Advice For Small Businesses

Look on the internet and you will find millions of pages devoted to giving advice for small business owners. The problem is how to separate what is just promotional material from what can really help you. You will see offers for legal advice, marketing advice and so on. But can it really be true that a firm will give free legal advice for small businesses? Is it really possible that you can also get free marketing advice for your small business?

The answer, surprisingly, can often be ‘yes’. Many firms will offer free advice as a lure to get you to actually buy something from their sites. The advice is often sketchy and incomplete but it can give you some ideas.

So how do you tell the good from the bad?

If you make a search on a particular topic the results you get will fall, roughly, into two broad streams. Those that are blatant adverts, which tend to be flashy, often with money-off offers. The others tend to be a little more sober. The legal sites for example, will usually have indexes or lists of topics. They tend to look a lot dryer and text heavy. But if you persevere you can usually find answers to your questions.

Better by far, however, is the Government’s own website supporting its Business Link service (www.BusinessLink.gov.uk). It is well constructed, well laid out and a good source of what seems to be reliable and fairly complete advice. Using the site will also give you access to a number of support services operated by Business Link which can also be free to the user. The service can even include visits to your premises to provide personal advice.

The one source of free information which is best to avoid is from the many forums that exist on just about every ‘small business advice’ website. This information generally comes from unknown contributors and can be dangerously unreliable.

Away from the internet, there are a number of very good books available. They deal with general areas such as starting up and running your own business to the more specific areas such as employing people, marketing and even preparing your business for sale.

Chris Hutchins of the Small Business Advice Network www.sban.co.uk

Prepare to Sell Your Company - www.prepare-to-sell-your-company.co.uk

Starting Your Own Business - www.starting-your-business.co.uk

85 Inspiring Ways to Market Your Small Business - www.85-inspiring-ways-to-market-your-small-business.co.uk

Writing a Winning Business Plan - www.writingawinningbusinessplan.co.uk