Free Business Resources for Small Businesses
When you first start a business, it’s imperative that you get support in the areas you don’t know about. It makes sense to utilize free business resources first.
Ideally, this support would be from someone familiar with your type of business, knows your type of business well, understands your vision & goals, and is willing to understand your needs and how you work best. It’s also important that they meet you were you are at, not expecting you to do things you’re not ready for or that are not aligned for you.
If they also understand the importance of mindset, that’s awesome. Because knowing all the steps to doing something and actually doing it are not the same thing. For tips on finding an effective business coach specific to your needs, check out this article.
You can also find coaching groups where you can learn tools and strategies for marketing, sales, etc. And everyone does not work well in a group. You also want to make sure you understand how personalized and interactive it is. Also, look for some kind of accountability structure.
Here are a couple of free business resources that I offer:
You can find more free business resources here.
There’s a network of Small Business Development Centers that are generally located in community and technical colleges around the United States. They are funded by the Small Business Administration. You can receive free counseling and their site is full of resources for small business.
Another option is the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC). Here is the North Carolina SBTDC. You can search for one in your state.
You can also get free business counseling through SCORE. SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, is dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals. They have counseling, mostly with retired business people.
If you have persistent and hyper-stressful financial issues, there’s also debtorsanonymous.org and undereanersanonymous.org. You may find local chapters of both meetings And there are phone meetings and even ones for different kinds of entrepreneurs and topics.
