Munchkins Want Advice from Monsters? Not!
I was sipping my morning "wake-cup" of coffee over the Sunday
San Francisco Chronicle this weekend when I came across an
article by staff writer John Batteiger referencing web sites
useful to small business. Great, I thought, I'd love more of
those valuable resources. Silly me.
Although I think this is an example of a reporter not doing his
research and glossing over an important subject, I can't even
begin to comprehend the absurd references provided by that
reporter! The SBA, the FTC, the Yahoo Small Business Information
section, which although they each have some small part to play
in helping the little guy, don't provide a great resource for
small business information beyond their own meager references to
other web sites.
I've faced this oddity for three years now while trying to gain
links across the web for the WebSite101 Small Business Ecommerce
Tutorial I provide online. Nobody wants to listen to those of us
that practice what we preach each day and go daily to maintain
the house payments and bills by earing our living online.
Everyone wants to hear what the Monsters have to say about being
a little guy! David doesn't want to BE Goliath, David Wants To
SLAY Goliath! Hello! Anyone home?
I dashed off a letter to that reporter which I've included below
and realized that my own readers could benefit from hearing this
stuff as well. So I've attached my note to that reporter below.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* John,
(You'll note that I've sent copies of this letter to each of the
sites I referenced here, who I'm sure will have thoughts of
their own to contribute.)
I'm fascinated at how folks consistently look to Goliaths to
learn how to be an effective David! When I saw your article
today at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive
/2001/ 10/14/BU222086.DTL
I thought I might see some links to things such as
http://www.freeagentnation.com a book by Daniel H. Pink (he
relies on praise from the big boys in his reviews but did
confide to me that he'd consider quotes from little guys like
me.) My raves about his book are online at:
http://www.WebSite101.com/arch/archive100.html
The Chronicle is quoted on *his* site in an article by your
colleague George Raine, but you don't return the favor?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive
/2001/ 09/02/BU147439.DTL&type=business
Come on John, if you were about to go out on your own, would you
rely on the sources you quote in your story and wade deeply
through the mire of that bureaucratic gobbledygook to get to the
occassional gem? How about sources like
http://www.workz.com where I am proud to be a columnist in their
guest expert section on Small Business Ecommerce at:
http://www.workz.com/content/1679.asp
How about true home business based sites like
http://www.ahbbo.com (short for "A Home Based Business Online"
run by Elena Fawkner).
How about truly valuable stuff for independent professionals at
sites like
http://www.learningfountain.com
run by Paul Siegel where valuable community among freelancers
helps all become better business owners?
One of your listed sources is http://ecommerce.About.com
Where I used to have a link to my website until they began the
requirements of the new http://lunanetwork.about.com/ which
requires that linked sites cross promote About.com and that
partners must serve a minimum of 150,000 pageviews a month from
their own sites. Now you must be a Goliath to be listed by
Goliaths.
The same happened at the former small business section of
about.com where the entire category was dropped and merged with
the ecommerce section, which then dropped all of the Davids from
their Goliath-only links list!
Now we see all over the web how Goliaths are courting business
from Davids as they suddenly realize that we make up almost 50%
of the US economy. Oh really? What a surprise! Big business
falters after absorbing all of each other's money, then begins
luring smaller fish when they've eaten all the big ones. I did a
piece on that as well at:
http://website101.com/arch/archive96.html
I have a much better list. Here's a few additional sites for you
to review so you can gain a true understanding of what the
little guy truly needs to survive as a small business.
http://www.ideacafe.com http://www.guru.com
http://www.elance.com http://www.allbusiness.com
http://www.website101.com I'm not too proud to list my own site.