Resources to Improve Your Business

Gregory Go and Glen Stansberry have pulled together a collection of recommended resources from various entrepreneurship writers and bloggers, which is posted at OPEN.  My recommendation was:

How often are you working on building connections? Jeff Cornwall believes that connections are some of the most
important resources you can have to help your small business.

“An often overlooked
resource for small business owners – and particularly aspiring small business
owners- is entrepreneurs in the same industry whose businesses are further along
in their development. Entrepreneurs are surprisingly willing to ‘pay it forward’
and help other entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are usually very willing to
offer information, advice and even mentoring because someone probably did the
same for them when they were first starting up. And more often than not, all you
have to do is ask.”

This is probably one of the most common pieces of advice I find myself giving to our students and alumni as they are developing their business plans or trying to get their ventures off the ground — and it really works.  All it usually takes is a phone call or an e-mail.