Twice now in the last few weeks I’ve heard Jean Chatzky, the perky financial guru on the Today Show, refer potential entrepreneurs to S.C.O.R.E as the one stop shop for advice on starting a business.  I’ve winced each time and since I’m trying to pay attention to these kinds of repeating signals, here goes.

It’s not that hard to see why she would point people to this organization, it’s free, it’s not affiliated with any company, and it’s national. It’s an easy, seemingly helpful reference. I sought advice there several years ago and would certainly not tell someone not to try it out – it ’s just that the people I met with and the advice I got was so contrary to getting a business off the ground, I’m still stunned.  It’s one of those organizations that has the best of intentions, but the counselors are retired business people, mostly from large corporations that succeeded by and large by playing it safe and having hit retirement age were even less risk-inclined. Not to mention they had all come from  pre-Internet businesses.  Not only has the world changed but if I’d gotten all the possible liability insurance that was being recommended for a craft business I’d still be saving up.  Insurance is a good thing but it often can’t be in the first year’s budget unless you can’t open without it.  When I looked around I found my same experiences echoed by others which I wish I could have known back then. What I should have done was gone to the street and talked to business owners, but that was scary and making a private appointment seemed a safer way to admit my ignorance.  It was entirely too safe.

My point here isn’t to knock the SCORE organization, it’s just to point out that often the most referenced advice isn’t what you need to hear and you should always go in with a large bag of salt.  I got so scared by the advice I was given I didn’t make any progress for a couple of years; convinced that I had to have all these things in place before I could start selling. Strangely my state tax organization was less conservative!

Whatever kind of challenge you are looking at, keep digging for other, less common resources.  Find the people that match the profile of who you want to be and see where they got advice in the last five years.  And keep peeling away the layers until you find what works. Advice may put more steps in the plan – there’s no good way to avoid medical school if you want to be a doctor, but it shouldn’t blur the pathway so that you can’t see what you need to do to accomplish the goal.  Helpful people are lovely to behold but sometimes become a hindrance.

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