Last night I dropped into the rabbit hole that is the internet after seeing someone retweet a tweet from a woman that I knew years ago. I followed that lead down a long twisted path and came out the other side with the mission to tell everyone that there are no get rich quick schemes. You can't buy friends. You can't fake your way to the top.
Here's the thing, there are a lot of people out there who prey on entrepreneurs promising them results, money, new clients, etc. They use all kinds of methods to sell you the next best system, program, or seminar. There are a LOT of these people out there and my advice to you, the small business owner, is that you don't need it.
If you want genuine help with your marketing plan, busines plan, web design or some other aspect of your business find legitimate people in your area that have actual clients and actual work you can see. Don't go on promises, see that they can actually do what they say they are going to do.
If someone says they can buy you Twitter followers, connect you to millionaires, or do some other "to good to be true" thing run away.
How can you tell if it is a get rich quick scheme or the work of a charlatan?
- Their website won't talk about real clients or they won't be able to show you examples of work that they have done.
- They won't let you talk to current or past clients.
- They have long letters on their site or in their emails getting you to sign up for something (this is a LONG standing marketing ploy.) Think about it this way, do you need a long letter to convince you to buy the toilet paper you buy? No? Then you don't need some long sales letter selling you on someone else.
- Search their name and company and the word scam. Sadly you might find something. (This is the rabbit hole I went down looking at that person.)
There are no easy answers to doing well in business except have good customer service, offer good products, be ethical, and work hard. I know, not sexy, but really I just saved you about $10,000 in some scheme!