Getting started

Using the site

GoodLittleBiz.com is designed for small biz people, freelancers, professionals, and service businesses - from any background, with any concept. It will guide you to strengthen your business - setting it up so that you and your customers can both thrive.

Whether you're thinking about a highly licensed professional practice or services such as copy editing or dog grooming, the site will open powerful perspectives that will improve your results.

The worksheet process may also reveal that your concept is not – yet - viable.

The worksheets walk you through key questions designed to make your business as a whole - as well specific exchanges with customers - more robust. The process is a guided inquiry; reflect on the questions, don't rush through them. If a question seems difficult, let it 'cook' in your mind for a few hours or several days while you're at other tasks, then circle back to it.

GoodLittleBiz does not pose every question your small biz may need. For example, there's no worksheet for estimating your costs, though I ask you to do so at several points. You can easily get tools for that.

GoodLittleBiz worksheets point you to the often-unasked questions that frequently trip up small service providers. Questions that the veterans know to ask, that you won't find elsewhere.

There are 10 short videos, which introduce each worksheet and the site as a whole. Most of the video content is available in the text. If you want to minimize your video viewing, I suggest the one on the Home page (content you won't find anywhere else in the world), and the About page (just stuff about me and GoodLittleBiz.)

The site is not a quickie. You'll reap optimal benefit from reflecting on the worksheets, sometimes with friends, colleagues, or a GoodLittleBiz work group. And you'll probably want to save and maybe print your responses, and return to review them. Possibly several times.

You'll find support for the process in the form of
FAQ's and Common Mistakes, and you can submit questions and comments from any page. I will answer as many as I can; I'll blog and host live chats about those that apply to the greatest number of participants, and I'll let you know when we've added new features and content based on participant input, so you can take advantage of new stuff as we all continue to learn together.

Several worksheets suggest that you confer with friends, colleagues, and current customers if you've already begun your business. That may slow you down a bit, but it's invaluable. That's how the experts do it. You may be surprised at how different your services appear from others' perspectives.

In exchange for your use of GoodLittleBiz, I ask for 3 commitments:

1. Give me the benefit of authentic information about you and what brings you to GoodLittleBiz.com. I will use it to better understand who the site is serving. I will not share any information about you without your explicit permission: you will have the opportunity to decide if you want to be part of our Directory, as well as what you may choose to say about yourself.
2. I won't see any of your worksheets – they're for you. But I ask that you use the rating scale under each question to inform me about the degree of ease/difficulty you experienced. This will enable me to modify the site to make it more useful. I may also discover helpful patterns that I can share in blogs and live chats.
3. When you've been through all the sections, or when you think you're done with the site, complete the short exit questions.

Sound like a good exchange? If not, please let me know.