Good Help is Hard to Find, Especially for Entrepreneurs.

Here’s an obvious statement. The amount of information and resources the average person has access to today is astounding.

If you’ve ever binge-watched shows on your favorite streaming platform or convinced yourself you could fix anything as long as you have YouTube, you know what I’m talking about. I’m certainly guilty on both counts.

But, it may surprise you to learn that despite petabytes of data instantly accessible through search engines, many things are still hard to find. Like information on starting or growing a business, for example.

For giggles, try Googling “business support programs near me.” I just did and got 44 million results in .89 seconds. Not too shabby, right? Wrong!

It’s way too shabby when you consider the opportunity cost to the entrepreneur, which is just a fancy way of saying the more time they spend looking for support, the less time they have to put the help they ultimately find to work.

And another thing, there’s not actually 44 million support programs near me, that’s just what Google returned. A total pain, right?

The Good News

The good news is that more help is out there for entrepreneurs and business owners than ever, and many programs are delivering tremendous value for low or no cost.

How many programs are there? We wondered that, too, so we did some digging and found over 1,000 in North Carolina alone. That’s not too shabby. And, if you’re lucky enough to find the right ones, the painful search process may be worth it.

But, if you’re like me, and not into anything especially painful, here are some suggestions on how to find the best support programs to start or grow your business.

1. Find a Local Super Connector – Super connectors are people that are well connected, and naturally join people with aligned interests in the course of daily work. The great ones are those who do it with no expectation of anything in return other than the satisfaction of helping. I’m proud to say I’m a super-connector and we’re a great way to find helpful support programs quickly.
2. Ask a Trusted Entrepreneur – Personal recommendations from those we identify with and trust drive our decisions as much today as ever. But, there’s something extraordinary about getting perspective from those who have experienced (and hopefully) overcome similar challenges as yours. They get it and should steer you in the right direction.
3. Use Supportedly.com – While local super connectors and trusted entrepreneurs can help, they’re not always available when you need them and know of only a limited number of programs. So, to make getting help to start or grow your business more consistent and scalable, we created Supportedly.com to help entrepreneurs quickly find and connect to low and no-cost entrepreneurial support programs.

Entrepreneurs can find, understand, and connect to unlimited support program profiles for free and search for local events. Supportedly.com is free for support providers as well.

Have a question about this topic or anything else?