There are tons of FREE resources out there to help you along the way. Here are a few in case you start feeling lost on this journey. I wasn’t aware of these so this should save you some time when you get stuck:
- Small Business Association (SBA) – This office’s function is to aid, counsel, and assist small businesses for FREE. They have several offices throughout the with FREE workshops covering various topics to help you start or operate your business.
If you want to land a government contract they can assist you. The government sets aside a percentage of contracts for minority groups such as women or veteran-owned businesses. These contracts could be worth in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- SCORE – This is similar to the SBA, in-fact, they’re funded in part by the SBA. They operate various offices throughout the nation and also have a monthly calendar of FREE or low-cost workshops.
An additional benefit of SCORE is that they have a mentorship program, you can try to find someone in the same industry that you’re looking to get into.
- Udemy – FREE or for a fee, price ranges from a few dollars to $50-$100. The courses are put together by really anyone. I have courses listed on there for sale myself:
This might be a business idea you may want to venture into.
- YouTube – No description needed here. The problem with YouTube is that the platform doesn’t do a good job of filtering out quality content, you’ll have to rely on the reviews. Just know, this may take you down a rabbit hole and lead you off the path. You’ll start getting sucked into topics like affiliate marketing, online marketing, the LAST [enter product/service here] you’ll ever need, from those videos you’ll be taken to landing pages where you’ll go further down the rabbit hole in their sales funnel.
You can search YouTube for any topic in this ebook and you’ll get videos that go deeper into those topics. Use your parking lot to list out any useful tools or software that you think you might need and come back to them later.
- Facebook Groups – There are niche groups for literally any interest. Join some of these related to your business interest and participate. Like with anything FREE, be ready for spammers and people peddling their wares.
- Meetup – Similar to Facebook groups, but in person. You can join a general entrepreneurship group or once you’re up and running, you can join a marketing group so you can learn how to promote your product or service online. Fees can range from FREE to large amounts for “Masterclass” seminars. Stick with FREE as much as possible, there’s plenty of info that you can obtain without having to pay for it.
- Quora – A question and answer website with fantastic response rates from subject matter experts.
- LoopNet and Craigslist – If your business will require an office, retail, or warehouse space, these are two good resources to start estimating the cost of your lease. You will use this expense in your business plan budget.
This is a short list of FREE resources, there are so many that an entire book can be written about them. Let me know if you find other resources for entrepreneurs on your journey that you think should be added to this list.
