All These Online Small Business Experts – Who Are They? Do They Even Own A Business?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have not scored many new friends. Why? Well… let me tell you what happened.

I work 7 days a week now and have little time to devote to Source Blogger and/or my other small network of blogs I maintain as much as I used to. “The Duck” (think insurance, dummy) has me overwhelmed in recruiting, client relations, and enrollments all throughout the region.. and I just opened my own office in Delaware County, PA. for them.  In addition, I work PT, on the weekends, as a Leasing Agent for a group of 12 luxury apartment buildings all within walking distance of the Olde City area of Philadelphia.

Anyway…

I still make an effort to attend a lot of networking functions in and around Delaware, NJ, and areas surrounding Philly — which surprisingly, lately, have not been a waste of my time — as opposed to others I attended in the past. If any of you got a chance to read Why Some Business Networking Events Suck!, I wrote that on a series of networking events I had attended from earlier in the year.

I am going to share with you what I did differently at these networking  functions and how I decided I was going to take that same approach and use it online… which, strangely enough,  led to some harsh words and negative responses from the business blogging community!

Let me explain…

Networking

Because networking is a necessary evil of what I do, I decided to try something new. I arrived at the event intent on giving out as few business cards as I could, while taking as many as I could and spending the entire evening learning about everyone else’s business. And I listened and listened…

Normally, this would be a pretty a good opportunity to discuss supplemental insurance/employee benefits with them… but, for most, that is not what they are after. So, for me, the next step is to determine their needs and what they are outsourcing. In that scenario, it becomes less about “the duck” and more about what services my LLC can provide.

You would assume that these small businesses would already have areas such as planning, office management, bookkeeping, payroll, taxes, recruiting, etc.  pretty much covered — only to discover that was not the case!

Over the past few years, I started creating a list of the type of services businesses were outsourcing locally as well as a list of the people I knew that provided that service. When the opportunity came up in discussion, I asked if they would mind if my friend gave them a call sometime during the week. A “win-win” for all… especially after I received my cut for brokering the new relationship.

I guess we take for granted that every business owner is an expert in all facets of his business. We can walk in to his/her establishment and see it in operation with our own eyes. Obviously, there are things we don’t see.

Business Bloggers and Business of Blogging

Two very different things. Business bloggers blog about a host of articles surrounding a small business. While the business of blogging attempts to take elements of running a business and attach it to your blogging efforts. BIG difference.

Last year, I made a failed attempt to begin my own article submission site. In my research, I discovered a site called Biz Sugar. I submitted a few articles that … well… that they declined to run. No biggie.

Since then I receive a weekly newsletter of the week’s Top 10 Articles. I visited the sites of a few of the most active contributors and began to use some of the new tactics I had used recently at networking events.

The first question I asked was: “What type of business did they own?’ — In which they replied that it was none of my business, to come up with my own idea for a my business, and they didn’t like the tone of my question! WHAT?

What was the big secret they were hiding? Why were they so sensitive? If they were really “experts,” perhaps I would have known who they were or the business idea they implemented… and based on the concepts in their blog content, they appear to be pretty wealthy too!

So, I did a little digging on some of them and I found something…

The Truth

In their LinkedIn profiles, I saw GE, Bank of America, 3M, etc. Do you see what I see? These weren’t business owners. They were low-level supervisors who worked in production, manufacturing, operations, etc.

These weren’t their businesses.They came onboard a large, Fortune 100 company with an existing framework and infrastructure.

They don’t know what it’s like to be lied to by investors, to have credit applications rejected, to have to look for commercial property for weeks and weeks, and to get other people to “buy-in” to your concepts and ideas — created all with one’s own blood, sweat, tears… and money. They receive a big, fat salary and are exposed to the risk of most employees in this terrible job market — not that of the business owner.

Many bloggers claim they are running a business with their blogs. 95% of which who share that with me, I confess, I go around the corner and have a good laugh. As I do with the legions of “consultants” I meet in my interviewing process who walk around with their own business card. If you hand me your business card, you better damn well make sure it is a real, viable business you represent, and not just a worthless piece of paper.

(Read: Is Your Blog A Business? Let’s Rephrase That. Is Your Business A Blog?)

Like blogging, like business… I don’t know about you, but for me, there has to be a certain level of credibility surrounding where the advice is coming from. Look, good advice is good advice, but don’t paraphrase other business articles and take credit for the inspiration. Many of us have already encountered this phenomenon from the online experts who claimed would make you a millionaire from blogging.  We’ve become skeptical, people! And all the online fantasy makes us nauseous!

Keep it real. Everyone is a Hall of Fame quarterback until they get put in the game. Own a business first, bitch.

*I’m Jeffrey Baril and this could only be Source Blogger. And yes, I am a business owner — who blogs about business — yet still far from an expert.