. Google

This search engine of choice is listed last for a reason. It’s not to say you should use Google last, but consider that once you know the concepts around your problem better, you are more likely to find the right information more effeciently using Google or other search engines. The key here is to understand your problem; the terms and vernacular are critical to finding the right resources.

# 7. YouTube

Also in the same vein as Google, YouTube can be a powerful resource for educational videos. Instead of reading through a topic, now you can watch or listen to someone showing you how to solve a problem. But, like Google, you should approach this resource with a solid understanding of the issues you’re dealing with so you can skip the basics and get right to the heart of your problem.

What other resources do you reach for when you need a refresher or to learn something new? Do you have some tried-and-true tools and techniques for information gathering?

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Category: Business Resources

Tags: business learning resources, small business resources

The Author: Tara Hornor

Tara Hornor has found her niche writing about marketing, advertising, branding, web and graphic design, and more. She is a writer for DesignCrowd.com, a crowdsourcing 2.0 marketplace on which thousands of graphic designers and graphic design studios from around the world provide their services for logos, websites, and print and graphic design projects. Follow @TaraHornor for more design and marketing advice. http://creativecontentexperts.com

Add Your Comment

http://www.theexecutivesuite.com/blog/ Warren Rutherford

Tara – great resource listing. All of them reliable for entrepreneurs starting up. Perhaps the most helpful for me has been the various groups on LinkedIn. Once you join a group that fits your business interest (restaurants, franchising, business start-ups, etc.) you can pose a question and start a discussion thread. There are always group members willing to offer free assists. Thanks.
http://www.smartsolutions.ie/blog/ Elaine Rogers

I would add http://www.businessballs.com to the list. I haven’t used it in a while which proves to me that it was invaluable during the early stages of building my businesses

A great list of resources there Tara, thanks for collating them.
http://www.bestoffiverr.com/ Charleen Larson

I like using topic-specific forums, which you can find using Google, but you can interact with members and often get very detailed information.
http://www.broshegroup.com/ Roxie

Hi Tara! Wonderful suggestions. Most of the sites that you’ve mentioned really gives a lot of informative topics you want especially Google which most of us are using when we look for great contents and other searches, just like your website where It appear on the first page of Google. Other business sites like Score will be my next list of website to visit. Thanks for this great resource. More success!
http://twitter.com/goalstribe Goalstribe

Great list! I’d also go to smallbiztrends.com, they give out lots of advices and tips for small businesses.
http://www.thelanguagejournal.com/ The Language Journal

A small
business owner works with his staff to create business strategies for
marketing, sales, customer service and internal accounting
functions.According to the online educational resource Quick MBA, a good
business strategy can assure that company resources are used efficiently.
Examples of company resources include personnel, reputation in the
marketplace, customer base, company patents, manufacturing processes and
logistics resources such as warehouses and shipping partners
http://www.thesmarttrain.com/ Elaine Rogers

Thank you Nishadha,
I am pleased you found cause to re-adjust your resolutions. I have cheated a little and masked resolutions as goals. Sometimes they are just things we WISH we did more of but don’t actually plan to do something about other than a conscious thought (BE more positive, BE more charitable etc).
And I wanted to also challenge those who make them, but do not take the next step and create some kind of plan.
Well done on your adjustments
http://about.me/Lindeskog lyceum1776

Elaine: Great post! Point 2 (We make them for someone else) is very important. The resolutions should be for you and your life. Here is my post from 2007: http://egoist.blogspot.se/2007/12/writing-down-new-resolving-thoughts.html
http://twitter.com/bengii bengii

Good points – I especially like the ‘procedures manual’ as a memo-to-self on how to recover
http://twitter.com/writerlyderv Derbhile Graham

You talk so much sense. The idea about creating a contingency plan for hwen you fall off the wagon adds extra weight to the posts – not many posts addressing htis topic make provision for that.
http://twitter.com/xcelbusiness Helen Cousins

Last year I kept mine – no parking violations! I just made sure that every time I parked, I paid. Park, pay, lock. Very specific – so I second your advice.
I think some people make plans that are just too grand and sweeping, then they set themselves up to fail as these resolutions are not realistic.
Great article and very timely Elaine
~ Helen
http://neilsisson.com/ Neil Sisson

Great post Elaine. As a rule I’ve always said that New Years Resolutions were a complete waste of time, that if you wanted to change your life you shouldn’t wait until Jan 1st. BUT this year as it happens there was a bunch of stuff I wasn’t happy about in Dec and there was just too much going on in the rush around Christmas. So I made a bunch of New years ressies and so far I’ve stuck to them all.

I think what you’ve said about resolutions being measurable and specific (very much like goals) is spot on. Thanks!
http://www.thesmarttrain.com/ Elaine Rogers

Hi Martin,
Thanks for sharing your post – it sure helps to document things, as we are such a forgetful race, and easily forget wins, successes and achievements we have made throughout the year – or even that we WERE in fact more charitable, more active or less negative.

How do we know we have been successful? Only by documenting
Well done!
http://www.thesmarttrain.com/ Elaine Rogers

Recovery is essential. Otherwise we assume no failure along the way. A recovery system allows us to learn from mistakes, and move forward
Thanks Ben, great to hear your thoughts.
http://www.thesmarttrain.com/ Elaine Rogers

Thanks Derbhile.
I am always nervous when writing professionals read my posts :-/ Contingency, Plan B, and follow up are too often “missed” as we become so focused on the goal, and the end game.
The journey is equally if not more important, and how we spend our time during that journey dictates our level of success, and sense of achievement
http://www.thesmarttrain.com/ Elaine Rogers

Now that’s a resolution well made and adhered to Helen!
You demonstrate the need for a goal and process of how to achieve that with your 3 point plan – easy and doable.
Perhaps grandeur allows us sweep our way to unrealistic goals, and ultimately the fast slide to the bottom…
http://www.thesmarttrain.com/ Elaine Rogers

Most welcome Neil, and thank you also.
I read “stuff” as “staff” and was curious what resolutions you were making around that issue – oops!
SO yes, you have recognized the challenges, addressed them and decided consciously to do something about them. Let’s hope the “New Year” doesn’t dampen your success. But it won’t if your results are planned to be long-term.
Well done!

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Tweak Your Biz » Management » 7 Of The Best Small Business Learning Resources