We all come across thousands of websites while looking for something we need, or following a trail of links, or simply surfing aimlessly – and once you start a business of your own, you are probably going to go through an even greater number of them, looking for useful techniques, learning the experience of others in your industry, establishing contacts.
But how is one supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff? How to select sites that would really be useful? Today we will attempt to help you out. Here are 8 websites that as an entrepreneur or not you are certain to find useful, no matter what your line of business.
#1. Entrepreneur
What can be a better place for an entrepreneur than a magazine bearing such a name? Jokes aside, the Entrepreneur Magazine companion site is really a to-go location for anybody willing to improve their business acumen. Here you can find everything: the latest news from the world of business, tips, strategies and tactics shared by businessmen with years of experience, articles aimed at particular categories of entrepreneurs, advice on how to plan, organize, build and grow your business and much, much more. In other words, if you have to choose one site to get information about current trends in business and learn entrepreneurship, choose Entrepreneur.
#2. Devcompanies.com
Have you ever hired a team of IT developers to work on a project of yours? If yes, then you probably know that it is often impossible to know beforehand if the team you are dealing with is to be trusted. You have to study their portfolios and contact their previous clients to check their claims if you want to be one hundred percent sure – and it takes time.
Devcompanies.com eliminates a great deal of insecurity and suspicion you may feel when hiring a developer firm – it is a directory including only proven and trustworthy companies and providing the necessary information about them. If a company is present here, you may be sure it is worth hiring. And if you are looking for a contractor, it is an excellent place to start.
#3. Inc. Magazine Guides
Inc. magazine offers you a list of short, down-to-earth and practical articles on, virtually, any and all aspects of business, from growing and financing to building up client base and introducing new products. If you want to start learning business from scratch, it is probably the place for you to go – you will find any number of outstanding tips and strategies presented in an easy-to-understand, clear form.
#4. Business Owner’s Toolkit
If you know absolutely nothing about business and want all the information you may need collected in one place in an orderly, step-by-step fashion, this is the place for you. Here you will find everything you need to start out and make sure you do everything right – not just in the sense of utilizing correct strategies, but also to make sure you are not going to have any problems with the law at any stage of your career. Guides on marketing, finances, taxation, instructions how to start, organize and run a business, what documents to prepare, what to take care of in advance – here you will find all this and much more.
#5. Paul Graham
Paul Graham, the founder of Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, is one of the best known venture capitalists in the world. This website holds a collection of articles and essays in which he shares his experience and wisdom touching upon tech, IT, startup communities and business world in general. It makes for surprisingly easy reading, readily understandable by anybody willing to understand, not just the grizzled veterans of a hundred startups. If you want advice and insight into the world entrepreneurship and leadership, it is an absolute must.
#6. Fizzle.co
In its own words, Fizzle.co offers honest online business training and the community of entrepreneurs who won’t let you quit. The main idea behind this website is that new businesses all too often fizzle out due to inexperience of their founders, lack of support and adverse conditions. Fizzle.co offers a great range of high-quality online courses created by experienced entrepreneurs, covering multiple areas of running and improving an online business.
All of them are characterized by practicability, easily defined individual steps and a supportive community that will explain you the details and support you in all endeavors – which can easily mean all the difference between success and failure.
#7. Social Media Examiner
The idea that a modern business cannot survive without strong social media presence has long ago turned into a weather-beaten platitude. There are thousands of websites offering almost identical tips they steal from each other with minimal alterations. Amidst this orgy of rewriting, Social Media Examiner stands apart as one of a few sources of genuine, fresh and fact-based information. Studies, research, tips, strategies, in other words – everything dealing with social media and their use in business – that is what it deals in. It is suitable both for absolute newbies who look for a source of basic information on social media and professionals who want to stay in the know of current trends.
#8. Seth Godin
Seth Godin is one of the most prominent marketers of our times. The author of more than 20 books on marketing, including such bestsellers as Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars and The Dip, he is kind enough to share his knowledge and experience through a blog, and he certainly has a lot to teach anybody who wants to know more about business and marketing. His tips and strategies are ingenuous, innovative and just downright witty. He writes in an easy-to-understand manner without trying to hide his meaning behind big words – but what he has to say is priceless.
An entrepreneur cannot exist in isolation from outside world, and without learning something new every day you are at risk of lagging behind your competition. Bookmark these websites and you will gain a set of useful tools that will help you out more than once or twice!
Images: ”Book with bookmarks on wooden background /Shutterstock.com“
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